.357 or .44?

[kubota tim]

Well here's my .02 cents, buy one. Whatever you find that fits your budget and local availability now. stay away from airweights if your gonna fire full-tilt rounds often. ( I had a airweight .44 mag and it was tough on the hands with heavy loads.) With the wide variety of ammo choices either would fit what you would be doing with it. I've owned many handguns of multiple varieties of calibers, either one of these will serve you well. If your not gonna handload the .38-.357 should be cheaper to shoot but in this day and age of the panic fueled market place all bets of that are off.

It all boils down to this, the best gun is the one that you own. If you don't have one you can't use it.

Bro Tim

[Sides]

I can't decide between .357 and .44. The .357 is better for stopping humans and the .44 is better for black bear. I can't say which shooting situation I'm more likely to be in.

If the .44 is better for bear, how can it be inferior for a smaller human? I have shot deer with a .357, and had them run off and die. I have a .357, I had and sold a .44. If I was facing a charging bear, I wouldn't trust either to drop a bear, I would want a shotgun with slugs. Dropping an animal depends on shot placement. That is a low percentage shot on a charging animal, with a handgun. Black Bear will not be a big problem unless you get in between a sow and her cubs. Most black bears will run from the sound of the gunshot. You list nothing else to worry about.

There are coyotes and feral dogs, but no grizzly or brown bear, no mountain lions (though a few are rumored in some of the areas I hike), no hogs

Go with the .357. With that your wife can shoot it. The .44 she won't want to shoot it, mine didn't. Both the .357 and .44 will pass through a person, so what is behind will always be an issue. With your preference for Ruger, go with the GP100.

[Meathunter]

I personally like the 44 mag the best, and open carry my Ruger Super Blackhawk loaded up with 300 grain Hornady JHP. The Super Blackhawk gives me the ability to fire ANY handload I want and can theoretically obtain 30/30 ballistics out to 100 yards with the right combination of propellant and lead, or they can be pretty dumbed down should I so choose. I went with the 4 5/8" barrel and haven't had any recoil issues to speak of, with the weight being 2 lbs and 8 oz unloaded the recoil just tips up the front end a little and rolls real comfortablty in the hand. The same can not be said for a double action as they tend to kick straight back and in my expierence are much more jarring to the hand and body during recoil.

My thoughts are if you want a single action then go with 44 mag, a double action then I strongly suggest the 357 mag.

Whichever you decide Enjoy! Magnum loads are very satisfing to shoot.

[uutuku]

I have lived and hunted deer in both brown and black bear country since 1969. I have been involved in the killing of a number of bears over the years, both brown and black. Here are a few observations to consider.

1. Bears. both kinds can take a hell of a lot of killing.

2. when being charged you want an instant kill, the only way for that to happen is to pass the bullet through the brain, or sever the spinal cord between the front shoulders and the brain. Any other bullet placement will produce un-predictable results. Every bear I have shot, or seen shot through any other part of the body either ran off into the woods wounded, or had to be shot again, through the head.

So it's not so much what caliber you use. it is two things, the power to penetrate deeply in a straight line, and precise bullet placement. A friend of mine shot a mature male black bear a few years ago with a .44 mag. He was shooting 300 gr hard cast bullets at top velosity. He shot the bear four times at about 20 yards. All four bullets passed clear through the bear, One broke a front leg, one passed lengthwise through the chest and out through the hind leg. At each shot the bear went down, but got right up and kept moving towards Fred. I finally killed it with a 45/70 350 gr round nose through the neck bone just behind the head. Both of the through the body shots would have eventually been fatal, but eventually don't cut it when someones life is at stake.

Another friend was with two other people and were charged by a Brown bear. Two of the men were armed with .338 Magnums shooting 250gr Nosler partition bullets. They had to shoot the bear 8 times at about ten yards. Both guns were empty after the eighth shot,. Luckly both men had one in the chamber and the magizines fully loaded.

My advice is to start with light loads and practice practice, practice, till you can hit a two inch circle every time at about ten feet. Practice on uneven footing in various postures and holds, one handed and two handed. Study bear anatomy until you can visulize the kill zones. The brain and the spinal cord are about the size of a large orange on a 8 inch broom stick. The skull is wedge shaped from front to back, and can deflect soft nosed bullets. A keith style hard cast bullet is best, It doesn't make a very large wound chanel, but penetrates deeply in a fairly straight line.

In my humble opinon the best bear protection is a 12 gau pump shooting Federal Preimum slugs. Absolutly no buck shot, and no folding stock, pistol grip movie guns! Might work sometimes at really close range, but sometimes isn't good enough. I will probably catch some flack for that. but it's my opinion based on penetration tests and experience. A shot gun also works for home defense with bird shot.

If you want to see what a large predator charge looks like go on you-tube and do a search for "lion charge"

[Crazysanman]

I have a 12 gauge shotgun but I'm not going to carry that with me on 10 mile hikes in Virginia. My main concern with black bears is not realizing I spilled some of dinner on the top of my sock or forgot about that candy bar in my pants pocket and having a bear come into the tent at night. I always carry bear spray, but I'm not about to spray in the tent and a shotgun wouldn't be good in a collapsing tent either.

