Your advice please -- and thanks in advance. I realize there's something I'm not fully understanding about the actual bullets themselves used in handguns for self-defense against, say, bears. Is a full metal jacket round better than JHP for game with with heavy coats of fur & hide and skulls of thick bone? In other words, is penatration a much more important issue with big mammals than with human beings? FYI, a good friend of mine is a large animal vet who tells me bear and lions and etc have far, far thicker skulls than the eggshell-thin packages on we humans. Just so you know, I do a lot of extremely long backpacking in North America and have been thinking of taking a pistol or revolver with me. I've had a couple "close encounters" recently (last summer, Wind River Range, Wyoming, and then the Cascades Range in Oregon) in which I would have gotten a lot more sleep with a little firepower by my side. I've done a little shooting and once did a bit of law enforcement. I'm familiar with S&W 357 and various Sigs & Glocks. And flamethrowers or RPGs are just too heavy. Thanks for any thoughts -- appreciate it much and take good care.