U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- I live in Idaho and do a lot of bear hunting, backpacking, backcountry flyfishing, and elk/deer hunting. So, I’m always around bears. A good buddy, Ed Sweet used to run the TV show Kid Outdoors. We’d take kids bear hunting. We’d film hunts for his TV show, and I’d write articles on the hunts. When 12-16-year-old kids wounded a bear we didn’t send the kid in the brush to track them, good ole’ Uncle Tom got stuck with that task.
WHY DO I CARRY A SMITH & WESSON 329PD WHEN TRACKING BEARS?
I’d like to carry a Remington 742 semi-auto 30-06 or a 12 ga. with slugs when tracking a wounded bear but every bear that I’ve seen shot immediately heads into the super thick brush. When you’re crawling down narrow trails on your hands/knees and tracking a bear a long gun will get caught up in the brush if you try to swing it around for a shot, so most likely, you won’t even get a shot off. What’s hard for you to plod through a bear can come crashing through at 40 mph, so that rules out tracking wounded bears with a long gun.
Twenty-five years ago, I carried a .357 mag but I have seen too many big bears in my time, so I bumped it up to a .44 mag. Once while still carrying a .357 I was tracking a big wounded buck I came upon him in some tall grass. He jumped up and charged. I ran backward firing as fast as I could, and tripped. He nearly ran over me. The .357 mag. had the same effect as passing gas at him.
After the above, I started looking for the perfect bear pistol. There are many options, so let me explain how I made my decision.
SINGLE ACTION REVOLVERS
Hopefully, everyone agrees a single action is automatically out due to the fact that when it’s panic at the disco, you’ll be lucky to get off one fast shot. Forget single-actions.
HEAVY 6-INCH REVOLVERS
If a pistol is super heavy, you’ll leave it in camp and not carry it when scrambling up mountains. A lot of the big double-action revolvers work fine for killing a bear, but if they are too heavy, then they’re not going to do you any good if left in the tent.
SEMI-AUTOS
Some are going to disagree, but I don’t feel any of the semi-autos are big enough. Let’s start with the worst, the 9mm. We had a cow once go bat crap crazy. I tapped her in the head, and she charged me. I dove under a trailer. She then saw someone else and went after them. I’ve been around some crazy cows and bulls, but this one was actually hunting people like a wolf.
In a minute, she came back to hunt me. Same scenario. This kept on for a while. Finally, I thought that was it. If you draw an X between the poll and the eyes and hit them in the middle of the X, I’ve dropped them before with a .22.
I told myself that I would hold my ground and keep shooting. I shot, and here she came at me again. I hit her in the head 3-times. I dove under the trailer again when she got to 8 feet away, charging me at full speed. Finally, on the 13th shot, she stayed down. I’m not too fond of semi-autos for dangerous game, much less the lowly 9mm.
I know some people have stayed alive with the 10mm, but here are a couple of problems I see with most semi-autos:
- They’re not powerful enough. Bears are not slightly built like whitetails. It would be best if you had a heavy magnum that will penetrate thick muscles, punch through stout bones, and still be intact to do damage in the boiler room.
- Most ammo for semi-autos is either target or self-defense ammo. Not adequate for hunting purposes.
- Semi-autos are more likely to malfunction in wet/dirty situations.
DISCOVERING THE SMITH & WESSON 329PD
After looking for the perfect bear pistol for quite a while, I finally ran across the Smith & Wesson 329PD .44 mag. With the Titanium Alloy cylinder, Scandium Alloy frame, and 4.1-inch barrel, I had finally found the perfect lightweight backpacking/bear protection pistol.
I was elated with my new pistol. But upon my first shooting, I had buyer’s remorse. I cannot tell you how bad it kicks. It was all that I could do to empty it. The next purchase was some Pachmayr grips. I haven’t found the perfect grips yet, but I can empty the gun without crying!
The Smith & Wesson 329PD comes with an adjustable rear sight, and the front sight is a Light Gathering HI-VIZ Red Dot. They’re nice, but I’ve had too many bears in camp at night. It’s hard to line up on a bear in the dark, so I put on a Crimson Trace laser sight.
When hunting/backpacking/camping, I’ll usually wear an Uncle Mike’s canvas belt holster. But you’d never get your pistol out when in the backcountry or up in Alaska flyfishing and wearing waders. So, my go-to holster is my Diamond D leather chest holster. It keeps my pistol readily available and has leather loops to hold a few extra rounds. I also like it for when we’re packing in on horses.
Ed Sweet is the best bear hunter I know, and he likes solid core bullets for his pistol ammo which breaks their shoulders and knocks their wheels out from under them. I like good-performing Hornady Flex-tip/hollow point ammo, so I alternate a solid hunting bullet and a hollow point/flex tip to compromise.
You’ll for sure want two speedloaders and a carrying case. I’ve had good luck with HKS speedloaders, so I’ve never experimented with anything else. Here’s why you’ll want speed loaders. Let’s say you shoot 2-3 times and think he went down. In a panic situation, you don’t want to dig bullets out of your pocket. Dump the cylinder, slam in six rounds, and you’re now ready to take care of business. Some guys are fast with speed loaders. On a backpacking trip, I go with a full cylinder and two speedloaders.
The MSRP on the Smith & Wesson 329PD is $1,329.00. And as usual, we will close with the manufacturer’s specs.
Smith & Wesson combined a Scandium alloy frame with a Titanium cylinder to build the strongest and lightest weight .44 Magnum revolver made. The result…maximum power in a small, lightweight, easy-to-carry package. Smith & Wesson’s large frame revolvers are a favorite choice among handgun hunters.
- Model: Model 329PD
- Caliber: 44 Magnum, 44 Special
- Capacity 6
- Length 9.5
- Front Sight Light Gathering HI-VIZ® Red Dot
- Rear Sight Adjustable
- Action Single/Double Action
- Grip 2 Grips – Wood and Synthetic
- Cylinder Material Titanium Alloy
- Barrel Material Stainless Steel
- Frame Material Scandium Alloy
- Frame Finish Matte Black
- Barrel Length 4.13″ (10.5 cm)
- Weight 25.2 oz.
About Tom Claycomb
Tom Claycomb has been an avid hunter/fisherman throughout his life as well as an outdoors writer with outdoor columns in the magazine Hunt Alaska, Bass Pro Shops, Bowhunter.net, and freelances for numerous magazines and newspapers. “To properly skin your animal, you will need a sharp knife. I have an e-article on Amazon Kindle titled Knife Sharpening for $.99 if you’re having trouble.”
