One of my favourites for bush trips is my Marlin 44 magnum. I did have a 44 mag Ruger Super Black Hawk with 7½ inch barrel, just like someone described. For at least two years I had a permit to carry it "anywhere in wilderness BC." But really, a light rifle, like the Marlin on a sling around the neck, is just about as handy as a big pistol on the hip. Yes, I could shoot the Ruger and have trophies won in silhouhette shooting (to 200 metres) to prove it. But the Marlin is a good 200 feet a second faster than the Ruger and certainly easier to shoot accurately.
I never had to use either in defence, but an incident once proved the speed a rifle can get on target. I was ahead as two of us were coming down a mountain on a bit of a game path. There was grizzly sign everywhere. Suddenly a bush about ten feet ahead came to life with a great noise. On my shoulder was a 30-06 with good peep sights. The next thing I knew was a big blue grouse rooster landed on the path about twenty feet ahead of us. Somehow, that rifle had come off my shoulder and as the rooster landed on the path I had the safety off and blew his head off. Scared, yes, we thought sure it was a grizzly right in front of us. But the rifle was off the shoulder, safety off and aligned on the bird as it landed, after flying about ten feet.