Robinann861 said:
My buddy recommended a Mossberg for me although he uses Remington. Unfortunately for me, he is out of state elk hunting for a couple weeks so I am kinda on my own in these beginning stages of finding a gun. I truly appreciate everyone's opinions and advice. You are all great people!
Most gun owners are pretty good people.
Unless you watch a lot of evening news or CNN.
When you go to a gun store to hold them and put them up to your arm and work the actions, there are many considerations.
If you find one you like but is too heavy out front making it too off balance, see if they have one with a shorter barrel. (The shortest will be 18-1/2 inches).
Most states (at least mine) will let you hunt deer and stuff with calibers (gauges) besides 12 gauge too.
12 gauge can have some pretty strong recoil, so maybe a 16 gauge or 20 gauge may be easier on the shoulder when you pull the trigger. But there are different types of bullets that are lower recoil than others too, so we can probably help with that too after you get to actually shoot it.
Here is a little video I did a while back that explains some of that. I won't ever be mistaken for Chuck Norris, but I tried to explain some differences that may help you.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycJnEKkrPP8[/youtube]
And there are a lot of different shotgun manufacturers.
Mossberg, Remington, H&R, NEF, Charles Daly, Savage, Stevens, etc etc etc
Try everything the gun shop has and pick the one that works best for you. After you choose whatever you like, we can still help you with the rest of it too.