Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Your hiking pistol?

After stuffing a 200xtp in a bears face with my 10mm, I realized that I can get by with considerably less pistol. I carry a g23 or 43x most of the time.

Accuracy trumps all and a cns hit is the only thing that's going to positively save you before you hear crunching noises.

I don’t go hiking alot, usually when im in the woods im hunting and have a long gun of some sort so then i just carry my g23 with 180gr gold dots. If its deer season ill carry a 629 or m&p 10mm instead of the Glock 23. On the rare occasion a bear has been seen around our place ill carry one of the bigger pistols. We have an occasional bear sighting but the biggest threats around here are coyotes,wild dogs, or two legged threats. I save the 9mm’s for urban carry

Varies considerably. Cartridge wise, 44 mag, 45 Colt, 454 Casull, 480 Ruger, 475 Linebaugh. Barrel lengths from 2.5 through 5". Some double actions some single actions.
Probable favorite is a Ruger Bisley 4-5/8" 480 Ruger for hiking / companion revolver.

When there was a wife and child in the house my woods carry/home defense/recreational plinking/drive cross country gun was a 3” S&W Mod 60. That was fine until one day I came across a really big feral boar that stood and huffed about twenty yards out deciding what it was gonna do while I shouted and waved my arms. Finally it spun off the path like a sumo wrestler and crashed off a short ways into dense brush where it remained huffing and snorting.

If it woulda charged it could cover that ground in seconds and I would have had just five chances with heavy recoiling double action .357 loads from a j-frame to affect the outcome. So Ihat same week I bought a 10mm Glock 29. Twice fthe firepower in an easier to shoot package.

That lasted about three or four years but ammo was expensive and hard to find. About that time some guy named Phil Shoemaker up in Alaska demonstrated that speed and shot placement can trump all else. So I sold off the 29 and now my ol’ reliable Gen 2 Glock 19 gets the nod, loaded with 15+1 rounds of 147grain Hardcasts.

I dont hike, but when i haul my fat ass up and down the mountain for exercise i carry G21 or P226 in 357 Sig, both max loaded with Lehigh penetrators.

My hiking gun is my everyday carry gun, a Colt Gunsite 1911 in .45acp. My everyday holster is a Davis liberty with a matching double magazine pouch. The magazines are stoked with Double Tap 230 grain hollow points. In snake season one of the spare magazines is stoked with CCI shot cartridges. They cycle the gun just fine and kills small critters dead.

Dave

I recently bought a Colt 3 inch King Cobra. The holster selection out there is slim, does anyone have any options/opinions. OWB preferred. Also google wasn’t really helping.

gunner, you ever broke hide with those screwdriver tips? I’ve heard a fair number of folks say they’re carried but I’ve never had anybody say what they’ll do on flesh.

My only hiking is when I'm at the place in Idaho. I carry this 44 Mag loaded with a 275 gr LFN at ~1000 fps.

Should do the trick.

Saw these Hi-tek coated on Missouri Bullets website if your looking for a little more recoil. They have lubed version as well. 300gr WFN. 18 Brinnel

Missouri Bullets .430 Coated

Lubed

Missouri Bullets link

Also have “Keith” bullets (with beveled base 😧). And have a good looking .40 170gr B18 SWC I’ll probably order and .358 SWC in either B12 or B18.

Dan Wesson Razorback 10mm in a Diamond D guide holster. (180gr HST bullets)

Looks very Nosey in a Roman way Ed.

When hunting in areas with bears or hogs, I've got a XdM in 45acp (14 rds on board and spare mag) in a HPG Recon kit. Otherwise, it is a Ruger mk3 with Volquartsen internals and a Holosun on top. I've lost count of the number of hogs I've walked up on and dispatched with the 45.

When I’m rifle hunting I carry a 4” Ruger MkIII stainless fluted bull bbl. When I’m not carrying a rifle I carry either a G20 or my model 69.

Best I can do is narrow it down to 4 main possibilities. Ruger SR22 if I don't expect critters or people. Ruger GP 100 in 44 Special, S&W Model 69, or Springfield XD 40 if critters or people are possible.

Ruger LCR .22lr

Thanks but I am good having used the same load out of an OMSBH on hogs.

shootem, yessir i have, but only post mortem, i dont post about it or take pics, but shoot the crap out of dead stuff to test bullets from other weapons, sidearms here and rifles in africa, the 115gr lehighs from the 357 sig and 200gr lehighs from 45 acp have drilled holes to exit on deer and pigs from straight across shoulder shots to last rib in to exit behind and even partial shoulder hits, neck shots to drill the spine to exit, even when the ground is providing extra support for the stretching hide, those bullets always find a way out, simply tests telling me they will give long deep straight on chest hits should i run into trouble with a black bear or wild hog.

I hung a corn barrel on the mountain behind the house to shoot pigs, it took exactly less than one damn day for a monster black bear to be caught on trail cam, he's standing there checking out the boat winch that's got 150lbs of goodies suspended he's awfully interested in, the base of the winch bracket is near 5 ft off the ground, pm me your cell and i'll shoot ya a pic, that pic will show the reason i carry a sidearm with those lehighs while bowhunting, or just out with wife for some exercise.

Moose Lake.