Well I took the plunge!
I went to Cabela's to "window shop". (Bad idea)
I had planned on holding several different shotguns but the general consensus from you all was that Remington 870 was probably the way to go.
I looked at a new 870 combo, and it felt fine, and it was $490.
I then went to the used guns and saw a SWEET FULL camo shotgun and I hefted it up and it just felt sweet! I looked at the tag and it was a Mossberg 535 ATS. The tag said $330, and it still had all the stickers a new gun would have. I put it down and then went looking in the "bargain cave". As a weird coincidence one of the first things to catch my eye was a scoped / rifled barrel SPECIFICALY for the 535 ATS. This was the ONLY barrel for sale in there and it was listed for $130. I am the guy that was stuggling to find a way to get a decent setup for shooting deer AND turkey for under $500!
The guys in the gun area at Cabelas in KCMO are AWESOME. In fact I never even asked, but the salesman OFFERED to take $20 off the gun as he was writing me up! I asked about the history of the gun and he said it came in yesterday from a guy that wanted to trade up, and he never put a single round through it!
So I ended up with a Mossy 535 ATS in SWEET camo, and a scoped/rifled barrel for $460! That's pretty good I think!
The only pisser is some dipwad sales dude sold me rifled slugs instead of sabot rounds for a rifled barrel. I know... I shoulda checked more closely!

Now I just need to go kill something!!!

Thanks again for all of your patience with my stupid newby questions..... there are plenty more where that came from!

Don