I’ve seen several videos of hikers in North America being attacked by bears, mountain lions, and other wild animals. In most of these videos, the hikers are unarmed and have to do various things, such as distracting the animal or trying to intimidate it, to protect themselves.
Are these encounters common? If they are, don’t many Americans carry firearms or other weapons to protect themselves while hiking?
I’m sorry if this is an odd question. I’ve never hiked in the US and I live in an urbanized area.
27 comments
Some do, most don’t. Gun ownership in America is vastly overblown in media.
I have, occasionally. That said, I doubt you have seen any video of a mountain lion attacking someone.
If you encounter an aggressive wild animal, the proper response is to retreat, make noise, and try to look larger. Most wild animals are skittish and *really* do not want to tangle with a human.
If you back away and leave them be, you’ll be ok. Even if it looks cute or passive, back away. Don’t be the idiot trampled by a moose or a buffalo.
And this is a poor reply, others can give more indepth answers, as after that awful football game, I am inebriated
i bring my arms. right and left.
💪🏻🤪💪🏻
Yes. Generally concealed if I’m near town, openly in a retention holster if I’m carrying a pack.
On 90% of peoples hiking trails in their suburban regions there aren’t any dangerous wild animals really
There are bears and boars and big cats in the wilderness for sure, but the overwhelming majority of casual hiking doesn’t happen in the wilderness. It happens in state parks in places that are populated so apex predators have been driven into near non-existence already
Those “dangerous hikes” would be in the wilderness regions of mountains, and even then people probably opt for bear sprays more than guns
Almost never, but I did carry a gun when backpacking in Alaska.
In general? No. But I think it is very location dependent. My sister worked in a lot of remote places in Alaska, and had to carry a rifle in case she encountered aggressive bears. But she also worked outside of general hiking areas, so I imagine she’s an anomaly.
I used to carry my pistol, but the amount of free time I have dropped drastically and my range time suffered to such an extent that I no longer trust my competency in a situation that would require a firearm.
Our most likely wildlife danger around my area are water moccasins. They’ll swim from the other side of a lake just to ruin your day. There’s no way I’d be able to hit one with a pistol after years with little to no range time. I’m better off with rocks and a firm walking stick.
Like 90% of the time, NO.
Generally I’m hiking in an area that lots of other people are, sometimes a park which would prohibit carrying. But for serious off the grid stuff, no park, rangers, or other hikers to protect me/ward off threats I toss a Glock in my pack.
No I don’t really need to. The wildest animal I’ve ever seen out in the wild is a coyote and they’re easy to scare you just yell at them. Annoying but they most likely won’t hurt you
In my experience usually no. Hikers hike, hunters hunt. I personally wouldn’t go into any isolated area with someone I knew had a gun if I didn’t trust them completely.
Not hiking, but I’ll bring one if I’m spending more than a day in the remote wilderness. Places with no cell phone service.
no, I don’t own a gun and don’t go hiking anywhere that would necessitate one.
There is a bit of a divide in the hiker/backpacking community on this. I’d say almost all choose not to carry. When attempting a thru-hike, every ounce of weight you carry matters. A gun, even a small one, with ammunition is just too heavy.
I never did any big long thru-hikes. My longest treks are about 10 days 150ish miles with no food resupply. The first one I carried my glock 26. Fully loaded with one magazine is about 1.6 pounds. That may not sound like a lot, but it is over long distances. Subsequent treks I do not bring it. I prefer to carry that weight in food or water.
Day hikes are a different story and I do carry. It is more to defend against people than animals. I have never had to draw.
Really depends on where you’re going and for how long. Random trail around town? I wouldn’t. Out in snake territory on a ranch? Sure but it’ll be snake shot. Bear country? I’m definitely thinking about it and doing more research on the area I’m going to, but I honestly don’t live near any bears/moose. I went camping in Colorado for a few days and we brought a gun just for the off chance but never used it. Better to have and not need.
