Best Backpack Guns of 2023 – Into the Wilderness, Outdoors & Unknown
Travis Olander 08.24.23
Hike and camp often enough, and you’re bound to encounter a wild predator or two. Bobcats, mountain lions, bears, even the odd elk bull or moose can pose a threat to your safety. Coming across a bad actor isn’t unheard of, either. It’s perfectly reasonably to invest in a little protection for the trail, and many choose to ditch the sprays and whistles for carry pistols or backpack guns. Which pistols and foldaway rifles are best? Here are our top picks for Backpack Guns in 2023!
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What are Backpack Guns, Anyway?
A backpack gun is any hunting or personal defense weapon, intended for carry on a belt or in a small pack, and most often carried when hiking, camping, or heading into the back country. The phrase doesn’t have a hard and fast definition – it’s more of a catchall phrase for a handgun or rifle that’s well suited for personal defense against both man and beast. We’ll cover the gamut of typical backpack guns: Semiautomatic handguns, revolvers, tactical pistols, and rifles.
Backpack Guns – Taurus 44 Tracker (Best Affordable “J.I.C. – Just In Case” Revolver)
A single, well placed slug of 305-grain hard cast lead will drop even the largest Grizzly or moose. You just need a good revolver to send all that heat downrange. The Taurus 44 Tracker became my personal backpack gun for trips to Yellowstone and Alaska. It’s been a dream to shoot with one modification: The factory grip isn’t great, though this is remedied with a $30 upgrade from Hogue. Beside the weird, mushy factory grip, the 44 Tracker shoots like a more expensive magnum revolver. It has a smooth, crisp trigger that feels about as nice as the trigger on my Super Blackhawk Hunter. It has a smooth, tactile cylinder with solid lock-up and it yields tight groupings at 25 yards.
Porting at the muzzle keeps the recoil quite manageable, and the action feels great in DA and SA. The tolerance between the cylinder and chamber’s tight, and I’ve yet to see any evidence of flame cutting after sending plenty of hot loads through it. Some say the 5-round capacity is a no-go, but I disagree: If you’re facing down dangerous game and you have to send more than five rounds of .44 Mag down the tube to save yourself, something’s wrong: It’s your lack of range time and practice under pressure. The gun is fine. At a little over $500, the 44 Tracker is a steal for those who want a good, reliable, accurate “just-in-case” revolver without breaking the bank. Other decent magnum revolvers will drain $800 to $1,000 (or more) from your wallet.
Backpack Guns – Taurus 627 Tracker (Honorable Mention)
“But .357 Magnum isn’t enough to drop a bear!” Said so many armchair experts. Those people are wrong. I encourage you to read this article detailing nearly 40 instances of hikers, campers, and woodsmen dropping bears dead cold using .357 revolvers, 9mm and 10mm pistols, and everything in between. Onto the Taurus 627: Maybe you prefer a bit more capacity than the 44 Tracker, but you still want some magnum heat. That’s where this 7-round revolver comes in handy. The 627 is practically identical to its larger brother, save for chambering Clint Eastwood’s favorite round.
Like the 44 Tracker, this writer can attest to the 627’s crisp trigger, snappy DA/SA action, and reliable accuracy with good recoil mitigation thanks to its ported barrel (I rented both revolvers at a local range). Unfortunately, the 627 suffers the same smooshed grip as its larger counterpart, so you’ll want to swap those out for some Hogues. At just under $500, the 627 is also a steal among so many other .357 wheel guns that demand $800 or more.
Backpack Guns – Glock 20 (Best Auto Backpack Pistol)
Any GLOCK will provide utter reliability when you need it most. The G20, in particular, is perhaps their best personal defense pistol. With 15 rounds of 10mm Auto waiting in the wings, you’ve got loads of power in an easy-to-use, proven handgun platform that’s trusted by literally millions of law enforcement, military, and ranger personnel. The G20 fits neatly into the Goldilocks zone for a backpack pistol: It’s large and heavy enough to mitigate recoil, but it’s small enough to yield a manageable holster carry setup. Its 4.6″ barrel provides excellent accuracy, but it’s still more compact than all the 5″, full-size frame handguns on the market.
