>>950591So far you've gotten shitty advice. I'd get a Ruger GP100 revolver with a 4 or preferably 6 inch barrel. Get it in stainless for added outdoor ruggedness reliability.
Easy to carry innawoods, and easy to maneuver indoors for home defense, and you can choose anything from 125 grain hollow points going out the barrel at 1700fps (for home defense against people), to 200 grain Hardcasts going at 1500 (for bears or other animals).
And if you had to conceal it in an emergency, you can still manage to conceal carry it, though not an ideal weapon in THAT regard, but dooable.
It's a do it all gun. Extremely reliable. And around that price range. Truly to this day you can't beat it's versatility.
And to top it off, you can also shoot .38 special from it which is a cheap round you can use for practice and to take smaller animals when you don't want to use the stronger 357 magnum round.
If you want or can only get a long gun, then get a pump action shotgun. Get it smooth barrel so that you can shoot buckshot out of it. Don't get it rifled. You can always use special slugs that work properly in non-rifled barrels
