Re: [Paddlewise] Guns? When and Where?

Sailboat Restorations, Inc. wrote:
> 
> I hope this isn't like opening a can of worms.  If it is, just everyone
> please ignore it and I'll get the idea.  Please, no flames.  I've heard all
> the arguments, and I agree with all of them already <g>.
> 
> I was wondering how many people like to carry a gun on trips in wilderness
> areas.  I'm thinking of doing some solo paddling in Northern Maine this year
> (lakes and rivers).  I've read several accounts by people who were glad they
> had a shotgun with them (moose, bears, etc).  The last thing on earth I want
> is to ever have to kill a wild animal (my Mother tells me I cried as a child
> when the neighborhood brats killed a squirrel).  But I do know how to use
> firearms.

You are not opening a can of worms at all.  Just about every _real_ sea
kayaker I know has at least two sidearms with him or her.  It hasn't
been mentioned at all on PaddleWise because it was considered so
ordinary and common-sensical like wearing croakies for your glasses or
having toilet paper with you.  Paddlers differ in small degrees
regarding these sidearms.  Such as what caliber.  But it is no big deal
to carry a gun.


> 
> Also, if you do carry a gun, what do you carry?  And where?  There isn't a
> whole lot of room in the cockpit of my boat (CD Caribou).  I was thinking of
> having a bag made to carry it on the foredeck, but that could send the wrong
> "message" to humans I might encounter. . . .

It is best to carry a large caliber pistol tucked into your waistband
with the safety off.  You never know when you might need it; while it is
risky to have the safety off, sea kayaking, as you know from reading the
tales of PaddleWise, is risky anyway and one more risk won't matter
much.  An exception on the waist tuck-in carry position is in urban
paddling.  At such times, you want the gun on display preferably in a
shoulder holster so when landing on an inner city beach, you will blend
in and nobody will want to mess with you.

BTW, having a gun on display doesn't work well in Maine because moose
have poor eyesight and won't be deterred by a gun's presence.  Which
leads to an un orthodox thought.  Why not carry lettuce for the moose or
berries for the bear?  This way you will not be disrupting the
environment with noise and shell casings.  And if you don't run into
such animal threats, you can eat the stuff yourself.
> 
> Thoughts, opinions, anecdotes. . . ?

If you are seriously thinking of carrying a gun I want to bring up
something that does follow an earlier discussion, rusting and corrosion,
which I think you may recall.  The standard advice to seakayakers
regarding firearms is to have ones with stainless steel barrels (despite
the shortcomings of this metal in a marine environment).  I remember a
talk given by Derek Hutchinson about carrying an SS ( abbreviation for
stainless steel, not the SS, Schutzstaffel-- the elite Nazi troops)
shotgun.  He had it located in a cradle below his foredeck.  He went
into a long discussion of whether to have the barrel pointing away from
him or not. Basically he weighed the issue of whether to risk blowing a
hole in his boat or in himself and being the good boat designer that he
is Derek opted for aiming it at himself rather than at his creation.  Of
course, aiming it at himself risked another part of his creative ability
but Brits, as we know from their extraordinarily heavy boats, are quite
stoic and resigned about such things.

I hope this answer proves helpful

ralph diaz
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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