I’ve spent a lifetime fishing, backpacking and hunting in the Rocky Mountains. Living right in the middle of it made even an afternoon trip easy and often, especially before kids and marriage. Now that the kids are grown, I find myself back at it again.
Except for Big Game season when I am already carrying a powerful rifle, I like to have a worthy sidearm with me. When I was very young, it was a Colt 22 Peacemaker and a Ruger Singlesix and soon I moved to larger calibers to include everything else as the years went on. Even a young strong guy quickly learns, really big heavy guns don’t get to go often.
Both Smith and Wesson and Ruger make 5 shot double action wheel guns chambered in 44 Special and both are no longer in production. Smith made the 696 and Ruger the GP-100. If you have had some experience with either or both, which do you think would be the better choice of the back-country handgun?