The wife and I both carry 4" 44 Mags in the field. We started with standard 4" S&W's.

We now carry 4" S&W Mountain Guns.

I have a couple of friends with the 329's.

If I had one I would carry either a handload with a hard cast 240/250gr bullet at around 1100 fps or so. As for factory ammo, I have shot the Federal Cast Core 300gr loads in a 329 and that is what I would carry as a factory ammo for bear protection.

In the 329 the Federal Cast Core kicks less ["hurts" less] that the standard full power 240gr Mag loads.