.243 rifle and i dont use shotguns much and i dont know what youll be hunting. last year was my first year ever going hunting and i used a .243 winchester. the gun has acceptionable accuracy range and power. ill tell you the truth, i hunted for 10 days straight last year not seeing a single thing and just telling myself since the first day that i would shoot the first thing that came out. on that 11th day i was hunting with my dad again and there it was a deer. all i saw was the body not caring if it had antlers or not and i shot and dropped it. once we got to it we saw that i had shot a nice 8 pnt. but ill tell you if that deer had been a doe, i would of shot and been just as happy.