You'll fit right in, just remember everyone's an (M)asshole up here and the weather sucks....and its ridiculously expensive. It's weird I grew up here, but I spent the last 10 years living all over the world/country (Japan, Korea, Oklahoma, Texas, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain) , and honestly I hate it now that I'm back. It's dark, cold, the roads suck and everyone is overly political.

The idea for the side arm as it was explained to me is 2 fold.

1.) when you're in the middle of being attacked (meaning your already on the ground or within touching distance) the side arm is far more maneuverable and the long gun has probably been dropped. I'm not a big fan of this idea but its not entirely without merit. I'm sure you can find some vid of a guys gun jamming while a boar is charging and him getting it with a pistol but I think this is the exception not the rule.

2.) And this one I do support. Is on long multi day hunts you have a high likelihood of running into stuff around your camp. It's a lot easier and faster to have a pistol on your hip while carrying fire wood or going to the bathroom, or cooking than a long gun on your back. Its also more of something to make a lot of noise and scare it off.

I never carried one in Texas but for elk I carried a 45. Not sure if id do it again though. maybe a Glock but that 45 got HEAVY by day 5 lol

https://www.mass.gov/hunting-regulations

Its in here, its weird because if you go through the different pages is says different things in regards to handguns which is why I said I have conflicting info. Kind of typical for here it seems all the firearm laws are getting so complicated that its hard to follow them all lol

Got any recommendations on a good slug gun? All this came up bc i have the perfect spot on my property for a hide. right up on ridge over looking a clearing in the forest with a creek near by, but the shots probably 200-250 meters. I've never tried a shot like that with a shotgun and im crap with a bow lol