Hello, this is my first post here so I'll tell you a little about my situation.

I live in NY where gun laws are a little more strict than other places. I have $600 set aside that I was planning on acquiring a pistol permit and handgun with however I found out that the process takes 14 months in my county (Onondaga). I am still going through with it but the long and the short of it is I wont need this money for over a year, and I am not quite responsible enough to put it back into my savings, haha.

I plan on doing a lot of backpacking this summer and want a reasonably light weight long gun that would be able to stop a bear in the unlikely event. The gun would be used more for target shooting than anything else but it would be the one I take with me on over night hikes so I need it to be as light weight as possible.

To sum it up:
-Price range $500-800
-Cannot be a handgun / require handgun ammo
-Needs to be light weight
-High enough caliber to stop a bear
-Semi-auto preferred
-Lever action/bolt action work as well (Preferably a capacity of 5+ rounds)
-I'd also really prefer something more modern, my current collection is mostly WWI / WWII era.
-I am not in a huge rush to buy this, I have a few months, so there is some growing room in my budget.

I really look forward to hearing some feedback on this from an experienced community.

I currently own:
M1 Garand (1943) (30-06)
Lee Enfield No.1 MKIII (1917) (.303)
Lee Enfield No.5 MKI (1945) (.303)
10/22 Ruger (Modern) (.22LR)
Kimber 1911 (Modern) (.45ACP) [Currently kept with my family in my previous State]