Once bears get in the picture (not knocking the .357) I would opt for a larger bore. If they would put 2 & 2 together and figured out who caused them the pain, you could get real busy. For hunting, I would go with the longer sight radius unless you know ahead of time your hunting conditions are fairly close. As far as recoil goes, just fire it until you warm up to it. the rock n roll is harmless as long as you have hearing protection.