Hi I am about to purchase a new handgun. The reason will be for home defense, personal defense (CCW), recreation (target shooting), and occasionally hiking or camping in mountain lion or bear country.
I am interested in these models:

In 9mm Para: Glock 17
In .40S&W: Glock 22
In .357Sig: Glock 31
In 10mm Auto: Glock 20

Please give me your advice on which models you recommend, and more importantly if there are any models that you do not recommend. Thanks.

go to a range that rents em and try em
then c what u like

First of all... 45 is by far the best caliber.  9mm is useless with 40 being the best compromise.

The 22 is a great choice, but depending on your body size, it might be too big to conceal.  If so, the 23 would be the best choice.

Any you mentioned would be fine for most of the uses you mentioned. That said, the only one you can "hope" to use with bears is the .45.

To meet all of your criteria, the Glock 31 is probably the best route to go.  None of the calibers are going to be particularly effective in Bear Country.  If you go with the 6" hunting barrel in the G20, you are starting to get there, but then you no longer have a truly concealable weapon.  .357 Sig and 10mm are going to be expensive at the range.  I wouldn't recommend the Glock 22 to anyone because of KB experiences I have read about (never witnessed).  If you have to go .40 go somewhere other than Glock.  Personally, I think the 10mm is the way to go (minus the CCW criteria).  You can load up 200 Grain Corbon Penetrators on your hiking trips and 135 grain fmj's for targets.  There are several excellent defensive rounds also.  Georgia Arms offers Gold Dots in 155gr @1375fps and Triton Quick Shocks are in the same area.  

Bottom Line, To meet all of the specified criteria you only have two choices (.357 Sig and 10mm)  Given the two I like the ten (minus ccw)!  

You may want to consider the G29.  It is comfortable, concealable (I am a big guy) and offers you a good versatility.  Hope that wasn't too confusing...

Good Luck and enjoy!    

9mm useless?Glock 17,pre-ban mag,cor-bon 115gr hollows at 1350fps useless?My ass!

[i]I'm tilling up the soil
and pulling all the weeds
Then into fertile soil
I'll plant tomato seeds

So now I grow fresh veggies
don't get 'em from a can
The garden weasel changed my life
I'm a garden weasel man.[/i]
[img]http://home.earthlink.net/~thegardenweasel/etron.jpg[/img]

Kind of what I was thinking, but some people will argue with you about it all day long. Actually, until I went and checked I thought you might have stole one of my carry guns. [beer]

For the purpose this gun is going to be used for I would recommend a Glock 21. It is the full sized .45 and is a very nice weapon. For people shootin Ill take a 9mm any day, but when you bring bear into the equation I wouldn't want anything less than a .45 ACP. I would recommend the model 30, but since you are in CA and probably won't be needed a concealable gun I would go for the 21 because of the easier to handle size. I am a kind of big guy though, so the 30 might fit your hand better depending on your size, so don't count it out. Not really much use in taking the model 22 when you could go ahead and get a .45 model. The felt recoil difference is virtually unnoticable.

The best advice is to go somewhere that you can shoot anything that you may be interested in and make your choice from there.

Michael

Yes the garden weasel
the fresh alternative to canned answers.

If you’re really worried about bears, you need a rifle!!  If it absolutely has to be a handgun, then make it a .44 magnum (or a hot loaded Ruger .45 Long Colt).

Other than bears and mountain lions, anything you’ve listed is pretty good.  The more powerful rounds are better for self-defense; the less powerful 9MM is more fun to shoot (and is by no means a weak round).

Basically I agree with cyrax777; rent, shoot, then decide.  

Sadly you are in CA so hi-caps are not really a deciding factor for you.  If you were in a area where hi-caps were an option my opinion is to get a G19, 23 or 32 because you can use both mid-size and full-size hi-caps.  I chose a G23 because I really like the bullet weight range of .40 (155-165gr. loads cover most everything).  Another positive for me is that I can also convert to .357 Sig or 9mm* with a simple barrel change.  

