I often carry either my .45 semi-auto, or a .357 or .44 revolver while I'm hunting or just wandering around in the hills.

This season there were two occasions when I was very glad to have the .44 on my belt:

1. While hiking up a remote canyon, not far from Yellowstone, hunting mule deer. My buddy and I found grizzly sow & cub tracks going up the same trail we were using. The .44 with stout loaded 300 grain hardcast bullets felt good on my belt. I didn't think much of my .25-06 & 115 gr Berger VLD's as grizzly medicine. Great deer rifle, but I don't think it would do too good on bear, particularly at close range... Fortunately we never found those two bears. Believe they headed up and over into another drainage. We did leave them two boned-out carcasses though.

2. Earlier in the season I was with a fellow who made a high spine shot, a little farther back than he would have liked. He dropped the deer, but it was trying to crawl away, dragging the hindquarters. Not good, but these things happen time to time while hunting. The other hunter asked me to finish it for him as we closed in on the broken mule deer. At about 20 yards I drew and fired a controlled pair from my S&W 629, putting both bullets through the chest. One went through the shoulder, the other just behind. In this case I was carrying factory loaded 240 gr JHP Federal American Eagle brand ammo. It worked great, tearing the top off the heart and destroying the lungs while punching all the way through the deer.
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240 JHP recovered from my water-jug tests. No bullet recovered from the deer... Punched through, with a big exit wound:
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Most of the time the revolver on my belt is just dead weight, but sometimes it's real handy! Glad I didn't have to use it on grizzly up in the Wyoming high country. Glad I had it along on the other deer hunt. I carry a sidearm pretty much every day. Time to time it proves useful.

Regards, Guy