When I lived in Colorado Springs, I always had a 4 inch 44 magnum of some kind when I was at my favorite place-grizzly Gulch near St. Elmo.  I would backpack in and stay up there for days in the summertime. I will do it again this summer Lord willing.

I'm not part go the G 20 Bear Brigade how ever in the Lower 48 your not going to run into a 12' Brown Bear and a Mountain Lion is just another thin skinned cat, I would probably carry my G 20.

G20SF
Mine has a Lone Wolf extended barrel and I carry hand loaded hard cast.

Nice to hear about your experience in Wyoming. Perhaps you are old enough to remember when people would tell you "there are no bears in the Winds". I am. I also have pictures of bear tracks taken at Timico Lake forty years ago.
Picture I posted of a climb was the summit of Middle Teton. I saw bears twice that day- once on the way up before dawn, and once on the way down, surrounded by camera toting tourists.

I spend a lot of time in southern Arizona hiking and doing photography, most of it pretty close to the border. For years I carried a G21, in  flap holster. I could never get completely comfortable with it, what with thrashing around in brush, and climbing. The Glock trigger and a round in the chamber gave me pause. Then there were the transitions from pack to belt holster, etc. I now carry an HK USPC .45 in that situation. The DA/SA guns seem just a bit safer to me in that role.

edit: I have to throw in my .02 about bears: years ago, in northern Canada, I stopped a charging bear with a firearm. This was before the days of bear spray. I used a rifle. I have a strong feeling that handguns are marginal in that role. I think bear spray is the way to go. Nevertheless, I often have a handgun along with the bear spray. I'm the kind of guy who will wear a belt AND suspenders, though. The bear spray is what I would use in a pinch. Except when I am out with my wife. I have the gun in case the bear gets ahold of her. Then, I will not be spraying the back of his neck, I will be shooting him in the ass. FWIW.

Glock 20 FTW

I met a guy who used up two entire Glock mags full of 40S&W on a Grizzly encounter.  He could have used even more if he had them.  So yes you can get off more than 6 rounds on an attacking bear.

I have no doubt.

It's pretty hard to tell a false charge from a real one, until the critter is shredding you.





If I "knew" I'd be facing a big hard to stop animal with an attitude, I'd want something with some horsepower. The problem is that we cannot predict the species we will encounter, nor when.


I love .44 Magnums, and have a fair assortment of packing guns, but on days when I am summiting peaks (like in the pic above), I'm not inclined to carry that kind of weight. Heck, I even try to figure water consumption, food rations, etc.

When your last  scramble looks like the pic below, I ditch practically everything....

This thread needed more gun pics....  4"  29-2




5" Model 29, 44 magnum
4" Model 29 .44 magnum,
Glock 20  10 mm and
Glock 19 9mm,
all in Milt Sparks leather...

Not somebody who only brought 6 rounds

Some weights:
S&W Mountain Lite loaded with seven rounds of .357: 1lb 11 oz.
G20 with 15 rds of 10mm: 2lb 8oz.  A loaded magazine weighs 12oz
S&W 686 4", 6 shots: 2lb 11oz
S&W 686 6", 7 shots: 2lb 15oz
Ruger Redhawk 44Mag with 6 shots: 3lb ohgodbringyourwheaties 12oz

I know you said weight is a issue but why not shoulder a nice lever action

Glock 20 with Buffulo Bore hardcast (or similar load) or the Smith 329PD.

When you are at 13,500' above MSL and have 500-700' more up to walk I would like to see you with that lever action at right shoulder arms.
Most folks would be using it as a walking stick; desperately looking for the next air molecule to suck in. It is JUST TOO MUCH WIEGHT to carry for only a off chance encounter.

If you want the best of both; power of 44 mag, light weight of a Glock. That option would be a Glock 21 with a 460 Rowland conversion (for a few dollars more). But it does have both. With the heavy loads it has just over 950 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle (255 gr hard cast bullet).

You just better hope you never have to shoot that thing with out ear pro.

I  packed a Desert Eagle 44 mag loaded with 300g hardcast in a shoulder rig anytime I was in the back country with a bow.  Thing was a beast  I never felt like I was undergunned.

I've never shot a 44mag but I would take the 10mm over the 357 any day.  Better hole, better recoil feel.

Your numbers look spot on to me. After owning much of the above, I still prefer the power and reliability of the .357 however.

Another option is to cut down a Ruger Super Redhawk to 4.5-5". Weight would probably be just a shade more than a fully loaded Glock 20. They make a .454 distributor exclusive version, but no .44 as of present. That 5" 'DE' version weighs 47 oz with unfluted cylinder, but I imagine a fluted version in .44 at around 44-45 oz.

