super_hunt54

Jay, with a good 12 gauge you can hunt anything on the North American Continent my boy! Most of the Shotgun makers have rifled slug barrels that you can put on your shotgun and they aren't that much money. $150 would get you a good "Deer Slayer" barrel for a Mossburg 500. That way, for small game and birds you will have a smooth bore and for big game such as hogs, deer, or whatever floats your pinwheel you can put on the rifled barrel (which by the way is much more accurate than the rifled slugs from smoothbore) and be ready to go slay hogs!

Alsatian

This may be off subject. If you can attach yourself to an experienced hunter, you can accelerate your learning process a great deal. An experienced hunter can show you how to do many otherwise confusing or intimidating hunting tasks, like field dressing an animal that has been killed and help get meat out of the woods. Along this line, it may be possible to borrow a firearm for use in hunting from your mentor. By the way, I think a lot of experienced hunters would be happy to adopt a new hunter to show them the ropes.

Leaving that comment aside, I would suggest identifying what hunting opportunity is most readily available to you and then gearing up to pursue that opportunity. If that is shotgunning upland game, get a shotgun. If that is shooting squirrels, get a .22 long rifle. If that is hunting boar, get or borrow a high power centerfire rifle (.308 or .30-06 come to mind). Do consider the borrowing idea. What if you find you don't like hunting? Not everyone enjoys the sport. Also, if buying, consider buying a used firearm.

Hunting is not so much about the gear . . . it is about the hunt. Get going on the hunting first and plan to accumulate gear over the longer haul.

westMDbowhunter

look into a single shot .410 for small game.
small game animals are my favorite for eating.
but hey man once your licensed you can go hunt anything you want.
if you want a boar i believe you could get one.

Oldtimr

A .410 ga. shotgun is probably the worst choice possible for a new hunter because you have to be much more on the mark because of the less dense pattern and because the shells are more expensive than the 20 or 12 gage.

CalHunter

In CA, you can only hunt turkeys with a shotgun or air gun (pellet gun .177 caliber or larger).

As somebody else mentioned, you could get a separate slug barrel for a shotgun to use on big game. That same shotgun with the regular barrel could be used on all birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc. With a shotgun, you have the option of using smaller shot for smaller birds, rabbits and squirrels, larger shot for turkeys (can't be larger than # 2 for turkeys in CA) and buckshot or slugs for deer and boar.

You can still practice your marksmanship with a shotgun in learning how to aim, squeeze the trigger instead of jerking it and following through on your target when shooting. A shotgun is generally considered a shorter range gun but you could easily reach out to 100 yards with slugs for deer or boar. A slug will typically have lost a little over half of its' energy at 100 yards but that's still enough to kill a buck.

And as somebody else said, just getting out in the woods or wherever you choose to hunt is part of the fun of hunting. Good luck.