Road trip guns...

[Char-Gar]

I am near 80 and have lived on the Texas-Mexico border most of my life. I am three miles from the Rio Grande River as I type this missive. I quite familiar with the Borderlands of Texas and New Mexico. This part of the world has always had it's differences and dangers. I can tell you with all honesty, the North side of the border is no more dangerous than it has ever been. The national media has made politics out of the border and people think things are worse now, when it is just business as usual. There has always been illegals crossing in droves and most are just looking for work and others are up to no good, same ol same ol.

When I drive a Colt 45 Auto is all I need, unless I am out in the boonies and then a good rifle makes me feel better. Good rifle is what you think it is.

[Char-Gar]

there is nothing quite like the sound of racking a new shell into a pump shotgun to get someones attention

Shotgun is the universal language. Everybody understands it without the need of translation.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

These days you need to pack a get home kit. Maybe put one of those metal gas tanks in the bed behind the cab. 5 gallons of fresh water when in the desert. Much of the criminal activity on the border is State sanctioned, don't come into contact with it. Have a safe and enjoyable trip.

[Idaho45guy]

These days you need to pack a get home kit. Maybe put one of those metal gas tanks in the bed behind the cab. 5 gallons of fresh water when in the desert. Much of the criminal activity on the border is State sanctioned, don't come into contact with it. Have a safe and enjoyable trip.

I've always been prepared.

Back in `88, I was changing duty stations and was driving my 1966 F100 from CA to WA. with 4:11 gears and the 352 V8 and 4spd tranny, I was hard pressed to do the speed limit.

I was driving along some highway out in the desert and came upon a new Chrysler mini-van pulled onto the side of the road and an older man waving his arms.

I pulled over turns out he and his young son had been there for three hours and no one would stop. His new van had a bad fuel gauge and he ran out of gas.

I had a spare 5-gallon jug in the back, so gave him a couple of gallons and got him on his way. He was incredulous that I actually had spare gas with me, and that I stopped, and then refused a $20.

I miss the `80's. Not sure I'd stop these days.

[Texas by God]

Road trip to Cabo?

[Baltimoreed]

Did a 3230 mile trip during this past July, 59 hrs driving in a little over a week. Carried my J frame and 12 rds on strippers. Was ccw legal except in Md. Had no problems. A nice trip but I did get turned around in Newport News.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I've always been prepared.

Back in `88, I was changing duty stations and was driving my 1966 F100 from CA to WA. with 4:11 gears and the 352 V8 and 4spd tranny, I was hard pressed to do the speed limit.

I was driving along some highway out in the desert and came upon a new Chrysler mini-van pulled onto the side of the road and an older man waving his arms.

I pulled over turns out he and his young son had been there for three hours and no one would stop. His new van had a bad fuel gauge and he ran out of gas.

I had a spare 5-gallon jug in the back, so gave him a couple of gallons and got him on his way. He was incredulous that I actually had spare gas with me, and that I stopped, and then refused a $20.

I miss the `80's. Not sure I'd stop these days.

Was driving a 54 Chev pickup that i had paid $500 for in Spokane back in 1980 back to Chicago. Picked an old timer who was hitch hiking up in Wyoming, he was standing under the only tree for miles. Turns out he had just got out of prison and was on his way to Sioux Falls. Got him all the way and shared my water, beer, summer sausage, bread and grapes with him. Cigarettes too. When i dropped him off he had tears in his eyes as he thanked me.

[MaryB]

My SUV rifle is always with me, a Chinese type 53 on an archangel conversion stock(original stock was in multiple pieces when I got the rifle for $49, bore looked brand new!) along with 4 10 round mags. It rides in a case unloaded so it is legal transport in any state. PK380 pistol is always with me, AR-15 is often in the SUV, shotgun goes in now and then...

Long as things are properly cased for transport anything goes!

Friend used to service oil well compressors out in west TX, some right down by the border. She said the drug mules want nothing to do with you and they will change direction if they see you. Illegals coming across to work aren't an issue but she ran into gang members now and then, she carried an AR-15 with 6 spare mags and it got her out of a bad spot twice. Also came in handy when feral hogs chased her onto the roof of her truck after she cut her arm pretty bad and was leaving a blood trail. She opened the back slider window and snagged the first aid kit to fix her arm then ended up shooting half the hogs before they left her alone. She filled her freezer, her brothers freezer and a friends freezer with hog meat.

[warren5421]

I have in the truck a Colt 1903 .32 ACP loaded hot, a Sig 229, STI 10mm, lever gun in .44 WCF, either a Sharps .45-70 or a High Wall in .38-55, 200 rounds for each gun, that's for a 150 mile trip on Interstate 70 Indy to Columbus, Ohio. If I come up with a Beretta 1301 it will be there also. Anything up to 500 yards is in range with what I carry, can go longer but eyes arn't that good any more. 4x4 should let me go cross county if needed. Vacation it's the .32 ACP and a 1911 with 200 rounds. That should get me to the country side with what ever I pickup on the way out.

[ShooterAZ]

I'd say that you are adequately armed for your "close to the border" excursions. I have a truck gun, a Remington 870 with a 18" riot barrel and iron sights. It's got an extended magazine tube and I keep it loaded with #4 Buck. I hope I never have to use it but as the old saying goes..."It's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it". I agree with the suggestions for bringing a shotgun, hard to beat for self defense. An AR15 would be an excellent second choice too. For pistol carry, it's a Kimber 1911 45ACP with a couple of spare mags for me.

[Scrounge]

no makes me want constitutional carry nationwide. We do not need the federal bunglers involved.

Amen Brother!

[jimlj]

KelTek P32.
Way better than anything left at home.

[atr]

I just take a .38 S&W...and use a lot of common sense about where and when I travel

[BJK]

I don't go far, I try to never cross the state line (Maine). I always have a S&W 9c with me and (I forget) 40 or 50 rounds of ammo in mags. If I'm planning on a full day away, in the past I would also bring an AR rifle with loaded mags. Just can't have them inserted into the rifle in the car. Today I would bring either my SBRed 9mm B&T GHM9 or 300BLK AR handgun.

[thxmrgarand]

"Back in `88, I was changing duty stations and was driving my 1966 F100 from CA to WA. with 4:11 gears and the 352 V8 and 4spd tranny, I was hard pressed to do the speed limit."

My first pick-up was a 1966 F100 with a 3-speed manual and positive traction, and a 352. It was one year old, and I was 17. The tires would chirp when I shifted into 3rd at 70 miles an hour. The new price would have been about $2,000, and with 6,000 miles it was a wonderful buy at the asking price of $1,000. But being 17 and a little inexperienced in the way of the world I offered the guy $950, to which he angrily slammed the hood and walked in the house. So I had to knock on the door and give him his $1,000. It was the fastest truck around. It's a wonder I could keep it in the road during the winter. I carried a wooden box with 300 pounds of sand right behind the cab, and that helped the handling in winter. It seems to me that working class economics have sure changed, as $1,000 wasn't an extraordinary amount of money for a hard-working college student to have in his pocket yet it would buy a good year-old pick-up. It was a time of high inflation, but I thought it was normal. President Johnson was badly losing an expensive war at the same time he had invented food stamps and his Great Society. I miss those times, being 17, and that fast truck. I have a much faster truck today but at least where I live no one races, and I suppose that is just as well.

[jsizemore]

there is nothing quite like the sound of racking a new shell into a pump shotgun to get someones attention

That's the sound that says "start shooting".