best hiking, camping, fishing caliber?

I've logged a lot of miles with a .22 rimfire as well as .45 colt, .38 special, 44 special and .357 magnum. ...and a few with a 9 and 10mm and .45 auto. Every one was a comfort. Most useful are probably the .22s and a .357mag. A cylinder full of magnums for bear country and a pocketful of .38 spls for potting a rabbit covers things pretty well but you can carry 100 rounds of .22lr with greater ease and be be set for most of what a pistol really gets used for. Armed beats unarmed and a .22 in the hand makes bumps in the night less worrisome...but I tend toward centerfires for trail companions these days.
 
I carry a .357 magnum, or .44 magnum when I go up into the Sierra Nevada mountains (Northern California). I use a shoulder holster, cross draw, or even a hip holster depending upon my purpose.
 
If bears are in the area, my Ruger in .45 Colt. Everywhere else it's one of my .38's. The first two chambers in both calibers are loaded with snake shot in warm weather.
 
Depends on time of year. While the bears are out I carry a 4" Redhawk in .45 Colt. When they go to sleep for the winter I mostly carry a .22 on the trapline, but that's going to be up graded to a .32 revolver of some flavor. Probably a Ruger in .327 Fed.
 
S&W Mountain gun in .41 magnum cuz the day I only carry a .22lr, Mr. Bear will show up and have my a#* for lunch.
 
I gave a similar response in another thread. I carry my Glock 30 .45. Mostly because it is easy to carry concealed. Is totally reliable. Nearly indestructible. Carries allot of rounds on board. And it is a $500.00 gun so if it gts banged around it's not like a $1500.00 dollar gun. Plus I like guns with a simple manual of arms. When things go bad I don't want allot of safties to have to play with to get my weapon into action. When hiking, biking, or camping the most problems I'v had has been with dogs believe it or not. For some reason thry hat bikes. And out in the country thry are often allowed to roam free. Just had problems with a person once. It was weird. I was a day and a half back in the woods and this Charles Manson like guy appears out of nowhere with no camping gear and has an old green trench coat on. Looked like he hadn't bathed in years. Wanted to know where we were going to set up camp. Just seeing the Glock made him decide to go elsewhere. That worked out well for everyone involved.
 
Thanks for asking about the shot loads. This also works for 38, 44, 45 and 357 cases. Just the quanities are different.

For the ratshot loads I used 308 gas checks. Trust me, they fit very tight in the cases. I bought a 10/32 all thread from the tool store and made a rammer for the GCs. I cut it about 3" long and it fits in the RCBS dies. I use my 357 seating die for the rammer on the 32.

I used 2.2grs of bullseye powder. I pushed the first GC down to .695 from the case mouth and put in 68grs of #12 shot. Then a second GC on top and a roll crimp on the case. If my math is correct that load has about 280 #12 pellets in it and is a snake killin' dude.

Now if it were legal to do I would bore a 38 cylinder straight through and and use 357 maximum brass and remove the rifling from a 6" barrel. I would do this with a cheap beater gun. That would be a real snake getter. Too bad the law is so silly about something like this. Oh well, dare to dream huh?
 
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