I have always taken a hand gun into the woods,from a 357 colt to a small stub nose 44 mag. Never worried about bears it was more worry about humans, there are some nuts out there. Now I am older, the childern are growen, I worry about how much weight I have in my pack - this last trip to sequoia kings 50 mile loop, we stayed out 7 days, the gun stayed home, my pack weight was at 35 lbs and with 7000 feet of gain and loss on elevation, the extra weight I carried was advil.