Lot of folks might have more experience in the backcountry. But I grew up near Chitina and have spent most of my life in rural Alaska. I have been stuck here in Fairbanks for the last 12 years but for the most part I still get out every summer and do rambling in the woods.
I suggest a hi-point 45ACP. Cheap, ugly. Good enough for Black Bear or any bear. Goes bang every time. You would be hard pressed to killed one of them. I have all nature of handguns and rifles but the hipoint fills a certain niche of a gun that you could abuse to the end of the earth and paint it when you get tired of its color.
You run into Deliverance you can pop em and then drop it into a river and nobody would know. A little bird told me that its hard to match the ballistic profile on them.
