don't limit yourself to just two brands... there's about 10-15 other brands out there worth investigating as well... go shoot 'em and decide which one you like...

i see you mentioned "first time"... you sure you wanna drop that kinda coin on a newbie??? a full boat top-o-the-line hunting rig could cost you as much as 1500 bucks (all in)... and since this is for someone else (it seems anyway), you might wanna just get a gift cert to the local pro-shop and take them down and let 'em choose...