Whats the best camping gun?

[DC-W]

Just thought I'd share this.

A man in Montana stopped a charging moose with a 9mm pistol.
http://ravallirepublic.com/news/local/article_688ec872-7792-11e5-8dce-ab6b66e59370.html

The man was backing down the trail when his feet caught on some cottonwood branches or roots. As he was falling backwards, he drew his 9mm pistol.

“He told me he didn’t remember discharging the pistol,” Berg said. “He shot a whole bunch of times. One shot hit it in the front of the neck, piercing its jugular and esophagus. The moose started to turn and he was still squeezing off shots. He hit it in the side.”

The moose walked off and died about 100 feet away.

 

[PapiBarcelona]

I was at Shyda's in PA and saw some .44 shotshell that I thought about buying for my Alaskan until I saw the price. $56/10 rounds

Didn't see any 38/357, they had 40 and 45 for around ~$25/10 rounds

 

[photoracer]

A lot of the aforementioned will bounce off a full grown grizzly or brown bear's chest. Their skulls are like class III armor plate too.

Not quite but you do need to aim at the correct spots. As a former AK resident when I was a kid, the Buffalo Bore article is spot on. There was a guy back in the late 50's when I was there during my dad's 2nd tour that shot all the NA Big 5 with a .22WMR. But to do it on the predators he had to get in close and had nerves of steel (I think he used a revolver primarily). Used to be a combined trading post/sporting goods place in Anchorage in those days that had a state record bear mounted in the standing position. It was all of 12 feet tall. When I was there the first time (3 yo) my dad used to go on hunting trips with Doc Blanchard to the Kenai Peninsula and he never used or killed anything except with a 30.06.
Just like in SD today the bullet you use makes all the difference. Has to be correct for the game you might need it on. I would be happy with a Ruger .480 revolver, a sort of slightly under powered .475 Linebaugh. I would have loaded my old .41 Rem Mag Ruger hot enough to use 255g bullets at 1450 FPS. Would I use a custom 9mm load? Maybe, because I could carry a lot of bullets, but for me I think it is too light. Mainly because I can't get around as well as when I was younger. I don't think I could survive the 15-30 seconds a bear could still fight from a chest shot.