ORIGINAL: stalkingbear
I would humbly suggest a good .357 mag or .41 mag double action or single action revolver with a 4"-6" barrel. It's the world's MOST versaitle handgun. You can use full power loads for hunting or defense,low power loads for plinking/practice,easy to carry,and extremely easy to learn to shoot well without excessive recoil,and fairly lightweight.
I'm going to have to go with the .357 magnum. I have a Taurus Tracker 4" barrel. There are some pretty potent hunting loads from Buffalo Bore for this caliber and all of your standard ammo makers have really good Personal defense loads. When you're ready to do some plinking you can load it with .38 Specials. One of the benefits of the tracker is that it has a 7 shot cylinder. Most will have 6 shots and the smaller frames will be 5. There are other better handguns out there, but I don't think you can beat the Taurus for it's price. Another one by Taurus you can consider would be the Judge. It can be loaded with 45 colt or .410 shot shells. About the same size as the Tracker but the .410 shot shells are great snake medicine and really effective close range personal protection.
Links to Taurus website... First one is directly to the Tracker Second is the Judge
http://www.taurususa.com/products/pr...egory=Revolver
http://www.taurususa.com/products/pr...egory=Revolver