Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Sidearms

I don't live in bear country or anything but i am pretty sure you should never go in the woods hunting or hiking unarmed. I am looking to get something inexpensive for this purpose but not sure what to caliber or pistol to get. I would say a snakes, coyotes, possible rabid racoon would be the only threats. I am looking at a ruger 22/45 target, a s&w m&p .45, and a rossi 971 357 mag. I do already have dies for 38/357 and a ton of 38 spl loaded ammo and have 45 acp dies. Thank you.

A good .357 is HARD to whip in that regard.

a good, lightweight .22. A tacsol buckmark/ruger or something more compact like a browning 1911-22 or ruger sr-22.....

I carry a .38 or a .40 caliber depending on my mood. Not really for animals as I have never had an issue with anything, except a curious bear every now and again. I carry it for the two legged animals due to all the marijuana farming and the occasional tweeker from the marijuana camps. I fear humans much more than any wild animal, IMO.

I have a little .22 mag I like, but would not want to be in a fire fight with it. Great for a short hike but I prefer the larger calibers.

For the animals you describe a .38 or .357 would be plenty. Revolvers are nice for the woods, although I admit my semi-autos have never failed me even when dirty. It is nice to be able to load snake shot in the revolver if you want. I have killed rabid skunks with snake shot.

I went with a lightweight S&W revolver in .357.

Glock 19.

Change bullets to fit the application: Defense against people, Defense against bear (Buffalo Bore hard cast), plinking, small game, etc.

The Glock 19 is the answer to most handgun questions.

Would be hard to best a 357 Magnum 4 inch barrel with a 158 gr SWC Cast bullet loaded to Mid Vel for your needs

If you plan to hunt small game, a .22 makes a good choice. If it's more for defensive purposes (including rabid raccoons), I would go with something bigger. Based on your reloading/ammo situation a .357 makes sense. I don't carry revolvers anymore, but had a S&W 60 3" with adjustable sights that was very good in that role. An SP-101 would be great as well. I would not buy a Rossi, because I did once. It proved that revolvers are not the be all end all in reliability.

There are lots of great pistols out there, but it is very hard to beat the G19 for all around effectiveness if you decide to go with a different caliber. Empty it is about the same weight as my 60 empty, but with vastly more firepower, much more controllable and easier to hit with for me. Depending on loads, the difference in power is not significant. You can get hard hitting 158 - 180 grain .357 loads that far outpace the 9mm, but they are not fun or easy to shoot in a light revolver and not needed for your described uses.

I already have a g19.

Carried one of those for years at the Ranch for every day use. Nowadays, I'm just as likely to carry a Ruger SR.-22 pistol.

But if it's carried while deer or hog hunting, it's usually either my Glock 32 in .357 sig caliber, or my Glock 20 10mm. Or one of my many 1911's in 45 acp.
And in the summer when Rattlesnakes are much more likely to be encountered, I like my old Ruger Vaquero in .45 Colt with some CCI Snake shot loads as the first round in the chamber.

44 Special....

cast....jacketed......shot capsules....

I did look at a ruger blackhawk 44 mag also.

I carry either a G19 or G26 if not in bear country. A G20 or G29 if bear are present.

A good medium frame 357 magnum with a 3-4" barrel could cover both situations with the same gun and different loads. Would be my 2nd choice.

I just like the Glocks a little better. They are lighter, more compact and hold more ammo.

In your shoes, I'd opt for a Ruger Single Six and carry it when .22 Magnum ammo. They work quite well on all you've mentioned.
Nothing wrong with a .357. Heck, when I'm too lazy to pack my 1006, 10mm, that's what I pack in bear country.
The big drawback with a .357 is that it needs to be zeroed with with one load. I've never seen one that shot mild target loads to anything like the same zero as full power HP's. But they do handle shot loads very well.
I've also carried 1911 style .45's. With shot loads, usually they won't feed another of the same. But I do have an old Mk.IV, Series 70 that will. E

Nothing wrong with that for a general purpose outdoors sidearm.

I carry a Glock 17 in the outdoors quite often. If you practice at 2-3 yards you can work out your 'snake hold'.

I carry 147gr XTPs, handloaded to about 1100 fps.

Sure the 9mm has it's limitations, and I have other choices too. I just like the Glock 17.

Then you're all set.

We probably travel / hike some of the same areas . Out of your choices I hate to limit myself to just a 22 . Personally the G19 is hard to beat and a 9mm hp will handle anything in our area. My personal favorite is a G29 but I tend to prefer overkill.

FN5.7

I've walked in the deep woods since I could walk, which was about 1963. Through bear woods and snake woods and lion woods and people woods. Dunno how many thousands of miles, and all of them without a gun.

That changed the first time I walked in Alaska. In the alder tunnels, looking down at that muddy track as big as my chest, even with a gun I feel like a grasshopper that landed in the bream pond.

The G30S would be a good candidate.




It's roughly the size of a G19. In fact may G19 holsters will work for it.

It is lightweight with good capacity. With a factory 10 rounder in the gun and a G21 13 round mag as a reload, you should have more than enough ammo to solve most problems.

Plus you really don't need to worry about it getting wet, muddy dusty, whatever. Not much will make them choke.

I got mine for those times when I wanted to minimize the weight I was carrying, like when packing out hind quarters in wolf/bear, big cat country.

It has proven to be a very accurate, great little gun. In fact it is quickly becoming one of my favorite .45s.


Oh yeah, Since you reload, you could run some heavy for caliber cast flat points like some 250s. That should be more than adequate for most critters you are likely to run into.