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This forum's been pretty depressing lately, so I thought I'd add something uplifting.
I guess this belongs in the Handgun Discussion section?
Following is a field report of my first time open (and concealed) carrying (same day).
A couple of weeks ago some friends and I went snowshoeing at Mirror Lake (a fairly popular destination).
Flashback: Last time I was up there (last summer) one of those friends and I camped and had a large predator encounter (or maybe bigfoot . It was pretty foggy but there were some really low and loud growl/grunts coming from about 30' away and his dog was flipping out). I had felt woefully underprepared with only a pocketknife and a glowing stick from the fire, so I decided that henceforth it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring a gun whenever I go to the woods. I also applied for my CHL so that I wouldn't have to worry about driving in Portland with a loaded magazine .
Back to the present: Anyway, on the way to the trailhead we stopped in Government Camp, and I had a Glock 17 (yeah, I know, worthless for bears, maybe OK for cougars, but the biggest handgun I had at the time, and I wanted to work out a woods carrying system) in a Blackhawk SERPA paddle holster under a thin, light-colored fleece jacket. I was printing really badly, but nobody seemed to notice (even one of my friends who knew I brought it said she hadn't noticed until I asked).
Anyway, to the trail head. It was a fairly warm day for snowshoeing (upper 30's?) so we were all down to snow pants and long sleeved shirts. My gun was openly on my hip just below my daypack's waist belt (I need to figure out a better system than this. It works for a light daypack, but I think it would be pretty uncomfortable with a >10 lb pack). We came across about 15 other groups of snowshoers who didn't even seem to notice (with hands at my sides it was pretty hard to see, though I wasn't consciously trying to hide the thing). We paused at the lake for a snack, so I had my pack off and my arms up eating when a couple of hikers passed by who I think noticed (they did a slight doubletake, but still smiled and said hey). We ran into them again at the summit and they took a picture for us, and in general seemed friendly and not nervous (but who knows?).
We got back to the car and headed to a brewpub for some eats. I disarmed because I planned on ordering some beer.
The end .
Moral of the story? Even when open carrying most people didn't notice, and those that did didn't seem to care.
So yeah, overall a very positive experience, and one that has me thinking about carrying in town too. Hopefully I'll have a G20 for the next hike (and I already have a plan for making something to allow a SERPA holster to attach to my pack's waistbelt so it can sit in the right place).
Sorry about all the parenthetical statements (it's mostly how I think, and I find them preferable to footnotes).
I guess this belongs in the Handgun Discussion section?
Following is a field report of my first time open (and concealed) carrying (same day).
A couple of weeks ago some friends and I went snowshoeing at Mirror Lake (a fairly popular destination).
Flashback: Last time I was up there (last summer) one of those friends and I camped and had a large predator encounter (or maybe bigfoot . It was pretty foggy but there were some really low and loud growl/grunts coming from about 30' away and his dog was flipping out). I had felt woefully underprepared with only a pocketknife and a glowing stick from the fire, so I decided that henceforth it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring a gun whenever I go to the woods. I also applied for my CHL so that I wouldn't have to worry about driving in Portland with a loaded magazine .
Back to the present: Anyway, on the way to the trailhead we stopped in Government Camp, and I had a Glock 17 (yeah, I know, worthless for bears, maybe OK for cougars, but the biggest handgun I had at the time, and I wanted to work out a woods carrying system) in a Blackhawk SERPA paddle holster under a thin, light-colored fleece jacket. I was printing really badly, but nobody seemed to notice (even one of my friends who knew I brought it said she hadn't noticed until I asked).
Anyway, to the trail head. It was a fairly warm day for snowshoeing (upper 30's?) so we were all down to snow pants and long sleeved shirts. My gun was openly on my hip just below my daypack's waist belt (I need to figure out a better system than this. It works for a light daypack, but I think it would be pretty uncomfortable with a >10 lb pack). We came across about 15 other groups of snowshoers who didn't even seem to notice (with hands at my sides it was pretty hard to see, though I wasn't consciously trying to hide the thing). We paused at the lake for a snack, so I had my pack off and my arms up eating when a couple of hikers passed by who I think noticed (they did a slight doubletake, but still smiled and said hey). We ran into them again at the summit and they took a picture for us, and in general seemed friendly and not nervous (but who knows?).
We got back to the car and headed to a brewpub for some eats. I disarmed because I planned on ordering some beer.
The end .
Moral of the story? Even when open carrying most people didn't notice, and those that did didn't seem to care.
So yeah, overall a very positive experience, and one that has me thinking about carrying in town too. Hopefully I'll have a G20 for the next hike (and I already have a plan for making something to allow a SERPA holster to attach to my pack's waistbelt so it can sit in the right place).
Sorry about all the parenthetical statements (it's mostly how I think, and I find them preferable to footnotes).