Some people love to bring up kaboom issues with .40 but don't let that sway your opinion.  They just keep talking about the same stories or posting the same photos (some aren't even .40 S&W). When you start digging into these stories you most often find out it's something related to reloads or poor maintenance (failure to remove lead residue).  Glock .40's are incredibly popular among competion shooters in various action events (this is where most kb's [b]of various guns[/b] have occured). Most competition shooters reload for these reasons:

1 - To save money.
2 - To get better, more consistent accuracy.
3 - To gain more power.

If you reload you have to be very careful!!

Reason #1 has kb risk because many people shoot lead bullets to save money and some try and strecth the brass into too many reloads. If you shoot lead in a factory barrel w/out properly cleaning it you have greatly increased the likelyhood of a kaboom. Same goes for reloading the same brass too many times or failing to inspect the cases.

Reason #2, nothing wrong here but if a reloader finds a load he likes he could start cranking out a batch and a simple error of forgetting what powder was originally in the powder drop keg, using the wrong bullets (or a new make w/ a full power load) or even simple interruptions resulting in a possible double charge can cause catastropic damage to ANY fiream!!!

Reason #3, is probably the single BIGGEST reason for kb's!!! Many people push the .40 to the absolute extremes to reach major power factors for competition plate shooting and other events. Any screwup here and a kb can happen. Weak or old brass, bullet depth seating, lead build up in the barrel, etc. could cause a kaboom! Guys testing new loads might go just a tenth of a grain too much or try a different primer or any little thing like that could cause a kaboom.

[i]* The 9mm conversion is done by purchasing a 9mm conversion barrel.  With the .40 cal. Glocks (G-22,23,27& 35 also the .357Sig 31,32 & 33) the extractor comes over far enough to extract a 9mm cartridge from a 9mm barrel. You could drop in a Glock 19 barrel and it would work BUT DON'T!  The factory G19 barrel has a sloppy fit though the 19 & 23 are identical in size, it'll cause un-needed battering on the slide.  Various makers now produce 9mm conversion barrels, these barrels will have the proper outside diameter needed.  No other parts are required other than the addition of Glock 9mm mag (G17 or 19) for most reliable performance.

Consider this conversion for practice purposes or SHTF situations only, don't intend to make your .40 a permanent 9mm![/i]

I have shot several of the different Glock models and I keeg coming back to the 21. This has happened to two of my friends as well.  It is extremly accurate, reliable, easy to shoot, a breeze to clean and proven stopping power.  Try before you buy.

G45

The ONLY pistol on that list I'd care to use on a bear (black bear, not anything larger) is the 10mm.  .45 just isn't enough gun- penetration is too limited.  I'd get the Glock 22, and take a rifle with you into bear country.  The .40 offers everying from 180-grain to 135-grain loads, and practice ammo is almost as cheap as 9mm.  Stay away from the Glock 21 unless you just have to have the .45- it's just too darned big, and contrary to what many think it won't give you any advantage over the 22 or 23.  Since the 21 wasn't on your list, that probably won't be a problem.  If you don't use reloads and keep your 22 clean, kabooms shouldn't be a problem.

                                           Thanks for putting that together.......i thought i saw it.....was wondering too......WTF????????????............[heavy]...in this heat, the fish start smelling right away....but trolling is still a good way to get em`.......[whacko]

I tend to agree with this (being a Glock 20 owner myself) however I would add that for bears (or hunting in general) nothing beats a Glock 20 with the 6" barrel and some custom 10mm loads.  I believe that Ted Nugent uses a Glock 20 to take down big game.

From an interview with the Nuge...



Also, the Glock 20 uses the same frame and the slide is the same size as the 21, so there's no difference there.  The Glock 20 however can, with only a barrel change, become a .357 sig or a .40 so you can shoot cheaper ammo at the range.

Did I mention that 10mm rules?