No, but I personally mostly use popular trails. I’m not in the deep wilderness. It’s more rattlesnakes that are the danger, and even those are easy to avoid if you watch your step.
If I’m on a multi-day hike/camping trip, I’ll keep a rifle with me. But if I’m only gonna be out for a few hours, its not really worth the hassle. I might keep a handgun with me but its more about being out of reach of emergency services and police response time being several hours than any wildlife.
Only when I used to go back country camping in bear or mountain lion territory. Never had to use one, thank fuck, but I got real close to having to use bear spray once. I don’t want to have to hurt an animal out there and will do everything I can to avoid it but if they just won’t let me disengage that’s on them. I only do this when I’m alone, the noise from two people is going to scare just about anybody off, apart from some grumpy bears up in Alaska I suppose.
I do, but I carry mine daily so I have it regardless if I’m hiking or not.
Depends where I’m at.
In general, no.
But if I’m somewhere remote or otherwise higher risk, sure.
I just got back from a solo backpacking trip to a remote, narrow canyon, the only water source for a ways, in mountain lion county (also bears, feral cattle, and elk) and my calculus for that trip is that the peace of mind was worth the inconvenience. The only trails were game trails, and I’d be focused on being quiet and reading the creek for fishing that there was a decent likelihood I’d wander into larger animals, which I did a few times. Like usual I didn’t need to use a firearm, but the reassurance of knowing I had one left me more comfortable focusing on what I went out there to do.
I don’t live in an area that has carnivores big enough to eat me
We’ve got black bear and bobcats in our area, when I go hiking with my family we bring both a gun AND bear mace, just in case! We live by one hard and fast rule: better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.
As someone who has hiked in bear country around the US, no, I have never carried a gun when hiking, nor has anyone else I’ve hiked with. When you’re hiking in REAL bear country you’re advised to make a lot of human sounding noise like literally shouting, singing, clapping, clinking, LOUDLY talking with other people, bc you should be hiking in a group/NOT ALONE in bear country, so bears will hear you and avoid you, other large predators and such will also hear your human noise and avoid you, wild animals don’t like being around noisy humans especially bigger apex type creatures. It is not normal or common for wild animals to attack people, ever. There are also basic survival and “basic etiquette” techniques to know to deal with a various types of animal encounters that you should know if you’re going into bear country/areas that are known to have panthers and such. But most of the time when encountering any wildlife you just have to leave the animal alone and you will be fine(basic etiquette), your first instinct upon seeing a wild animal should always be to leave the animal alone(basic etiquette). MOST people who get attacked by wild animals were messing with, or getting Too Damn Close Than Anyone Should Be, to a wild animal, which leads to attacks that would have never happened if the human just would’ve minded their own damn business. If an animal gets a little too close for comfort SOMEtimes, particularly with bears apparently, you can just loudly shoo them away. I’ve herd of a few bear encounters online of people literally just shouting for a bear to leave them alone and the bear huffing and going about their day, leaving the noisy humans alone. Survival techniques should only be applied when you’re being preyed upon/sized up, often times you just have to stand your ground, be calm, DO NOT RUN, and keep distance. For big prey just stay as far away as possible, you see a several ton prey animal coming your way or your coming into their way, you go in the opposite direction, vigilantly. But anyway, this is just a long winded way of saying guns are generally not needed to protect yourself while hiking in bear/dangerous animal territory since there’s a lot of knowledge out there that people have used for a long time to keep ourselves safe, and it’s worked, and that people are usually the problem when it comes to animals attacks.
Yes. Arizona not only has many animals that would happily eat you. But we also have more than enough meth heads out in the remote parts of the state to make it a need, to me.
Does anyone else love the Hulu series the Great and use it as a source of historical events?
I don’t bring a gun anywhere because I don’t own one.
Yes, but I conceal carry a pistol with me pretty much everywhere. I’m not just worried about animals, there can be crazy people in the woods too. As the saying goes, I rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.