Over the years, I've carried and shot many large caliber hand cannons in my quest to stay alive living in bear country. Usually, it was a .44 in SBH's or SRH's, .45LC in various forms, and sometimes a .454 in various models of Freedom Arms. I've shot 460SW's, .500JRH's and even the 500 Linebaugh once. But I never really felt that I was accurate enough, no matter how much range time I spent. And fast? Nope. Not. Nadda. Pathetic. And then I started getting older. Not old in years, I guess. I'll just turn 52 next month. But it's been a tough 52 years, and my hands are loosing there dexterity, their strength. Unsaddling horses in cold and rain at a mountain camp sometimes really hurts. My hands will be stiff claws, slow and painful. Not crippled, but not young. To pull a weapon and get off a good shot, then quick follow-up shots off from a short-bbl .44mag or .454 shooting heavy hard cast was not as sure as it used to be. And it was never sure.

Then I found the .460 Rowland. The 1911 has been my town gun for forever. It just points right for me naturally. The muzzle doesnt flip and spin out past my ear, and follow up shots are very, very fast. I carry cocked-n-locked, of course, so the safety is snicked down as the muzzle is coming up. Easy. With the addition of the .460 Rowland to the 1911 platform, I finally found my niche. Is the 460 Rowland as effective, round-for-round, as the hardcast .44 mag rounds? The .454? The .500JRH? No. Of course not. Was that gonna help me in a real world shooting situation? Nope. And 255grn hard cast at 1300 fps aint nothin' to sneeze at.

I faced an aggressive grizzly once in Alaska with a Freedom Arms .454 casull. Let me tell you, I felt terribly under gunned, and was extremely relieved when that hoodlum bear left. I faced it again the next night, but I had a 45-70 in my fist by then. If I ever find myself in the unenviable situation of facing a grizzly with a .460 Rowland in my hand, Im going to feel just as under gunned as I did carrying a .454. But I will feel much more confident in myself, and my ability to manipulate with skill and speed a weapon that is still proven deadly against bear. And how much is that worth?

The are some world-class hunters on here. And some of the finest big-bore pistoleers that have ever existed. But let's not forget that in the end, numbers are just numbers. And the world in all of it's chaotic beauty and brutal reality is actually not run on numbers. And for us guys that live in the lower strata of that reality, what makes an effective defensive weapon depends on much, much more than just a set of bigger numbers.