Multi Faceted question How quickly am I going to get tired of

Coloradofag here. If you end up going to Colorado, drop as much weight as you can from your pack and add as much water as you can. Altitude sickness comes on fast and is miserable.
Having said that, when I go on extended hikes I carry my Browning A-Bolt in 7mm Rem mag and usually my usp in .357 sig. The 7mm is my elk gun and it's also not very heavy. I have also done a lot of hunting in northern Minnesota but not much hiking, but I'd imagine a short bolt action .308 or something similar would be ideal. The cedar swamps can be tricky to walk through with a big rifle.
Colorado you have to look out for bears and rattle snakes, Minnesota you have to watch for mosquitoes mostly, and the occasional drunk Indian.

I probably wouldn't take a gun, but if I did it would be the lightest, most powerful one possible. Probably like a .357 LCR. It's just over a pound and has enough firepower to be useful. If you look at what other distance hikers do, it's always about lowering carried weight as much as possible. Trying to be under 20lbs, ideally less. Carrying a gun at all is not a good use of weight, carrying a 10 lb rifle is just retarded.

For people with more knowledge than I, post this same thread on >>>/out/ and post the link here so I can watch everyone call you retarded.

>>32750041
>How quickly am I going to get tired of lugging around a 10 lb rifle on hikes?
within 30 minutes you gonna have a sore shoulder. Better get a nice 'Fudd pad &sling' combo, pref one of the 'gel' ones with suede covering.

>preferably mountainous national park.
no guns usually, better check your park's rules, some are only guns allowed with signed letter from chief park ranger.

>My only choices are my PPS 9mm, XD .45, and PTR.
PTR will work, but you better get some comfy pads. Your handgun choices are shit, but the PPS with 124gr FMJ will work for big kitties and butt-raping vagabonds.

>Right now I'm looking at northern CO or northern MN.
prepare for pupper to lose all 4 paws to frostbite, followed by you freezing your ass off along with a few toes.

>what would you take with you?
a motherfucking SATphone and solarpanel battery charger for when your 'I read some infographs on /k/' expedition turns into a "Tonight, on your local news at 4...."

If you wanted to go light, I would look into a 6" .44mag with softpoints and speedloaders/moonclips so you can get rid of that 11lb PTR

>>32750108
Apparently a S&W 360 PD carries 5 .357 mag and only weighs 11.7oz, which is pretty fucking impressive. It costs over a thousand dollars, but you gotta get into the materialistic distance hiker mindset. Ounces equal pounds, after all.

I don't want to know what shooting a 12 oz .357 mag feels like with hot defensive loads. Just rip my skin up

>>32750041
>How quickly am I going to get tired of lugging around a 10 lb rifle on hikes?
If you can't answer this question for yourself then you have no business doing what you think you're going to be doing.

If you are so inexperienced that you cannot answer for yourself how big of a pain in the ass an extra bulky 10 pounds is going to be then you have no business even thinking about lugging it.

You will die of exposure and your PTR will be abandoned somewhere on the trail for someone who is experienced to find and take home to enjoy.

>>32750193
Yeah I just assumed op was gonna wait till spring.
If you want to do this in winter, op, you're gonna want a set of good snow shoes and a very nice sleeping bag. I really wouldn't recommend either mn or co in the winter. Mn is bone splinteringly cold and Colorado is too unpredictable, one moment it's 30 degrees and sunny the next snow is coming down sideways in 55mph winds and at a few inches per hour. It's too easy to get caught in a nasty storm in western Colorado in the winter.

>>32750041
Are you gonna be putting a lot of miles down or are you gonna hike in til you find a nice camp spot and chill for a few days?

Rifles suck to carry long distance, if you're gonna be hiking every day I'd take the .45.

>>32750366
>>32750366
Op here

Not even that much. I was planning on renting a cabin on the outskirts of some mountain town and asking the locals where trails are. I plan on being out for 4-6 + hours at a time. Either hiking the whole time or finding a dope spot to sit and kill a couple hours reading or whatever. I'm not dumb enough to go out into the forest in some random direction for a day and camp out by myself, I just want to go for a few short afternoon or day hikes.

>>32750438
Ah, well in that case take whatever the fuck you want.

>>32750455
That's kind of what I was thinking, but I've never been to a place where the wildlife got much bigger than a badger, didn't know how big the issue would be.

>>32750467
It's generally a nonissue. While I don't live out that way, I do hunt there several times a year every year. I have seen exactly 1 bear at anything other than "I'm looking at the side of a mountain through a spotting scope and there's a bear way the fuck over there" and I've never seen a mountain lion. Those are the only two animals that pose any danger at all to humans.

>>32750041
You'll get no sympathy from me, I carried a SAW that weighed 17 lbs, and 600 lbs of ammo weighing 24 lbs for a grand total of 41 lbs worth of weapon system alone.

Seriously though the saying is ounces = pounds, pounds = pain. 10 lbs isn't that bad but you want to cut out extra weight on long hikes anyway possible that doesn't jeapordize your goal.

>>32750041
I backpack the mountains alone in Central Alberta crown land when ever possible. For the off chance I meet a predator, I carry bear spray as a primary and a Mossberg 500 12Ga as back up with about 10+1 Slugs and 6 00 Buck Shells. My gun, fully loaded with a sling, weighs 6.2lbs and I just keep the extra shells in my pants/coat/side pouch on my pack.

It's cheap, light weight, and I don't give a fuck if it gets beat up/lost.

>>32750103
>>32750265
>>32750308
>>32750592
All good advice
>>32750193
Fellow saw gunner I know your pain. Somehow that thing seemed worse to carry than the 240. Can't argue with how it did work for me when needed though

>>32750592
explodingknees.jpg

>>32751027
I used to be an adventurer like you...

>>32751046
Memes aside keep carry weight under 40lb and preferably under 30lb your knees will thank you past 30