There is a big difference between how you hunt birds vs deer. For birds, you typically walk and flush the bird out, shooting them on the fly (or on the ground if you do not care about sport). A dog is helpful to help flush them out.
For deer, if you flush them out, generally it is a deer you have no hope of getting a decent shot.
For the beginner, bird hunting might be a better choice. You will get a lot of action right away, even if you do not come home with game. And as you bird hunt, you will encounter many deer, so you get a better grasp of where they bed down during day hours. Also, as you bird hunt, you can take note of deer trails. So your bird hunting this year can also serve as deer scouting for next year.
Deer hunting comes in two common forms: You can hunt from a stand at an area you expect to the deer to travel through or feed, and wait for them - archery works well for this as well as a gun. You can stalk (still hunt) a deer - this requires that you move at a snails pace (1 meter per minute or slower), keep quiet and make little movement - you have to be a lot quieter than when you bird hunt! Still hunting is the most challenging, but is perhaps the most rewarding - generally you still hunt with a gun, as it is difficult to get a good archery shot. Other ways to hunt are with a deer drive and also tracking - both of these require a LOT of land and a deer drive requires a group of hunters.
For deer hunting you need to hunt the wind and keep your sound, sight, and smell undetected by the deer.
If you go with a shotgun, get one with an additional interchangeable rifled barrel. Then you can use for both deer and birds.
That sounds good, I think hunting birds might be a more fun thing to start with if I can get some more action right away. Then after I've learned the game a little bit, I can move on to deer.
Thanks for clarifying how they work, definitely game me a better picture.
First thing you need to do is get rid of the "deer hunting" is hunting a "real" animal compared to bird hunting or other small game, hunting nonsense in your mind. While some folks "still hunt" for deer, moving very slowly, a step or two at a time, stopping and looking before taking another step, actually hunting, and there is still some deer driving, a group of people pushing deer to others on stand so they can shoot one. However mostly deer"hunting" is more deer "waiting" in a stand that actually hunting. Climb into a tree stand or a ground blind or simply stand against a tree and wait for a deer to maybe walk by. The trick is to learn deer habitat and seer sign and learn where the best spots are to ambush one. Bird hunting and other small game hunting is actually hunting where you go the the habitat they live in and actually hunt by walking them up, with with or without dogs. Using dogs is much more fun and more effective. Starting out hunting small game in my opinion is the best way to go, a right of passage so to speak before you move to big game. Additionally, hitting a moving small target with a shotgun takes more skill than shooting a large animal with a rifle. There are people who started with big game but I think I can safely say most started with small game and learned things there that helped them when they started big game hunting, at least a few decades ago. Today, everyone seems to want the instant gratification of starting at the top. I know you didn't ask for a lecture and my post wasn't meant to be one. I suggest if you know any hunters talk to them, including small game hunters and find a sportsman's club and join, you will meet lots of hunters and maybe find a mentor, as well as having a rifle range a clays fields to practice your marksmanship rather than ask what kind of gun to buy and strike out on your own. You will also need to take and pass a hunter education class in the US in order to be able to buy a license to hunt. I just now noticed you said you are moving to Scotland, I am assuming you are talking about the country not a city or town in the US. Europe has laws for gun ownership and hunting that are a lot more strict that in the US so if it is off to Great Britain for you you need to do your homework on what is required before you go. Hunting is a lot more than buying a gun and going out and killing something.
That's great advice, and the reason I posted here on this board. Thanks.
So it seems I'll probably start with hunting birds then. At least once so I know a bit how it works.
But what I'd really want to do later is to go out in the woods myself, sneak up on a deer and shoot it.
Then set up a tent, cut up the deer and eat it right there.
Looking at videos, hunting bird seems more like a tourist-thing to do. It's not man vs. nature in the same way.