which side arm?

[3toes]

do you carry a side arm while bowhunting? if so which and what caliber? if not what cal. do you think would be best?

 

[J E Custom]

do you carry a side arm while bowhunting? if so which and what caliber? if not what cal. do you think would be best?

Where/When its legal I like to carry a Titainum 44 special.

It's light and powerful. easy to carry and handy when one of those
big hogs or other nasties refuses to leave this world.

I like it even when rifle hunting hogs because some times a big sow will
show her motherly side if you kill one of her babys.

I once made the mistake of wading in to a uncut corn field with my bow
and proceeded to arrow a small pig. He passed on very fast but not
fast enough .

He started squealing and the corn field came alive with mad hogs, So I did
the smart thing and got the hell out of there.

From then on I carried a sidearm .

Also I tried different pistols and found that the heaver they were the more
tempted I was to leave them behind, so the Titainum pistol solved this problem .

J E CUSTOM

 

[3toes]

J E, i here ya on the weight issue i have a super red hawk 454 casul, its just not practicle or safe in my opinion to climb atree with. i kinda like the springfield arms XDm in .40 . it will be used for bear protection in wi. & colarado what do you think?

 

[TheReeper]

I use a Sig Sauer P220 Carry in .45 cal. Compact and very powerful.

 

[J E Custom]

J E, i here ya on the weight issue i have a super red hawk 454 casul, its just not practicle or safe in my opinion to climb atree with. i kinda like the springfield arms XDm in .40 . it will be used for bear protection in wi. & colarado what do you think?

I like the 40s.44s and 45s because of bullet weight.

I to have a 454 casull but it is very heavy and bulky.

Any of the compact 40s,10mm,44s and 45s should work fine.

But for a backup weapon a wheel gun is hard to beat because of dependability(if you have a missfire you simply pull the trigger again and a new round showes up ready to save your ***.

Don't get me wrong I like my 10mm smith and my 45 raptor but I still carry my titainum 44 spec.
because of weight and power ( the ammo weighs as much as the pistol) Weird but effective.

45 long colt is also a good round but most of the pistols that use this round are single actions
and a quick follow up shot may be nessary.

J E CUSTOM

 

[shooters]

I carry my .41 Titanium and 250gr. Don't even know its on your hip. Plenty of power and very light. My choice!

 

[James Jones]

I carry a Glock 21 converted to 45 Super when I'm allowed to carry a side arm , and when we catch pigs its always on my side. I run a 200gr Honady XTP out at 1200fps , it will go to 1300fps but its hard on the brass.



for bear country I carry a Ruger Bisley 5 and half inch built by John Linebaugh himself , its a cannon but fairly controlable , actualy more so that the couple 454's I've shot

I load a 400gr Hornady XTP over 29 grs of W-296 and it gives just over 1400fps MV. I wish Hondays would make a Partition bullet in this diameter at around 350grs , that would make for an awsome combo.

 

[3toes]

so should i get the .45 or is the .40 enough?

 

[Rimfire]

What are you going to use it for? It's hard to pick a cal without an intended use. In general handguns aren't worth a crap as back up. If you are going after wounded animals that can hurt or kill you a slug gun or large cal rifle is best. You will never see a PH use a handgun as back up BUT if it is all you can use and it is for dangerous animals I would use the largest I could shoot. On that note i've shot deer wiith a 9mm 40 and 45 and was not impressed with any of them.

 

[shooters]

As reliable as some may say, I would stear clear of a semi autos if you are in bear country. I'm sure someone will chime in and say diff. I would also highly recommend a .40 caliber up. My father in his younger days while guiding for bear and moose in AK would never allow any client to enter his camps without a .300 or bigger and if carrying a side arm, it had to be .40 and up. He has been in many situations that could have been prevented with a bigger caliber or better shot placement. Even though shot placement is key, you can't always make a great shot in certain situation, and that is when you need something with some knock down power. I live here in Montana and there was a bowhunter a few years back that pumped several .357 rounds into a bear that did nothing but anger the SMALL boar even more. Unfortinatly, he did not survive the attack. He had an elk on the ground that the bear wanted.

 

[grpolarbear]

I like a 4 inch double action revolver in .44 mag or .45 long colt.Shoot heavy hard cast bullets around 300 grains.For sure there are more powerful rigs out there but some are a bit hard to carry and may have a tendency to cause a guy to flinch.

 

[elkthumper]

I carry a Taurus Tracker in 44 mag. It's a 5 shot double action in stainless with a 4 inch barrel. It's fairly light so I don't feel I should ever leave it behind. It's also ported so it's not to hard on your hands.
For bear protection the 40's or 45's do NOT have enough whop. You need a 44 mag and up. This pretty much leaves out the auto's unless you try a big desert eagle but then you won't want to carry that.
For stricktly bear protection the 500 s&w would be the ultimate if you felt you could shoot it effectivley in a crisis situation but it's very heavy. If I could pick any one handgun for bow hunting it would be the titanium s&w in 44 mag, ultralight and tons of knock down power.

 

[jmden]

I ran across an article recently in Petersen's Handgun Hunting that had some stated minimums for black bear handgun hunting: 200g bullet, at least 1000fps, at least .40 cal. Double Tap sells .40 S&W ammo loaded to 1050fps (4" barrel, 1100fps with 4.5" barrel) with a 200g Hornady XTP. Many handgun hunters seem to use the Hornday XTP--slower to expand and better to penetrate than typical defense bullets is my understanding. Obviously, this DT ammo is just over this 'published minimum', for what that's worth. Stopping a mad/scared bear is probably a good deal different than hunting one, however. Just some info for thought that I ran across. I still think I'd prefer to carry a .41 mag or 10mm at least, but the numbers from the DT ammo above are getting very close to standard 10mm loads numbers. It must be loaded a little hot.

 

[3toes]

thank you for taking time to reply, 44 mag wheel gun it is!!. by the way did you happen to see the pics of the mnt. lion in spooner wi?