when boondocking do you bring a weapon ?

[luberhill]

we will have our dog,,,who doesn't miss a trick and will cause a problem IF she needs to protect,,,but I was thinking of carrying a shotgun too,,,any problems doing that ?? I have a NY pistol license but cant cross state lines

[hbrady]

I carry a firearm, it can be used as a weapon but so can the knives in the kitchen. I don't cut up my salad ingredients with a weapon 😉 It's an important distinction when discussing firearms.

Chances are pretty slim you will ever need a firearm to stop a threat while boondocking; however, as a former police officer I can tell you chances are:

-The Police will be a good 10-20 minutes away if needed.
-The location you are in will have 'spotty' wireless coverage (if any).
-You will have a difficult time giving your exact location while under duress from an immediate threat or while suffering from injuries.

Carrying is a personal choice (depending on state laws); however, when a firearm is used as a weapon it's deadly force and carries great responsibility and consequences. You don't want bird shot when the crazy guy on bath salts comes at you with a knife; however, safely escaping always beats taking a life (if possible).

Personally I think all law abiding citizens should be allowed to carry at all times; however, I also believe training should be mandatory (regardless of style of firearm). There are way too many accidental shootings.

[westernrvparkow]

Muddydogs wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
I think WRPO's point is that with a home, you have a defined area that belongs to you surrounding that home, with a developed campground, you have a defined area that "belongs" to you surrounding your RV - but when boondocking, there is no defined area. The only defined space is the actual RV. So, if someone decides to hang out 5 feet from your RV, it is much more subjective as to whether it can be reasonably perceived as a threat.

Thats were not understand the law poses a problem. Someone could be standing on my lawn 5 feet from my house, sure he is trespassing but if he is just standing there he probably is not a threat or at least he hasn't posed enough threat for the use of deadly force. Heck in Utah I could catch a guy in my back yard stealing my ATV but as long as he doesn't endanger my life I couldn't legally shoot him and even drawing a firearm on the individual could cause me problems. So basically the whole campground, home or boon docking site has no bearing on anything as it comes down to the threat level and fearing for your life.

But if the guy is in your backyard, he is trespassing. You have the right to demand he leave. You can call the police and they will arrest them. If you are boondocking, they have as much right to that ground as you have. They aren't trespassing. The police can't arrest them or even make them leave. You can't call park management and have them deal with the issue. A firearm displayed in an aggressive manner by you in such a situation would almost certainly be illegal and probably worse than a misdemeanor.

[2oldman]

LLeopold wrote:
Deleted all off-topic and related posts pertaining to the deletions

Don't run off. There will be more.

[Muddydogs]

toedtoes wrote:
I think WRPO's point is that with a home, you have a defined area that belongs to you surrounding that home, with a developed campground, you have a defined area that "belongs" to you surrounding your RV - but when boondocking, there is no defined area. The only defined space is the actual RV. So, if someone decides to hang out 5 feet from your RV, it is much more subjective as to whether it can be reasonably perceived as a threat.

Thats were not understand the law poses a problem. Someone could be standing on my lawn 5 feet from my house, sure he is trespassing but if he is just standing there he probably is not a threat or at least he hasn't posed enough threat for the use of deadly force. Heck in Utah I could catch a guy in my back yard stealing my ATV but as long as he doesn't endanger my life I couldn't legally shoot him and even drawing a firearm on the individual could cause me problems. So basically the whole campground, home or boon docking site has no bearing on anything as it comes down to the threat level and fearing for your life.

[NC_Hauler]

Roy&Lynne wrote:
Mention guns and your going to get 20 pages and then the admins locked it. I must be lucky, the only encounter that I've ever had was with a chipmunk coming to visit. I don't even havw a dog. Guess we are lucky out here in the west, lots of nice people, and few of the not so nice dont bother to come way out into the wilderness to cause disruption. We do carry bear spray if we are going to bear country.

Lot's of nice people around NC, TN, VA and WV, but had a close encounter with a Bear once and scared the heck out of him when I fired my gun in the ground to get him away from our camp, was WAYYY too close...I preferred that over Bear Spray after being told by a DNR officer, a warning shot will usually send them running ...mixed reports on Bear Spray from the DNR officer..

Those who go way out into the wilderness/woods could also be moon shiners or making meth or growing wacky weed...it's there for the research..so the bad guys could be "way out there" also...maybe even hiding from the law...

[D_B_Travelers]

Although I legally carry as I posted earlier, I suspect the most likely problem to come up would be a rabid animal. I lived on a farm when younger and we had rabid skunks or a dog at least once a year come out of the nearby woods and chase our dogs around. As soon as I would go outside it would charge directly for me; nice to have a 12 gauge at that time. I have never encountered a burglar or needed my weapon at home (knock on wood), but I have them handy nevertheless. As another poster said: He didn't expect a fire, but he has a fire extinguisher. We travel to places where we have not been before so have no real advance knowledge of what the surroundings are like. I camped in a new site many years ago and it looked great until dark. At dusk all of the campers left with only us remaining? Seriously. Apparently this was a cruising site and we had slow-driving cars in and around our site till about 4 AM, with lots of them getting out and standing around less than 25 yards from our camp. Didn't have a gun then, always do now.

