To all those who don’t think they need to carry while hiking and that wild animals are “rare” to attack

Today my girlfriend and I went hiking on a well known and very populated trail.Within 5 minutes of walking something somewhat big popped out of the bushes 4 feet infront of us.Holy shit it’s a big ass raccoon.It was around 8am and bright out so it wasn’t normal to see at all. My girlfriend takes the hell off and I walked back slowly while yelling at it.It was snarling and swatting and kept lunging towards me.I was spooked I’m not going to lie and act like I was big and bad. It was freaky. I’ve never seen an animal behave like this. So after a constant walk backyards yelling and kicking rocks at it. I drew my pistol.My girlfriend screamed when I did and she plugged her ears and hunkered down. I waited and yelled a few more times and it just continued to try and attack.So i checked my backdrop, no one was around. It’s a dirt hill behind it. Boom. I pulled the trigger once. I’m not sure I hit it but it jumped and took off.This seems like it took a long time when I type this out but this was definitely under a minute since the encounter started.I got on the phone with the DNR, as I said this is a pretty populated trail and there was one other car in the lot and I figured someone else is going to call this in if they heard it and the officer(s) will freak out.So I explained what happened. They sent someone out. Waited for about 10 minutes and he took a report. I didn’t get into any trouble whatsoever. He said it was probably rabid or guarding something. He checked my gun out for a bit and gave it back and that was that.I’ve read on countless forums that you don’t need a gun while hiking. My girlfriend even looked at me after I strapped my gun on before the hike and said “you really need that?” And I said the day I need it you’ll be happy I have it. Sure as shit it was that day.People are a greater danger out in the bush, but animals are a threat albeit RARE but a threat. Carry your gun wherever you go. Yes it wasn’t a big animal, but no way in hell am I going hand to hand with a aggressive raccoon. They’re vicious little guys.-Random side notes and things I learned from this.Gun: Taurus Spectrum hate it all u want I love it as a pocket gunAiming under stress is difficult. So many moving things and not having 100% focus is hard to overcome.My draw training has paid off and it went flawlessly. Didn’t get snagged on my shirt or pants. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/3vEy3R6