Continuing the discussion from You don't take a knife to a chainsaw fight!:
Taurus Judge Magnum, 3" barrel
Not small, but not too heavy. 5 round cylinder, mix and match the .45 Long Colt which you can handload to any power level you want, with any defensive frangible bullet you choose, or choose the .410 shotshell up to a 3" length which will give you 4 or 5 pellets of # 000 buckshot. The .45 LC doesn’t have quite the ballistics of the .44 Mag but you won’t be doing long range target shooting with this piece.
Blue steel, about $420…stainless, a hunnert bucks more. Kinda big to carry unless ya got good leather and some extra padding around the tummy, but fits nicely under yer pillow.