Sleeping with your rifle in your tent?

[Harvest the Land]

Hey guys,

The wife and I are going hunting this weekend for the first time - pretty stoked! Anyway, we will be pitching a tent right next to our truck and I was just wondering if some of you sleep with your rifle in your tent (protection from bears, cougars etc.)? or do you just leave it in the truck? I will be carrying bear spray and a whistle (which I've used before to stop a bear from getting into my tent before), so I know the whistle works well. Should I also sleep with the rifle in the tent or leave it in the truck?

What do you guys do?

Thanks in advance!

[ditch donkey]

i sleep beside my gun, im usually big spoon though

[Sharpish]

I usually hang it up right outside the entrance to the tent in the vestibule. If you bring it in and out the temperature difference (cold gun, warm humid tent) makes it collect condensation and rust. If there's meat hanging from the pole and its grizz country the gun is loaded and within reach of my sleeping bag.

[Sofa King]

gun sleeps with me.
condensation or not, the gun ain't much good to you if it ain't in your hands.

[albravo2]

This thread reminds me why I like to sleep under a tarp instead of a tent. My son and I were up Tuchodi a couple years ago, spiked out in our tent. Middle of the night something big was snorting and snuffling just outside the tent. I had my gun but had no sense of the threat level and I just waited for the tent fabric to ripple, but it didn't. Under a tarp I would have been able to see.

But to answer your question... of course take a gun with you in the tent. Unless you have one that works on voice command

[M.Dean]

Lets pretend a bear starts ripping your tent apart, and once he finds you and your wife are made of meat, he decides to eat both of you well your still alive, your rifle in the truck might as well be back home in your gun safe! And, just for fun get inside your tent at home, have your rifle beside you when your in your sleeping bag, now, well you have 2 or 3 big guys jumping all over the tent and hitting you with base ball bats, try to load your rifle, better yet, try to find the box of bullets you had neatly beside your rifle in the tent? If I have even a inkling there's bear or bad people near where I'm sleeping in a tent, my rifle has 3 rounds in the breach, or the magazine is loaded and in the rifle, and the bolt is open, ready to be closed in a second making the rifle a weapon again and not a club, like it is when it's unloaded! Have fun out there!

[Harvest the Land]

Lets pretend a bear starts ripping your tent apart, and once he finds you and your wife are made of meat, he decides to eat both of you well your still alive, your rifle in the truck might as well be back home in your gun safe! And, just for fun get inside your tent at home, have your rifle beside you when your in your sleeping bag, now, well you have 2 or 3 big guys jumping all over the tent and hitting you with base ball bats, try to load your rifle, better yet, try to find the box of bullets you had neatly beside your rifle in the tent? If I have even a inkling there's bear or bad people near where I'm sleeping in a tent, my rifle has 3 rounds in the breach, or the magazine is loaded and in the rifle, and the bolt is open, ready to be closed in a second making the rifle a weapon again and not a club, like it is when it's unloaded! Have fun out there!

Got it - you couldn't have been more clear M. Dean! That's pretty much what I figured. Thanks for all replies

[teelt]

Rifle loaded in tent anytime in bear country and always close by. If I'm truck camping I have my shotgun with slugs and rifle loaded. It's no good if it's in the truck or a vestibule as it happens quick and you won't have time to grab it if a bear is on the tent.

[warnniklz]

I always... well not always... but if I'm tenting in a rdmote location, rifle gets the tent treatment. Just gotta push the bolt forward and lock it In place. A quick "flash" or "thunder" just to make sure it's not your budfy hitting snooze on their indian alarm clock.

Have had yogi's meander through camp more than once... luckily I haven't had to chuck lead. Rather my pea shooter ten inches from me than ten feet from me.

And who doesn't like to spoon their rifle.

[M.Dean]

And a side note while I'm thinking about being ripped apart by a bear in my tent, my Brother picked me up a motion light for my front yard, it's a solar powered motion light, has 100 LED bulbs and is real bright. It's rechargeable and simply screws to anything, like a tree a few feet away from your tent in bear country. I know I've had the odd time camping when you hear that growl or some other dam noise and you have to get up and go outside the tent to see what it was, sure be nice with that big light, and if you did have to shoot at something, it would make it alot easier for sure!