I think a pump 20 gauge would be a much better choice, that's what I started on. You can load it down to shoot light loads to get him started and then you can load it up for 3 inch turkey mags and you have a 35-40 yard turkey gun. With the fixed modified choke, my father had a shotgun barrel that he wanted to get cut and threaded for a choke tube (it was a fixed smooth bore slug barrel that he didn't use) but the steel was too thin. The gunsmith scored the inside of the barrel which he said tightened up the shot like a choke would. It shot pretty good and I took a bird with it that year, i don't know if anyone else has heard of this.