I grew up reading outdoor writers from my very early youth and envisioned myself in this romanticized ideal of someday packing a .22 "kit gun" as i hiked/hunted or whatever through the wilderness using it to shoot targets of opportunity, defend myself from snakes, bag a rabbit or grouse for supper, or even to survive off the land. Many years later when I was able to buy a gun like that, I quickly discovered that even shooting the lowly .22 LR out of a handgun for a few rounds without ear protection, leaves my ears ringing.
Over the years, I've arrived at the conclusion T_O_M stated here- except we don't have cougars and only recently have there been black bear sightings where I live and hunt, so I don't actually need a .44 magnum.
I don't understand the seemingly common view of "kit guns." The things people choose seem exactly counter-intuitive to me. If I'm out fishing, I'm not going to shoot something unless it is fixin' to kill me or permanently maim me. About the only options we have for that are bear, cougar, wolves, feral livestock, and real bad large dogs. Those call for a .44 magnum, not a rimfire. If the problem is snakes, if I can hit them in the head with a pistol, they're not doing anything that warrants shooting them in the first place. If I truly need to shoot them, then I need a shotgun with quail loads ... like low base 12 gauge 3-1-8s.
My fishing gun is my short single action .44.
So, I've arrived at the conclusion that I need to decide before I leave for a hike or whatever, what the purpose of the gun is. If it's to shoot targets of opportunity and maybe try to bag a small game animal or two, I need to either bring ear plugs or take a suppressed gun. If the purpose of packing is to have a gun for my personal comfort/ security while I do other things, where the most likely predator that I would encounter would be the two legged kind, I want something more powerful than a .22 LR.
For the former purpose, I have a 22/45 Lite & suppressor. For the latter, I would've gone with my 5" aluminum frame 1911 until recently, but I bought a 3" S&W 60 that I've worked over a little bit and have grown pretty fond of it.
