montanatburg

Here in Colorado, if you shoot with a bow, the law says you have to finish with a bow. check your state laws and verify what you have to finish with. just so you don't get into trouble.

derekt28

Occasionally Browning will produce the BDA 380, which is a pistol. It appears if a distributor will put in a big order for the pistols. I purchased one late last year, and haven’t seen them in the store since.
For protection, I usually will use my Glock 20, or Glock 29 while out in the woods in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or Wisconsin.

rogerstv

How about you learn to shoot better??? A well placed broadhead will kill them very quickly the first time thus alleviating the need to finish them off.

Protection from coyotes and bobcats? Are you serious?

scottycoyote

i have a glock 29 loaded with hot doubletap loads, black bears are the biggest thing im likely to come up on as well as 2 legged critters, the 10mm should take care of any of them and 15 shot capacity is nice. Probably for what you need it for id look at anything from a 45acp or 10mm if you like autoloaders, or 357/41/44 mags if you like revolvers.

SecondChance

Do you mean a semi-auto in .38 Special? The answer is no. It is a rimmed case and autos funtion with rimless cases.
They can chamber a revolver in rimless case such as the 9m or 45, but it take either a half moon or full moon clip ring to do such.

SecondChance

As far as a side arm for what you have described, I am very partial to my .44 Revolvers or my.45's as well. I shoot nothing but hard cast lead 240grn Semi wadcutters in my 44's and 200grn Hornandy Encapsulated Wadcutters in my .45's. Very accurate and give you the energy to break heavy bone or skull when the need arises.
NO HOLLOWPOINTS!!!!!!! The don't give the penetration needed in the lower power handguns to take care of business in a hurry. They are fine as a regular carry round, but if you are after hogs mainly, they just don't cut it. We have a big plastic cup on the butcher table full of broadheads, muzzleloader slugs, pistol and rifle rounds that were stuck in their gristle plates that did not do their job and drop the animal. We yet to have what we shoot fail to do the job and quickly.

OHIO HAMBONE

I like the glock 20 as well 10MM,357mag,44mag if recoil a probelm try the forgotten 41mag any of these should do what you need to do.

Palladin8

4 inch .357 Magnum would be about all you needed for the task you described. Use 158gr jacketed soft points or heavy cast in the 180gr. 357 is cheaper than most other magnum cartridges and you have the benefit of using .38 for target practice. If recoil isn't an issue then you could move up to a .41 or 44mag.

sconnyhunter

I think that what Montana brought up needs to be re posted. This is a possible legal issue, in many states.

Be wary of having a sidearm on your person when hunting with another type of weapon. Some states do frown on this practice.

The Rev

I carry a S&W 40 cal. works like a champ.