I've been a handgun hunter since '65, and I always bought magnum handguns in the longest barrel length I could get because that's what the maker got the best ballistics out of. The shorter barrels are much harder to shoot at distance than the long tubes, and if you are thinking the 3 and 4 inchers are putting out the same horsepower as the long barrels are, you are fooling yourself. Just my opinion, of course, but I'm 74 years old now, and I've killed a LOT of deer with handguns. If I'm going to take an animals life with a handgun, I want the most horsepower I can get. Not knocking the fact that the shorter barrels are much easier to pack, but they are not for me.