Advice needed on First Shotgun to buy

Bang for the buck, take the 870 or the Winchester 1300 (I'm a fan of the Winchester, myself). The 12 is the gun to start with for cost and flexibility - you may find that you like it so much you don't bother with a 20 ga. I started with a 16ga for ducks but went to the 12ga for everything and never looked back (lighter loads on grouse, etc).
 
FWIW, both SIR and Wholesale Sports have Mossberg 500 20 ga. guns priced at about $265. And a 7 lb gun, you won't have any recoil firing a 20 and 7lb isn't too bad for carrying.
 
advice

The 12 would be the best multi use gauge. Best advice I can give is to only buy a shotgun that fits you
Code: 
you should only see the bead when you look down the barrel
& the best you can buy for your budget.
Good luck.
 
i'll add my 3c- the 12 guage- preferably the 870 with a 3 inch chamber and multiple chokes, so you don't have to switch barrels or guns- i started off with an old 12 single my grandad left me ( looked like a cooey 37, but circa 1900) and a LARGE CHUNK OF FOAM RUBBER between my shoulder and the gun- that's a recoil pad to folks thesedays- you can always add a pad to the gun or use the PAST line of recoil products-you add these to your shoulder
 
My only advice is to buy something you like, even if it breaks your buget by 15-20%. If you end up kicking yourself in 2 months and end up selling it, you'll take a loss in the end. Just look at all the 870 express in EE.
 
Don't overlook 3 1/2" chambering. If you will be using steel shot the 3 1/2" has a lot more pellets downrange and will deliver cleaner kills on ducks and geese. The secret is more hits in the neck and head areas on birds will dispatch them quicker. Specialty tungsten/heavy shot loads are very expensive, but 2 3/4" or 3" in these loads will do the trick very well.
Keep the chokes open.
 
stoger

just an idea but if you are interested in an o/u you might want to look at the Stoger
cometition combo this is a o/u gun that has boyh 20ga and 12 ga barrels included in the package.This gun also has a ported barrel and screw in chokes and an adjustiable comb.
this package also has a verry reasonable msrp of 749.00 not a bad deal for what you get
 
Nothing wrong with 20 gauges.

IF you plan on hunting anything besides grouse, save the money, buy a 12.

Because!!!

hunting can be $ if you want to go all in.

You really only need a call gun and ammo... but it never works out that way!
 
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