To answer your question about the beretta, the tomcat is an excellant compact gun... ...depending on what you plan to use it for. I work in law enforcement and I've owned a tomcat for off duty/undercover carry purposes for about 10 years now. I am also a firearms instructor for my department. The 32 acp round is nothing more than a shorter, less powerful 9mm. 32 acp works great on paper and people at close range. If you're planing on using it for protection against animals, you're better off with the 357. Ballistically, it's a far superior round. In my opinion, if you're going to use a gun for protection against animals, I wouldn't buy anything smaller than a .45 or 44 mag. Now, these are usually heavy guns, (smith & wesson make five shot "airweight" snubbies that are VERY light and I think they make a 44 mag version) but anything less is just a waste of money and a false sense of security.

As for your second question, I like to use a shoulder harness for hiking for a couple of reasons: It is completely concealed under your shirt and under your arm. Because the harness is kind of worn like a backpack, it distributes the weight of the gun in a way so you don't even know you're carrying it. I don't really like carrying a gun on my hip while hiking because personally, it starts to pull my pants down on one side and gets really uncomfortable during the hike. Another way I like to carry is just to simply put my gun in a side pocket on my backpack. One that I can get to by reaching my arm back and unzipping the pocket without taking my pack off.

Anyway, hope this helps. Cheers!