Might help if you lay out a few more details of your trip. By "backpacking" trip, are you on trails the entire time, or walking (maybe hitching?) on roads a lot too, or ... ?

If just on trail, I would seriously reconsider both the pistol and the bowie knife. Both are likely very heavy, and at least in my one long distance trip --- and from everyone I met and have talked to about this --- the odds of either of them doing you any good are quite low.

Then I'd suggest looking at gear lists of folks that do long trails, think about the items they list and consider which of those things you might find yourself needing. Or wanting enough to warrant carry the weight.

OTOH, 440 miles in 2 months is about an average of 7 to 8 miles per day, not counting partial or complete days off. So maybe you don't need or want to go as minimal on gear as long distance hikers tend to do today. Depending on the trail, and after my body is fully up to trail shape, I like to do at least twice that per day, depending on trail conditions.

For gear lists, maybe the site we're on has some places for that (?); I know that BPL does, at http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/display_forum.html?forum=37