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If you have a good dog your situational awareness will be greatly improved. You should have a few extra seconds to place your shots. As someone else mentioned, placement is key.
Where are you hiking? In Alaska I wouldn't accept much less than a 12ga with slugs. In New England, I'd be more concerned about two-legged creatures and I'd just carry whatever I normally do. Up here 9mm is fine, honestly.
True.
The worst animal in New England is Man. Then moose. Then black bear. And usually with black bears, just make lots of noise. Carry your normal carry.
It's truly sad when the worst animal you need to worry about in the woods is a human..........saw a lot of people post the same thing and have heard it from others as well.
http://nypost.com/2014/03/19/tibetan-mastiff-with-lions-blood-sells-for-1-9m/That's not a dog. It's a cross between a frickin Lion and a Moose.
All black bears like to do is play around anyways. No need to worry about them.
I wear one of these while hiking:
https://hillpeoplegear.com/Products/tabid/762/CategoryID/1/ProductID/2/Default.aspx
I can wear a backpack and still have access to my firearm. Bear spray and fixed blade camping knife go in the mesh pockets on the outside of my pack, extra magazines go in the HPG rig.
If I am hiking without a pack, firearm sits in an OWB holster inside the rig so I can throw keys/phone/snacks in there and not have to worry about any snags.
up in the white mountains or the green mountains I worry more about Cats than bears. I've heard reports a couple of people barely escape
when skiing out of bounds on the back side of sugarloaf in maine,.....ya I don't need that kind of "encounter".
I carry my XDM 3.8C .45 with ball ammo when I'm out in the deeper woods.
I've recently thought about grabbing a 10mm as a friend let me fire his glock G29
and ...damn l liked that thing.
Local woods in mass or lower NH I just carry my shield or 9C with HST 124 HP's
All black bears like to do is play around anyways. No need to worry about them.
Hard to beat the 29 for a pack gun. Get some Glock 20 preban mags with the X grips for the mags and you've got 15 rounds of 10mm goodness by your side.
I usually carry a .357 magnum revolver while hiking/backpacking in the White Mountains. I don't expect to ever need it, but I also don't expect to ever need my 9mm I carry on a regular basis, but that's sort of the point. I think my chances of needing a .357 in the woods are about the same as needing a 9mm while out shopping or whatever. Extremely low. But if I knew for sure I'd need them I'd just avoid that situation in the first place.
If you think your EDC is sufficient, have at it.
Back around '00 I still had aspirations of hiking the AT. Perhaps someday I will...
I could never do a hike of the AT. Too many people.
Now you've got my attention, I may have to look into that.
S&W 500.. Anything else is for pussies!