As far as the .44 on people - stopping a charging bear and stopping a person require completely different ballistics. When you are stopping a bear you want a heavy, non-expanding fast moving round that will penetrate deeply to strike the central nervous system or to break structurally important bones so the bear cannot support itself. When you shoot a person you want maximum shock and trauma, you want to open up a big wound channel with expanding or fragmenting bullets that will stop inside the body. A .44 will mostly over-penetrate and exit the body. Not only does that reduce the energy the body absorbed (and therefore the damage done) but it then has the chance of striking one of my kids or my wife or someone else in the house. Tests like the Strasbourg test have shown that a .357 has more stopping power than any other tested caliber because the round delivers it's full energy load into the human body.

[pap11y]

I found the .44 a bit unwieldy and don't think I couldn't put rounds in the same place in quick succession. My group was much larger.

The .357 would be my choice because you would be more likely to put the 6 rounds in the same place (assuming its a revolver)..

[Sides]

I have a 12 gauge shotgun but I'm not going to carry that with me on 10 mile hikes in Virginia. My main concern with black bears is not realizing I spilled some of dinner on the top of my sock or forgot about that candy bar in my pants pocket and having a bear come into the tent at night. I always carry bear spray, but I'm not about to spray in the tent and a shotgun wouldn't be good in a collapsing tent either.

As far as the .44 on people - stopping a charging bear and stopping a person require completely different ballistics. When you are stopping a bear you want a heavy, non-expanding fast moving round that will penetrate deeply to strike the central nervous system or to break structurally important bones so the bear cannot support itself. When you shoot a person you want maximum shock and trauma, you want to open up a big wound channel with expanding or fragmenting bullets that will stop inside the body. A .44 will mostly over-penetrate and exit the body. Not only does that reduce the energy the body absorbed (and therefore the damage done) but it then has the chance of striking one of my kids or my wife or someone else in the house. Tests like the Strasbourg test have shown that a .357 has more stopping power than any other tested caliber because the round delivers it's full energy load into the human body.

That is not true. Stopping or killing is about shot placement. The last thing you want to do, is injure a bear. An injured bear is way more dangerous. I have taken deer with both .357 and .44. They both pass through the animal, leaving two holes to bleed from. The only real difference is the size of the hole left behind. I hunt with Hornady XTP bullets. XTP bullets stay together on impact, even on most bone strikes. They typically double in size on impacting flesh. The deer shot did not get knocked down, they ran off. The farthest a deer ran was about 75 yards, with either caliber. My .357 travels at 1265 fps the .44 was 1088 fps. The .357 is more likely to pass through. Do not believe Dirty Harry when he said the .44 will take your head clean off. That is hollywood B.S.. It doesn't matter which caliber you shoot, the physics are the same. The bullets act the same, one is just bigger than the other. The main thing is you want a bullet that retains it's weight on impact. The report you list doesn't even list the .44.

A black bear will rarely charge you. They will most likely run away from you, or climb a tree. When you talk about a charging bear, you need to think about that. A bear charging, you would most likely be shooting at it's head. The thickest bone on a bear is it's skull. The bigger the bear, the thicker the skull. The top of the skull is slanted. The bullet could glance off. Your non expanding bullets leave a smaller hole, and do not transfer energy like a bullet that expands. If you read hunting regs. non expanding bullets are illegal for hunting in most states, because they are less lethal. They are required for military use, by the Geneva Convention.

I have woken up with a bear's nose pressed against my tent, in the Boundary Waters at 4a.m.. It is scary to say the least. The best thing you can do is make a lot of noise. My wife and I started yelling, and the bear backed off. We got into our canoe, and watched the bear. He left when the sun came up.

[bharner]

Have you looked into a 10mm? Personally, I'm a sucker for .357 and .41 magnums but using them for home defense scares me. I do have JHPs for both but they're some darn powerful rounds.
10mm gives close to the same performance as .357 but has a better selection of defensive ammo for home use.
And the recoil out of the 10mm isn't bad at all. On par with a .357, possibly a little less. A buddy of mine has a glock in 10mm and inside of 50 yards it's every bit as accurate as my .357.

Tapatalk ate my spelling and grammar.

[Bedford Ranger]

I know ammo availability is an issue across the board right now, but ive seen 38's at my local walmart just today, and in a worst case scenario, one would be more likely to find 38's or 357's on the shelves of the small hardware stores and mom and pop type places. cause theres tons of 38 revolvers out there and it was once very popular and very common not that long ago. food for thought for ya bud.

[Lucky44]

I would vote .44 simply for the variety of uses. With a Ruger in .44 you could hunt larger game if need be, and knock down most things on 2 or 4 legs. Elmer Keith proved how versatile it really was. You have the advantage of shot shells with more BB's in them with a .44 and a gigantic range of bullet weights and styles. Also if you reload there are a lot of powders that make shooting very economical. I am biased as I love the 44 special. Ruger makes a very nice Redhawk if you like a lower weight revolver and a short barrel Super Redhawk also as well as some very strong single actions. They also pair nicely with their bolt action rifle or one of many lever actions and in that respect will make a better hunting rifle. Just my opinion, but that's the rout I went and I haven't regretted it.