That sentence was said by NOBODY EVER, who has done any real long range, high altitude mountaineering....

When you spend 5 hours hiking, going nothing but up, up, up, before you even get to the real climb, then still have thousands of vertical feet to ascend, the absolute last freaking thing a person would want is a long gun.

As an example, the mountain in the background takes an average of 12 hours to summit and return (if you are in excellent shape). You will ascend 10,524 feet from trail head to peak and back. You will cross scree fields, cornices, questionable snow bridges and knife edged ridges. Some places, one slip and you will fall more than 1,000 feet..  not a place I want to be screwing with extra weight, let alone a freaking long gun.

Once again, though well intentioned, I believe some posters, through inexperience, do not recognize the difference between mountaineering and hunting. Walking around the woods with your desert eagle, looking for a nice elk, has only limited crossover with peakbagging.  

Nothing wrong with either, and I am an avid hunter, as well as long time climber.





Speaking of crossover, here is a 5x5 bull taken at last light with one of my 5" Model 29s.

Damn... I have never seen the Elk so well armed.

I respect the right to arm bears.... and elk.  

A few years back I was hiking solo into the Wonder Mountain Wilderness.  Bear in mind that there are no trails into or within the wilderness, it's all cross country navigation through steep terrain.  One of my biggest fears (much bigger than anything on four legs) is the heavy pack tumble.  That year we never got warm enough all summer to melt off the snow in the shadows.  I stepped out on a small patch of snow, lost my footing, and tumbled end-over-ass about 50' straight down the hillside.  I landed on my butt, sitting up- did the ops check of all my muscles and joints and was genuinely surprised nothing was broke, dislocated, or hyper-extended.  I was solo with a three day two night stay at the lake, so if i had gotten hurt I would have had to lay there for at least four days and three nights before help arrived if they could even find me (remember, no trails there).

Light is right.  

Wonder Mountain Wilderness, Lake 3995:

If you want to save some weight consider a S&W 329PD .44 mag. I have one & like it when going UP a lot.

I can also carry a G29 with extended barrel as part of the 10mm crowd.

Beautiful pics mainsail

We've had Black Bears try to get into our mountain home (cabin) in late January and February in Highlands, NC. They will steal your dinner on the grill (if left unattended), your garbage and/or make their own entry thru your garage door to get said garbage when hungry. They aren't afraid of humans, (scary as hell), and are more than curious about you, your dog, and the fish you smell like after kayak fishing half the day... So, I converted my "NM" serial numbered Springfield 1911 from .45acp to .45Super. I swapped the 16lb recoil spring to a Wolff 23lb recoil spring as well as added Wolff extra power magazine springs to keep the mag cycling fast enough to stay ahead of the accelerated slide velocity, with 100% reliably. That's all it took to make a perfect functioning pistol. I use Buffalo Bore's (255gr) lead hard cast rounds hitting at 1100fps. They are very accurate, hit hard & deep, and best yet the recoil is surprisingly very manageable. It feels like I'm shooting .45acp+P. I carry McCormick 10 round Power Plus mags for a total of (10+1) in the pistol plus a reload for a total of (21) rounds. It's holstered in a Comp-Tac Minotaur IWB holster that's easily the most comfortable holster I've ever worn in the 3:30 position. This is what I've chose to wear to protect me, my family, dog, and property when we're up there. OP, a 10mm Glock G20sf is a pretty good choice especially with Buffalo Bore's 200 grain ammo running at over 1100fps. I personally felt my 1911 I've converted to .45Super with said loading; hits harder with a heavier hard cast bullet all with an easier (push-recoil), rather than the snappy recoil of a hot 10mm load. So that is what I went with. YMMV... If you already have a 1911 you might want to consider the .45Super.

If cat is all you are worried about, your g19 will be fine. It's a cat not a grizzly. If you can drop a hog with a 9, you can drop a cat. It'll work on black bear, but you're treading on thin ice there.Your 45 would be a much better choice at handling cat, bear, or human. But this is ARF, and that is not the proper answer. Bigger is better, buy all 3. If you are dead set on buying another gun, either of the 3 you posted are fine. Per the glock and s&w, the glock loaded is basically same as a unloaded 686. Also the g20's recoil is very manageable.

I have a gen 3 g20(not sf) and a blackhawk 44; both bought for backwoods. I carry the g20 almost all the time. The 44 gets carried less and less nowadays. Sometimes I'll carry it hunting, just to change. When I'm hiking or camping, the glock is all I carry. I don't 14, yet, but when hiking with a good belt I can barely tell 20 and 2 mags are there. So I'm going to recommend the glock 20. If you are in grizzly country, the 44 is probably the smallest I'd carry.

