Long post warning (you should know that about my posts by now, LoL)

<< no one firearm is going to suffice for all situations >>

Of course not. I answered the specific question that was asked with my opinion and the reasons why that is my opinion - in some detail. Since I can't figure out where you were going with your post, I'll amplify my post instead.

In the early 70s Speer came out with their 200gr very large hollowpoint 452 bullet (they still sell it), partially in response to some apocryphal urban legands going around at the time about 45ACP ball ammo fired by stake-out cops failing to put down the odd bad guy here and there (although most of the time it did). I believe that it was the first readily available bullet for the 45ACP that, as near as anyone could tell, reliably expanded in flesh. The current crop of premium 45ACP expanding bullets are far superior and ARE proven to reliably expand, real world. Examples would be bullets like Federal Hydra-Shock (oldest of the new type) or Remington Golden Saber (my personal preference).

Like many others, I developed an extremely hot load for that 200 gr Speer bullet out of a M1911. My 1911 is ramped properly, but trying to hot load that bullet has probably blown more magazines out and grip panels off than all others combined, due to over-enthusiastic modification of the feed ramp that left un-supported case wall forward of the case head hanging in thin air. I NEVER, even then, figured that for a bear load - too light a bullet for the caliber.

But some folks thought otherwise and I recall reading about a couple of fellows who successfully hunted black bear (IIRC, in PA) with M1911 and that bullet loaded to something over 1,000fps. They reported cleanly taking some bears, supported in the magazine article by photographs of bears and some recovered bullets - IIRC, at least one bear expired to a shot that exited the off side. Bullets that were recovered were supposedly expanded to around 0.90" (I think - may have been less - 0.65 seems more likely to me, but 0.90 is what I remember) I believe that the bears were shot from the sides with heart-lung type hits - as long as the bear cooperates by not getting POed for a minute or two, the shot that reliably kill with the least amount of penetration required. It was, and is, a believable story. Lots of caveats, and it never claimed to transform the 45ACP into a bear-defense gun. Oh, it's still used by some boar hunters from what I hear and read, although I personally would be leery of electively shooting a large boar with it.

The current crop of uber-bullets/factory loads for the 45ACP are exceptional and well-proven FOR WHAT the 45 is intended for: anti-personnel. Their depth of penetration is designed to a fair-thee-well for Law Enforcement anti-personnel use, and they perform real-world as-designed. So I conclude that they would be better than the old Speer 200gr on bears if a shot to the heart-lungs can be made without requiring deep penetration (like head-on on all fours). Bear caliber of choice? Hardly. Pot meat gun of choice? Not even close. But I stick to the question asked. Backpacking requires compromises, conciously or sub-conciously, and since human predation is more likely than bear predation back East, a 45ACP is a reasonable compromise. Of course, the VAST majority of hikers carry no firearm and manage just fine...

I have an adequate selection of weapons to choose from and don't routinely carry a 45ACP in the woods. On the RARE occasions I carry my 1911A1 while hiking/backpacking, I stoke it with 230gr factory Golden Sabers unless I'm in a location likely to have pesky black bears. Then I carry handloaded 230gr Hornady truncated-cone FMJ bullets as a compromise - one magazine of those in the gun, and 2 magazines of the Golden Sabers. It's my opinion that the TC FMJ bullets develop a better wound channel than RN ball and reliably penetrate deeper because they are less susceptable to being deflected and veering off inside the target. My opnion on TC FMJ performance, AFAIK, is as yet unproven in that caliber, but has been amply demonstrated in the 9mm; that's the original form factor for the 9mm and the bullet that gave the 9mm its early good reputation in WWI.

In any event, the 45ACP gets the job done on humans, cougars, and lesser animals. With good ammunition, skill, and luck, it probably will get the job done well enough on an average Eastern bear or boar. But it really can't get up over the event horizon of a 255+gr 45 bullet leaving the muzzle at 1,000+fps, so it's a compromise weighted towards the more likely threats. Even those threats (human) are very low probability. I just don't see a problem with what he wants to buy, even though it's not my first choice.

<shrug> The short-barreled DA large caliber revolver options mentioned in other posts would be OK, too - just threat-weighted the other way, in my opinion. S&W is not the only one that offers those kinds of options, FWIW. And there's nothing wrong with a properly fed DA 357, either, although that flips back over to the human-weighted side. And Ted's 40 S&W is great, too, although I would be VERY picky about bullet weight and selection if bears were around - available loads and bullets for the 40 are even more oriented towards anti-personnel than the 45ACP.

The list of plausible compromises is long and I can cheerfully accept many opinions on the "right" answer to his question - regardless of what I choose to do for the reasons I wrote and others that are less relevant to the question.

Regards,

Tom