I have a lil piss ant 41mag I carry around. It only averages 800ft lbs of energy. It has already leveled one bear in a situation I got more confidence in the gun doing it's job than me standing there taking the charge. If bigger makes you feel more confident buy the 500 s&w, but if you can't shoot it well and handle a bad situation you might as well have a .38 pocket derringer to use on yourself.