Some argue 10mm Auto isn’t big enough for a chance encounter with dangerous game. But a few hard cast 200-grain loads from Underwood will absolutely make any large North American predator think twice about attacking. If those don’t instill enough confidence, you can grab RBCD Performance’s extra spicy 77-grainers – they offer around 1,000 ft. Lb out the muzzle. It should go without saying, but even the standard 10mm JHP makes for one helluva personal defense round for any human aggressor, too. Grab your G20 for around $600, plus tax and fees.
Backpack Guns – Ruger 10/22 Takedown Backpacker (Best for Small Game)
To some, a backpack gun is nothing more than a convenient foldaway tool used to take small game. Ruger understands this well, which is why they transformed their legendary 10/22 into a takedown rifle. The backpacker’s variant of Ruger’s timeless rimfire rifle sports the same basic receiver and barrel as any other 10/22. Assembled, the Backpacker provides a 16-3/8″ barrel with four 10-round rotary magazines, three of which store handily in the hollow stock. In spite of its extra functionality, the Backpacker weighs about the same as any other 10/22 variant (around 4.5 pounds). When broken apart for carry, the rifle measures just under 20″ in legnth, allowing it to slip easily into most standard backpacks and hiking packs. The barrel and forward grip click neatly into a cut-out in the bottom of the stock, keeping the assembly together when carried. Assembly and tear-down takes just a few seconds, with no tools required. The Backpacker is a neat little rifle that we reviewed separately. Read all about it here.
Backpack Guns – Kel-Tec Sub2000 (Best Folding Pistol Carbine)
The Kel-Tec Sub2000 does, admittedly, look out of place as a wilderness rifle. But is is a functionally great pistol-caliber carbine, and 9mm is accepted as a great “do-it-all” round. With a 16.25″ barrel, it maximizes the velocity and accuracy of 9mm. It folds into a compact package measuring just 16″ long, with no tools required. Thanks to blowback operation, the Sub2000 is reliable and makes short work of any 9mm JHPs, FMJs, and +P ammo without much ado.
The Sub2000’s factory GLOCK 19 magazine provides 15 rounds of capacity, but aftermarket mags can be bought that double up to 30 rounds. An adjustable stock provides plenty of options to dial in length of pull, and the integrated handguard provides some rail estate for attachments. The Sub2000 is lightweight, too, weighing in at just 4.25 pounds. The factory iron sights provide an adequate sight picture, though a lack of a receiver rail means you can’t invest in any upgraded optics. The Sub2000 can be had for around $400 to $500.
Backpack Guns – FoldAR MoBetta CCR (Best Backpack AR-15)
FoldAR is a newer, little known Texas company making some pretty badass folding AR-15s. Sure, there’ve been plenty of stock conversions that allow you to separate the buffer assembly from your receivers. But few companies have made a proper AR-type breakdown rifle that separates at the receiver and barrel – until now. The MoBetta CCR from FoldAR does just that: It ditches the conventional barrel nut and receiver extension for a tool-less setup that also separates the gas tube from the bolt carrier key inside the upper. Two steel pins engage when the rifle is folded open, locking the barrel extension inside the upper, reconnecting the gas system with the bolt, and allowing the bolt face to interface with the star chamber.
It’s an impressive design that seems to work quite well. To break the rifle down for storage, just slap the lever on the left side of the handguard, in front of the ejection port. This disengages the locking pins and allows the entire front half of the upper assembly to fold up against the receivers. Besides its tool-less folding functionality, the MoBetta CCR looks and functions like any other AR. It uses a standard lower receiver assembly and buffer system, and the upper receiver is no different from any other modern, flattop upper beyond the extra pins. A typical free-float, M-LOK handguard is provided with a full-length top Pic rail.
FoldAR makes available ready-to-fire rifles for a little over $2,000, or you can modify an existing AR lower assembly with a folding “MoBetta” upper for around $1,300. Uppers and rifles are currently available in 5.56, 300 BLK, and 6.5 Grendel. The company also produces an SBR that incorporates a folding stock for even great break-down functionality — but you’ll need to drop a cool $2,700 and grab an NFA tax stamp, first. Obviously, we haven’t come close to covering all the compact, break-down guns you can throw into a backpack. Check out our top picks for takedown rifles to see even more options.
