Tips are a bit hard without knowing your environement, animals near you, budget, and shooting skills.
So far I'd say avoid milsurp shit Especially for a hunting gun. A Mosin is cheap, but its overkill for most game and heavier than dedicated hunting lever or bolt guns. .22lr, .17hmr, or .22magnum are good choices for a hunting gun. You might not be able to kill deer often, but a couple rabbits can feed you for a week. Avoid magazine feed rimfires. The most durable .22lr I know is the Marlin 60, best .22mag is the Henry pump or goldenboy.
For the pistol go with either 9mm, .45acp, or .357 magnum. The hick towns near your mountian or whatever will only really have that. I can give a few models to look at depending on the purpose of the pistol.
Some people will tell you to buy a shotgun and a spare barrel. I will say just buy another shotgun if you want both a short amd long shotgun. Barrels are the most expensive part of a shotgun. You can buy an old police 870 or 500 for the cost of a new hunting barrel. 20guage is easier on the shoulder if you aren't very strong or don't shoot much and can be shot on target faster if you're strong and shoot a lot.
Depending on what you hunt, your semi auto rifle can be your hunting rifle. Especially if you hunt things like hogs or or rabbts that like to be in groups or that states don't regulate mag size or bag limits. An AR 15 in .300blk (its the best medium game round but hard to find. Not an issue if you handload) are great hunting guns that can keep off animals killing your crops or rapist hillbillies.

>>15355
Kinda building on the last comment.

Any AR platform gun will do well for you as just a semi-auto. You can get them in the standard 5.56, .300 blackout, .762x39(AK47 round) and even bigger cartridges. The last two are good for hunting game larger than varmint, but a 5.56 is good for varmint and things like coyotes.

Going off the semi-auto and into the hunting rifle area, an M1A (Mil designation M14) can be a pretty good hunting rifle though a touch expensive.

I don't know much about shotguns/pistols. But as far as shotguns go, a 12 gauge will do just about everything you need. Simplistic side, a breach loading double barrel/over-under should be the simplest compared to the pumps or semi-auto shotguns.

If you're talking cheap ammo, a .22LR rifle might be good to get at small varmint like squirrels and rabbits.

If you want to get really sustainable, you might want to spring for a crossbow or a bow (assuming good upper body strength).

For all these things you're probably going to have to head into town though, for the bullets and cleaning material for the weapons (I guess that depends on how often you're using them).

>>15359
An M1A is way too heavy for hunting. The typical hunting gun is for walking far and shooting only a few times. A better option can be had in a Savage bolt gun. Double barrel shotgun are more complex than they seem and most of them suck unless you shell out a lot for them. For innawoods purposes a pump gun is better.

>>15355
.357 magnum would be a good idea for a lever action henry and a wheel gun. can take durr, and useful for self defense against small to mid size predators (cougars, wolves, coyotes, panthers, maybe small black bears.)

Op.
do not, I repeat do not even consider this as a viable self defense calibe against brown bears/grizzlies.
"b, b, but, shot placement."
yeah, you go with that. there's a good damn reason people in alsaka carry big bore hand cannons for anti-bear defense. grizzlies are fucking tanks.

Read the book 1632 from Eric Flint from beginning to end. If you're thinking about going down time then you should learn how to make and Smith your own black powder flintlocks. Seriously, If you're all hermit then having these down time firearms won't be attracting any attention to you. Beside, If the SHTF hits the fan and we lose most of our tech you would have an advantage.

This is /w/, retard.