I would suggest starting out with a regular, .30 caliber, bolt-action rifle, since it'll give you more accuracy than a 12-gauge shotgun, and it also gives you more range, or course, you'll definately need a scope.
My advice would be to get a Remington Model 700 CDL in .308 Win. cartridge, that's a great deer rifle, I have a similar rifle, and I love it!
Very accurate rifle and cartridge, and also very deadly on whitetail.
As for gettinga second shot on deer with a 12-gauge, you never think about more than one shot on deer, with whitetail, it's one shot-one kill, if you're thinking about your second shot, you'll make a bad first shot, and since the deer will be running, your second, third, will be even worse.
That's why you need a slower action, yet very accurate, so that you can learn how to shoot first, and then kill a whitetail with one shot.
Plus, the .308 rifle doesn't recoil as much for shooting deer as a 12-gauge would.
You can't use it on Turkey, though, I would suggest getting a shotgun on the side, since there is no "Wonder Gun" that can do it all.
That's the way wedo itin TN, you have a rifle for deer (And whatever else walks into your sights, even groundhogs, after all, you don't want to put just a clean hole in the groundhog, you want to see him blow up!
)a shotgun for turkey, and of course, a trusty little .22. Then you add on whatever your heart desires.
I think deer hunting is what you should do first, since it's more economical. Turkey hunting is fun, but you need to buy lots of camo to completely cover yourself. You'll have to do the same and buy a treestand, if you want to bowhunt deer.(Or anything, for that matter.)
So rifle deerhunting would be the best to start with, IMO(In My Opinion).
New at the sport.