If you get the glock and are going to shoot heavy lead/hot loads, upgrade recoil spring, get a 6in lone wolf/barsto/storm lake barrel. You can shoot lead out of the stock barrel, but an aftermarket will shoot it better.

It's both cats and bears that I'm concerned about. Down here in Colorado, the black bears have been coming into camps up high the past few years. They're even getting smarter and finding out ways to pull down the food caches that are being hung very high between the trees. Could be that there are many more folks out in the back country and they get lazy, keep food in their tents, don't cache their food properly. The bears figure this out and woila, you get bears not only in the trees, but in camp and in and near the tents as well.

Plus when I head north to Montana and Wyoming, in brown bear country, a backup and bear spray are what's needed.

It's been a good thread as I've mentioned previously. It's good to see that there are quite a few real hikers and climbers among the group here on the forum. Many of us know all too well about shaving ounces that leads into shaving pounds out of the packs. While I don't go 'ultra-light', I go fairly light and always have something in the pack in case I need to spend the night out on an unplanned bivouac. Have done five of these over the years, three solo, two in the dead of winter caught up high on the peaks. VERY LONG NIGHTS.

So packing another three pounds of pistol, ammo, spare mag and Safepacker holster, that's a decision I take seriously and I know a lot of you folks do as well.

In the meantime, I'm going to carry my Glock 19 loaded with Buffalo Bore 124 +P+ Penetrator Hard Cast. It's winter so only the cats are out.  I could load with my Gold Dot JHP's as well.

I decided to look for a Glock 20SF! Have already made two offers on the forums. They're out there, whether in lightly used or NIB. I'm going to take the time and find the best price and package possible as it seems many bought the 10mm but have decided they don't like it. Their loss, my gain.

Be safe out on the peaks, the approaches and wherever you go! Most important thing I've learned in my forty five years on the peaks is to always... get back home safely!  I've lost friends on the peaks and most of us have had an injury or two while out there.

As Paul Petzoldt used to say... "there are old climbers and bold climbers, but very few old/bold climbers".

Thankfully I've been lucky to not have "encountered" bear or cat on any of my outdoor activities, hunting/hiking/camping, here in Co. Seen black bears half dozen times, but never had to worry. Your choice on the g20 will be good fun purchase. I love mine. Over the counter 10mm ammo is weak, basically 40 s&w. Reload or look for buffalo bore, double tap, underwood for full power hot 10mm loads.

Of your choices I would pick the Glock. I used to pack my Taurus tracker .41 mag when I used to bum around in the woods of northern Colorado. Several times I had Mt Lion tracks in my tracks after a long hike. It will definately make the hair on the back of your neck stand up!!!

Just ordered in to my FFL after the payment clears early next week a NIB Glock 20SF, comes with three new Lone Wolf Barrels: 10mm, 357 Sig and 40 S&W, six Glock 10mm mags, SS recoil guide rod and 22# spring, factory barrel and recoil spring, case, holster, new night sights and about six boxes of Hard Cast and XTP's from Underwood, Buffalo Bore, etc.

Basically a little more than the price of just the new pistol with two mags.

The 10mm platform... is going to get a workout on the range in the next month or so.  

Congrats and enjoy!

CD

Back in the 90's, I was working in a mountain range on the Utah Nevada border when I walked up on a couple of half grown Mt Lions that had just killed a deer. I was carrying a smith model 60 with hot loaded semi wadcutters. Due to the rattlesnakes I always carried a shotshell first up in the cylinder.  

When the lions saw me they split up and one headed directly for me.  I ended up shooting it three times in the chest as it was coming on. I was fixing to crouch down and feed it the last bullet and shot shell at point blank range when It finally fell over and began thrashing around. I finished it off with a head  shot and reloaded while looking everywhere for the 2nd one.  I backed out of the area and headed out of there. I had only brought 5 extra rounds of which two were the shotshells.

The lion were half grown males that that most likely not seen a person, and never had developed any fear of man.  Over the next several years, Wildlife Resource personnel who were monitoring a transplant of big horn sheep in the same area had to put down other lions that took exception to them being there.

After that I carried a 3" Smith and Wesson  629 whenever I was out there. Today I would likely carry a glock of some kind with two or three extra mags.  

That's a pretty nice score. Never minded the 357sig, pretty cool round. Though that would still go up on gunbroker.

I like this answer.

I have the exact same holster and gun. I am totally happy with it.