Jordan,welcome to our sport/lifestyle! You are going about this the right way. The FIRST thing I would suggest is a safety course and/or take a shooting course to learn safe,proper gun handling and to be able to hit what you aim at. In fact,it may be a requirement in your state to go thru such a course before you can get a hunting license. Safety is the #1 concern. It would be very easy to get excited by sight of game and shoot without thinking about what's behind deer(safe backstop). That being said,it's my opinion that a remington 870 or mossberg 500 combo would be very hard to beat indeed. With 1 barrel vent rib and interchangable choke tubes and other barrel with sights and rifled for slugs it will do anything you want within reason. I would stick with 12 gauge simply because of the versatility and convenience of being able to find any load you need anywhere. Also with a 12 gauge,you'll be able to match the ammo to desired game and recoil level and you won't feel the need to "move up" later. I can see no need of shooting 3" magnum shells. Clothing needs are pretty flexible except for needing blaze orange as required by law and to meet safety ideals. Remember to dress in layers so you can adapt to conditions. Camo clothing is unneccecary as deer are color blind and see movement a lot more than a person/object that is totally still. Just about any quality well designed knife such as buck,gerber,scrade,kershaw,camillius,or case will do several jobs but you need to get a good knife sharpener. A fixed blade will be tougher/stronger,have less moving parts,and usually last longer than a folding knife-not to mention safer. I reccomend sharpening sticks such as those made by smith's or lansky.They are made of ceramic,are preset at proper angles for optimum sharpness,and very easy to use. Be sure to get an oily rag to wipe down gun and knife so that they don't rust as once it's on there,it's harder to get off than to prevent it from rusting in the first place. The BEST way to be successful when deer hunting is NOT to let them know you were ever there. #1 way to do this is scent control. I honestly believe it's impossible to completely fool a deer's nose every time but you can reduce scent to a point where there's so little that they aren't alarmed,possibly because with such little scent they think you are a lot further away. Hunting into the wind is the single best way of keeping them from smelling you. That's why if the wind is wrong it'll be hard to hunt from a permanent fixed stand. Also,if you hunt from the same stand all the time,you'll get "busted"-the deer will pattern you and learn to stayout of rangefrom your stand. Washing with no scent soap,washing clothes with no scent landry detergent,keeping your hunting clothes from normal human scents(don't put hunting clothes on until you are ready to hunt),cover scents,and attractant scents are all proven basics of scent control. I guess I'll quit rambling on-yall let me know what I've missed.