Neither gun will help you much for Bear Defense. If you want a gun that big, make it a Shotgun. As far as the Ruger 44 guns go, I've got the Tube fed older one. I love it. It seems to like heavier bullets and I feed it 265's most often. The new mini-14 style gun is great but the magazine catch assembly leaves something to be desired. Also, you can't load it with 300gr bullets that are seated out to lengths that still work in my Vaquero (also true of my Old-style). What I do like about the new gun is that it is simpler and cleans easier. It still could have been made easier to disassemble. Further, it's got integral mounts which is much easier than separate mounts you have to buy.
The advantages of the Old gun are that you don't have a magazine that you can lose or spend half an hour trying to put into the gun properly. Mine also has great wood and prints 3" groups at 100 yards which is as good as I can shoot most of the time anyhow.
