I have been thinking about this for a couple of years myself. As a bowhunter in Az and Elk Hunter is which ever state I am lucky enough get drawn in for the season, I hunt in their backyard. I have always just carried a glock 19 for this case with the attitude that any noise will scare the cat away. Last year in Wyoming I surprised a black bear at 10 yards. He ran away from me and then stopped and charge back towards me. At that point I realized my little 9 will not help much.
With all that said I started to my research and in my opinion want you might want to look at for the purpose of hunting and how the equipment is treated on the mountain is the Glock 20. This is a 10 mm that should take care of all your needs in the lower 48s. And for the price you cant beat it. The mountain takes it toll on your equipment so I would be cautious about using one of my nice guns.
Now from this forum, I have discovered a great site that has the best carrying device for your guns. When you have a backpack on its hard to access your fire arm and their is multiple articles on how the black hawk sherpa has issues. So check them out. I have the runners kit for my pistols with the ravens holster. PERFECT for what we do.
http://www.hillpeoplegear.com/
