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Practically Shooting

Holiday Travel Advisory


BarryinIN

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I usually put something about this up on my regular hangouts this time of year. I hesitated doing it here, because it at least brushes up against some big cans of worms. In the end I decided it was too important to not say anything.

A couple of holidays are approaching. Whether you celebrate them or not, they are coming. There are people in this world who would like to ruin them for a long time, if not forever. Maybe nothing will ever happen, and I hope that's the case, but I'm afraid the temptation will be too great for someone. It might only take one person to make a mess of things. It was only two years ago that a single person tried it on an airliner.

A lot of people travel this time of year. You may only travel to work, or may drive across the country, or fly abroad, but most will go somewhere.

A lot of us here carry a handgun for protection. Some of us keep a long gun for home defense.

No time is a good time for one of these terrible events to occur, but being away from home when you have a small handgun (at most) wold certainly not be a good time for you.

This is why every year around this time I suggest people keep a long gun in the car.

The handgun you may carry is better than nothing, but a rifle or shotgun is much better.

Long guns beat handguns in almost every area except ease of carry, and the car is carrying it for you.

Just the inclusion of or proximity to a car changes matters. If you need a gun when you are in or near your car, it could very well be because someone is shooting at you from behind their own car. A rifle of shotgun with slugs beats a handgun here.

It might not take much to cause you to be stuck somewhere either. It doesn't have to happen where you are. Some closed interstates in one city can alter your route even though you are hundreds of miles away. It doesn't have to hurt your mode of travel directly either, because as you might recall, 9-11 effected mainly air travel, but all those travelers filled the trains and buses, and had all the rental cars in no time.

You might not get home for a while. I don't want to get into a bunch of Mad Max apocalyptic foraging for food talk, but you might be stuck halfway between a relative's house and your own in the middle of nowhere. Then what? I spent a night stuck alongside a Louisiana back road in 1985, and when the creepy swamp sounds started, I was happy to have the Ithaca 37 in my Jeep with me- happier than with just the S&W.

Given the choice, I'd rather have a long gun than a handgun. Give yourself the choice.

If all you have is a lever action 30-30 or NEF single shot shotgun, I'd put it in the car. They beat a lot of alternatives, and are better than many. I'd take a .22 rifle if it was all I had. I'd rather try a 100 yard shot to save myself or family member with a .22 rifle than any handgun I have, and can think of other situational examples too.

BTW, I like the .223, but my car gun is a .30 caliber. I know a .223 can get through a car, but a .30 has more left after it does. Remember: All cover is temporary.

I know there are probably state or local laws governing all sorts of details here. Often, self defense, motor vehicle, and game laws contradict. My own state's motor vehicle laws OK loaded guns in the car, while game laws could consider that hunting from a vehicle.

These laws are up to you to learn and decide what you will do. I know at least one guy in another state who wouldn't usually carry a gun in the car...but has made an exception for about two weeks around Christmas the last few years. His call.

I just wanted to plant the seed. Maybe you keep a long gun in the car already. Maybe you think a handgun is enough. Maybe you have never thought about it.

I'd like for you to at least think about it.

I'd hate for something to happen that could have been prevented, stopped, or endured simply by adding a 7-lb object to the car.

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Just a feeling, combined with being a high travel time, and the type of travel.

To expand on each-

The people who hate us would love to ruin Christmas forever, so I think something is likely to happen sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas one year.

Almost everybody spends a lot of time away from home this time of year. You don't necessarily have to take a long trip over Christmas to spend time away. Shopping, running around visiting clients to tie up year-end business deals, work parties, club parties, school parties. If one has school-age kids, you can probably double or triple the amount of time spent away from home. If I had to guess, I say December was the month we spend the least hours at home, and by a long shot.

Most of that time will be spent in a car. We might spend hours in heavy traffic. You don't even have to celebrate Christmas to get bit by this one.

Some will travel to relatives for Christmas. Just a guess here, but my impression is that Thanksgiving travel seldom lasts more than 24 hours away from home, while Christmas trips tend to be much longer. Many people go to a vacation destination over Christmas break.

The sum of all this is a lot of people sitting in cars instead of in their homes over the five to six weeks from Thanksgiving until the end of Christmas break. If something bad would happen, the odds of us being away from when it happens is a lot higher than the rest of the year.

We will likely be in our car.

And we may not have anything but what's in that car for a while.

BTW, my car gun is usually a Garand. Believe it or not, a Garand has been easier to store than an AR in my last few vehicles. A Garand is not as tall, so it can slide into the narrow slots and cubbyholes of SUVs and minivans. Loaded clips store almost anywhere (That's what all those cupholders are for, right?). If we are on the road and have to stay in a hotel, the action comes out of the stock and the two big pieces fit in my rolling suitcase.

