My two cents is that the biggest threat in the woods is critters with two feet and smaller four footed critters. Getting bit by a bear or cat is possible but not very likely.
If hiking one has to compromise regarding weight. If one wants the 500 S&W hand cannon to take out The Griz then something else is going to get left at home or you get to carry more weight. And if the weapon is uncomfortable to carry and gets left at home it is useless.
I don't like firearms that require a trigger pull to disassemble. A trigger should do one thing and one thing only which is to make gun go bang. So I don't like Glocks. But I do like Glocks because they are one of the few that still make a 10mm.
And Glocks do have a great trigger pull. There are some 1911 pistols in 10mm.
A 10mm loaded to its potential gets into the low end of the 44 Mag power levels. A 10mm can make loud booms. :laughing: Or an FBI Light load can be used for more reasonable shooting. The 10mm FBI Light load turned into the 40. 10mm ammo is expensive but if one had to worry about big critters but did not want to carry the bigger hand cannons it would be a good choice.
Wheel guns do jam. Not often but when they do jam they jam bad. Real bad. Seen it happen twice and it was bad ammo. Having to try to unjam a revolver while the cylinder is REAL hot from the energy created from a bullet jammed between the cylinder and the barrel is a bit dicey. When I saw this happen I backed off the firing line enough so that the range officer's body was between me and the revolver that was cooking five other rounds in the cylinder.
It happened twice.
New ammo was supplied and the problem went away. It was practice ammo. If it had happened with duty ammo in a fire fight the officer would have been dead since it took a few minutes to get the weapon unjammed. I really think the rounds would have started to cook off if 357s had been fired instead of 38s.
An auto loader can be unjammed pretty quickly with minimal training.
The 357 is good since you can shoot cheap 38's. A 10mm revolver is also good since it can be loaded into the lower 44 mag level but still shoot 40's.
A 9mm is adequate but 10mm/40 or 45 is my preference but all should work for two legged and smaller four legged critters.
The M&P 45 is VERY nice. For years I carried a 4506 which is a big heavy SS pistol. The M&P 45 I was issued is much smaller and lighter that the 4506. I only have a few hundred rounds fired so far and it is still breaking in with the accuracy improving with use. Very impressed. I had some excellent scores with the pistol. Daytime was some of the best I had shot and I did not get off all the rounds since I was going slow. Night time I got off even less rounds because I was having trouble seeing the front sights. The sights are Tritium but they had been covered up a bit by the exhaust of earlier dirtier practice rounds. But my scores where still some of the best I have ever shot.
It has a Glock like trigger in that the trigger pull is the same from round to round. No 12 pound double action pull followed by a 4 pound pull. I think it is rated at 6 pounds.
It also has a loaded chamber indicator which is nice. You also don't have to pull the trigger to clean the weapon. The pistol comes with three grips to support a range of hand sizes.
I would recommend you look at the M&P family of pistols.
Though for some strange reason I want a 460 S&W hand cannon. I have NO need for that thing but I want it. I also like the 10mm revolvers but again no real need.
Good Luck with making a decision!
Dan
