Story of a Field and Stream interview with a forest ranger in Alaska asking about being out in bear country. The ranger said you should always have a pistol with you in case you were attacked by a Grizzly bear.
The next month some old timers from the Yukon wrote back and offered the additional advice that you should first file down the front sight on that pistol. That way it wouldn’t hurt so much when the bear stuffed it up your butt.
Well a 44 mag pistol is a lot better than a .243 rifle any day.