[Roy_Lynne]

Mention guns and your going to get 20 pages and then the admins locked it. I must be lucky, the only encounter that I've ever had was with a chipmunk coming to visit. I don't even havw a dog. Guess we are lucky out here in the west, lots of nice people, and few of the not so nice dont bother to come way out into the wilderness to cause disruption. We do carry bear spray if we are going to bear country.

[toedtoes]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Not that anybody wants to, but if we return to the original theme of the thread there is another issue with weapons and boondocking. When you boondock, you have no more right to be there than anyone else. You don't have a defined area that is "yours". If you actually get into a confrontation and shoot someone that is going to be a legal tidbit that is going to cause you a whole lot of grief.
I no longer feel comfortable traveling the back country of Montana's great national parks. The law has been changed and now people are allowed to carry firearms in those parks. My concern is someone who has never been in the back country is going to hear a sound, automatically assume it is a grizzly and begin to fire randomly into the bushes. If that sound came from me and my horse walking a trail, that is a problem.
A weapon in a situation where you are unfamiliar and uncomfortable doesn't suddenly make you familiar and comfortable. It just adds fuel to a potential fire.

With the number of stupid things done by people in national parks in regards to wild animals, I completely understand your concern - how can you trust that they will know the difference between a horse and a moose from a distance?

[toedtoes]

Muddydogs wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
When you boondock, you have no more right to be there than anyone else. You don't have a defined area that is "yours".

Actually in most States a RV is an extension of your home so what ever rights you have to protect your home also apply to your RV. Its best to know the state laws that you are in. Case in point in Utah we can not use deadly force to protect property but in some States you can. Although in Utah if someone is standing outside your window with say a screw driver and they appear to be trying to break into your home then deadly force is justified, other states require one lets the bad guy get a little further along before they can be taken care of.

I think WRPO's point is that with a home, you have a defined area that belongs to you surrounding that home, with a developed campground, you have a defined area that "belongs" to you surrounding your RV - but when boondocking, there is no defined area. The only defined space is the actual RV. So, if someone decides to hang out 5 feet from your RV, it is much more subjective as to whether it can be reasonably perceived as a threat.

[wa8yxm]

I have several weapons.. Just not one that is classified as such

My Brain (#1 tool for self defense)
Fire Extinguishers (3 of them (Actually more but 3 near the door)
They can put out more than fires
Walking stick.. Helps me walk more easily but another name for a quarterstaff
Just to name 3..

There are more

[mabynack]

I was tent camping in Northern NM once. We were on private land that belonged to a rancher I knew and had permission to be there. We were cooking breakfast one morning and a group of heavily armed men in camouflage walked out of the woods. They asked us nicely to leave. I'm not sure why they wanted us out there, but we felt it was best to relocate to the other side of the mountain for the rest of the week. Speculations ran from a marijuana growing operation to the local militia.

[braindead0]

IMO these kind of topics tend to devolve into politics/posturing and fear mongering. People have very different views as far as risk tolerance, threat assessment and desire to defend themselves. As well as skewed perceptions of firearms in general due to the media. None of these can be changed via argument, they have to be changed vie long term experience and training. This is why I believe it's entirely pointless to argue about.

Personally I carry whatever tools I deem necessary to protect myself and my family.

Here in the desert there are tons of relatively unknown ghost towns, we like to explore them. When you get there you often find signs of meth cooking, vandalism, drug paraphernalia, etc. When you choose to explore areas like this you cannot assess the threats very well until you are on the scene and can get an idea of how active the site is and even then you may have no idea.

There are also a lot of characters defending claims (legal or otherwise), if they aren't posted or you do not know what you're looking for you may be wandering around on someones claim. Most of the time this isn't an issue, the odds of the claimer being on site are minimal however there are valuable deposits in some areas and these folks tend to camp/work them in the summer.

For both of those fairly unlikely threats, I carry a revolver. I have been well trained and am confident I can use that to defend us from immediate threats, lightweight and hardly know it's there. Same thing I carry every day.

Our biggest non-human threats here are rattlesnakes and mountain lions. Both of those are pretty easy to avoid, and not nearly as common as the 2 legged nutjob.

That's my opinion on the subject.

[mabynack]

I generally carry one as long as I'm legal. I've never had to use it while camping, although there have been a couple times when I was glad I had it with me.

[Muddydogs]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
When you boondock, you have no more right to be there than anyone else. You don't have a defined area that is "yours".

Actually in most States a RV is an extension of your home so what ever rights you have to protect your home also apply to your RV. Its best to know the state laws that you are in. Case in point in Utah we can not use deadly force to protect property but in some States you can. Although in Utah if someone is standing outside your window with say a screw driver and they appear to be trying to break into your home then deadly force is justified, other states require one lets the bad guy get a little further along before they can be taken care of.

[valhalla360]

You have a right to carry a shotgun if you choose to. I support your right.

That said, carrying one because you are afraid some crazy will seek you out in the woods is just silly. Yeah, it could happen but such a small threat...unless you are boon docking on the side of the street in gangland, it's just not a concern worthy of fear.

Now if you are in bear country and want it for protection, I might take a different view.