jmckinley, For what it's worth, two years ago as I was walking a woods edge, a spike buck cam over a rise and was walking straight at me. At about 30 yards I fired. He began to walk a tad faster, but not run, and I chambered another and fired again. That shot struck him dead on fore leg, just below the shoulder, shattered two incehs of leg, drove bone shard into the chest cavity, tore a 1.5" hole in the heart, exited breaking two ribs. On butchering him I found the first shot had entered him just in front of the ham and exited his anus, breaking the hip on the way. This was with my 357 Maximum Handi. The time lapse could not have been more than 5 seconds. Some time practicing reloading your handi will make it far faster than you may think possible. Old timers hunting with single shots would carry spare cartridges between the fingers of their off hand, ready to reload at a moments notice. You'll be surprised how fast a cartride in a left front shirt/jacket pocket can be retrieved and loaded up.
Most of the "follow up shot" crap is just that, crap. With two exceptions, every animal I ever shot moved away so quickly, that even a follow up shot with an autoloader would have been impossible.
While I don't live in bear country, I do think the "dangerous bear encounter" is far, far outblown to the reality. How many people venture into bear country and of those how many have deadly encounters?
? It is a rare event to be sure. Besides, If you can't kill a bear in a deadly encounter with a Handi, a bolt rifle sure ain't gonna make the difference bewtween walking out and not..... not sure that an autoloader would for that matter. It's easy to miss fast. In such an encounter, winning means having a very cool head, enough so that you can plant your feet, take proper aim and put the shot where it will really do some good.
But to each their own.
