Do you carry a firearm in your RV?

[Tom N]

A picture is worth a thousand words. <span class="ev_code_RED">Git-R-Done!</span>

[Our Cow]

I like the looks of that one What is it?

[Tom N]

Mossberg 590 12 ga. Pump Action 9-shot capacity, parkerized finish, bead sight, 20" cylinder bore barrel with heat shield and Speed-Feed stock....MSRP $525

http://www.mossberg.com/pcatalog/Specpurp.htm

Also, I don't work the slide to scare someone because I always have a round in the camber.

[Jestme13]

Ahhhhhh but will it fire ball bearings with out tearing it up, or making you cry about tearing it up?

[Easyrider]

Especially when traveling or staying in areas your not familiar with it makes sense to carry. However, I thing a big mistake is being made if you think the sight or sound of a gun being made ready is going to scare a threatening person away from you. If you pull out a gun, you had better be ready to use it if needed. There is a real danger that the attacker may take the gun from you and use it on you if you are not able/willing to pull the trigger. In other words if you would not be able to pull the trigger, even if your own life is in danger, and you only carry it to "scare" the bad guys away, you may be compounding the danger and actually end up providing a weapon for the attacker to use on you!

[Jestme13]

Yo easy, send um my way, we'll see. They know who to mess with and who to leave alone. It's kind of the eye of the tiger thing.

And yer absolutly right, If ya don't have the heart, don't pull it. Or better yet, don't have it.

[Tom and Patty]

I have a short barrelled 12 guage at home, it has never made the trip with us in the RV. I have no excuse.

We were stopped one night after driving late at a rest area out side Grants Pass in Oregon. An altercation occured in the parking lot between a man and woman. The man was starting to beat her. I called 911. They told me to stay inside. Good. It took the Oregon HP 45 minutes to get to us. By that time no one was around, they checked out the few other vehicles parked near us and found nothing. They decided it was probably two hyped up druggies passing through, which they get a lot of. One officer asked me if I had a gun in the RV. Of course I didn't. He looked at our large GSD and said," That is a big bear of a dog you have there, but these hyped up people wouldn't be stopped by her. You see how long it took us to get here. A motor home my be hard to break into, but you bring your gun with you when you travel. We would never had been here in time if they were going to cause you harm."

Now I could have gotten in the drivers seat and driven away, but I locked the toad's steering wheel and engaged the emergency brake that night. Yes, I could have dragged(?) it down the freeway.....I've read about that too!

Here is what I learned. I'll lock the toad to the tow bar only. I'll know where I am if we stop at night in an unknown area, instead of having to fire up the GPS (2 min feels like an hour)to tell 911 where I'm located, and after reading all 16 pages, my 12 guage is going on our next trip. Hopefully the only action it will get is going from the home to the RV.

Thanks for the timely and good information.

added by edit
We will also try to stop earlier in better places. But we never have had a problem at a rest area. Maybe that goes with the odds of something happening.

[Our Cow]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sometimes I don't feel comfortable stopping at rest areas in the daytime let alone at night! We pulled into a rest area on I40 in New Mexico after dark last summer. My hair on the back of my neck stood up as I looked around. Lot's of trucks and cars but no RV's. I never shut it down and kept on rolling into Santa Rosa and pulled into a Good Sam park. It was a short night but I felt much much safer. The lesson we learned was to stop earlier....

Jim

[Tom N]

Originally posted by Tom and Patty:
Now I could have gotten in the drivers seat and driven away, but I locked the toad's steering wheel and engaged the emergency brake that night. Yes, I could have dragged(?) it down the freeway.....I've read about that too!

I always leave my car so I can pull out without getting out. I rarely park where there isn't at least one other RV unless it's Cracker Barrel or Walmart.

I also look for the security cameras at Walmart and try to park in view of one.

[Our Cow]

Does Cracker Barrel Resturants let RV's park overnight? Are they open 24 hours? Thanks for the tip. BTW I purchased a Remington 870 Express 7 shot at Big 5 Sporting Goods for $299. They had a Mossberg 500 for $229 but I thought that the Remington might hold it's value better and might be a little more dependable. Hope I never have to find out!

Jim

[Tom N]

Does Cracker Barrel Resturants let RV's park overnight? Are they open 24 hours?

Yes, they allow overnight parking. They are not open all night. They open at 6AM and close at 10PM. Makes for a quiet night. The only night activity may be a delivery or a trash dumpster pickup. Park as far away from dumpster as possible. If you ask for permission to stay, corporate policy is, the manager is instructed to tell you if you stay they will not ask you to leave. Relieves CB from any liability.

Cracker Barrel has lined off spaces for buses and RVs.

The problem with Cracker Barrel's is that they are very busy. With all the cars it can be hard to negotiate their parking lot during the hours they are open.

Cracker Barrels are my favorite overnight spot. You can have dinner in the evening and breakfast before leaving in the morning. You can hang out in a rocker on the front porch after dinner. No traffic after they close like Walmart parking lots. No kids driving up and down the lanes late at night.

Once the morning manager picked up our breakfast check when I told him we stayed overnight in his lot and had dinner there the night before.

Cracker Barrel has a brochure/map showing all their locations.

As I stated the lots can be difficult to negotiate, thus not many overnighters.

http://www.crackerbarrel.com/

[TheWetFish]

My pistol is with me all the time. However, it is only loaded 3 days out of the week. Care to guess which 3?

All joking aside, Yes, I do carry a pistol (S&W .357) with me. Although the knife (USMC KA-Bar) would be my first choice to pull out if ever needed. The pistol would be my last resort since you never know what innocent person may be walking in the distance outside of the RV.

My reasons for "carrying" are many, some are obvious. This day and age there are alot of scary people out there that would not think twice of robbing anybody they can. My RV is my transportation for my sales business also, so you can imagine how much of a potential target those scary people might think I may be.

Matt

[Jestme13]

Hail KA-Bar, mine is clipped right next to the door. Those friction clips that hold brooms and such are perfect holders.

[Rich & Zara]

Originally posted by TheWetFish:
My pistol is with me all the time. However, it is only loaded 3 days out of the week. Care to guess which 3?

Matt

I would guess ...Work-day, Sick-day & Other-day.