I still use an AR some, but I always think back to the time we were visiting my brother-in-law in GA and I was invited with him to a deer/boar hunt at his in-laws' cabin. A .223 would have done it, but I'd feel better with a .308 or .30-06. I've thought about that episode a lot since then, and concluded a .308 is usually a better do-all caliber for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Barry's post got me thinking about the # of times I've traveled to western VA from my home in CT and didn't think twice about pulling into a unmanned rural rest stop at 2am, usually in PA or WV and sleeping several hours, sometimes with only 1, 2 or 3 other cars also parked. Upon reflection, certainly a perfect environment for the opportunist capitalizing on a vulnerable and unsuspecting traveler.

I've largely given up late night travel, due to my lack of constitution and the large number of deer strikes that litter the side of the road, but it certainly is something for me to think about.

-Thomas

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Welcome, Thomas!

Rest stops give me the creeps. In the late 80s, my best friend was driving home on a short leave from the army, stopped in a rest stop in the middle of the night and was approached from behind by a man with a knife in the bathroom. Thankfully, his shoulder holstered S&W 645 didn't require much movement to be brought to bear.

After ordering the would-be attacker to drop his pants to his ankles to inhibit pursuit (I still think that was clever) he backpedaled out and continued on.

Even knowing that, and after having been told more than once that only a fool would use a urinal when a stall is available...I still do it.

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It's a really great thread, and one that I can relate with, through being unable to relate to it.

This place is pretty sparce, the size of the U.S. (chopping off Alaska of course), and with 27Mpeople rather than 300M...very sparse.

Examples ?

I live less than 100 miles from the biggest city in the country, and my parents in the nation's capital, depending on route, it's 330-410km, time is a wash, about 4 hours either way.

It's not the bush, and nothing like the bush.

One Christmas trip, between the towns of Cowra and Booroowa, we witnessed two ladies in a Corrolla run onto the verge, over correct, spear across the road, and roll into a ditch. They were OK, but obviously needed assistance. Another couple had a first aid kit and thermal blanket, we all had mobile phones, which were useless, and trucks stopping with their radios were about as useful as the phones.

So we headed one way, and another couple the other way.

We got to Booroowa, and the unmanned station there with emergency press button, got an operator in Sydney (may as well have been Bangalore) and were trying to explain "half way between Booroowa and Cowra"...."what is the name of the road ?"..."Well if you are in Cowra, the Booroowa Road, and if in Booroowa, it's obviously the Cowra road"..."Sorry sir, we can't dispatch until the road is named, along with a cross roads or house number".

I yelled enough that they obviously dispatched someone, as I heard the ambulance moving, but that was a half hour of driving, plus 15 minutes of arguing with imbeciles over the emergency numbers that somebody could have been bleeding to death...worse, it could have been someone dear to me.

A woman in my state, in a not remote location spent 3 days pinned under her car trying to find something sharp enough to amputate her lower leg...in a state where it is illegal to carry a pocket knife.

Back to Barry's immediate thread...a workmate 20 years ago went up North for an 8 week 4WD. Joined a pistol club for "genuine reason" (and self defence isn't), so that he was armed for his trip.

A little earlier, an ex GFs Dad went on a 6 month sailing trip with his wife and teenage daughters. Found a black market 30-30 lever, adn kept it close.

More recently, still 15-20 ago, another workmate was taking his wife and daughters on a 4WD adventure for 4 months...30-30 Winnie in overhead console.

These guys made conscientious decisions about what they would personally risk when out where there is no help within a half day, assuming you can contact them in the first place.

This town, I know a bloke who died during an assault a 15 second sprint from the Police Station, another who was cutting a slash at a urinal less than that far from the courthouse when his head was smashed into the tiles, and while in a daze pockets pilferred.

Not planning on carrying (am planning on first aid equipment), but it pays to think

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Yeah, sometimes you gotta do what you think is best. Or what will be best if things change for the worst. A lot could change while away from home, and what seems like overdoing it before leaving might become the bare minimum before you get home.

It looks like we got through this holiday season.

Sorry for the pessimism, but emergency planning is never a bad thing. Hopefully it prompted some careful thinking.

We just got back from a trip to the in-laws in GA over Christmas, so this subject was definitely on my mind.

Simple Gifts/Thomas: We were at a rest stop on the way back when I saw your post about rest stops on my smartphone.

As always, the standard car gun (.308 Garand) went along, as did the Steyr Scout (also .308) and a Browning .22 semiauto. The Browning was a last minute addition, but it's hard to resist having a good .22 around. A spare scope for the Steyr was on hand.

A variety of ammo types was on hand for all.

I joined a gun club down there a few years ago, in order to have some entertainment for myself when we are down there, so I got to shoot up some of it.

Being a Christmas trip with presents being hauled, space was a premium. Everything has to be packed just right, like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. Still, the rifles fit into what would have been otherwise wasted space. Leaving them behind would have gained nothing.

To the negative-

Access would not have been quick or easy with everything else in there. The usual spot works fine normally, but not with a few hundred pounds of stuff crammed tight against it. I am not happy with that, and need to work that out before the next trip.

Maybe the rifles weren't needed or necessary beyond the range time I got, but it sure didn't hurt to have them.

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  • 2 years later...

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