For backup you take a pair of running shoes and someone you can out run.
There were lots of smooth bores back then, They could be loaded with a ball or shot which made them handy for the guy with one long gun. Smooth bores loaded fast as well. A friend of mine was a descendant of Daniel Boone's sister. He inherited a flintlock smooth bore that belonged to her husband. It was bigger than 60 caliber. We shot it and a 50 yards we could have pissed off a bear.
The cool thing about that gun aside from it's simplicity and plainness was that you just know that when the guys were out shooting Daniel Boone shot his brother in law's gun. I got to hold Jim Bridger's Hawkin at a museum in Montana too, but that's another story.