I do like Mainepreppers shotgun for hunting geese.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alq6i5AHr20

Pretty ambitious wanting to take out the whole V low flying formation.

Wow, 'Jac, you've opened the floodgates. Ask our 'Murcan cousins about guns? Well heck, they wouldn't have a single solitary opinion about that, would they?

As with any tool, the starting point is: what exactly do you want to achieve? And how much are you willing to spend to get started?

Psst: Get your credentials. Then get yourselves a .22. Talk about borrowing a deer rifle. One small, practical, tested step at a time.

+1 on the separate .22 & shotgun.

If skeet shooting or bird hunting are an option, I'd definitely go with a 20ga over the .410. The 20ga has more recoil but it will be much more effective. Ammunition will also be more widely available for the 20ga. In normal times down here, anywhere that carries ammunition probably has 20ga & 12ga. I wouldn't go with a 16ga or 12ga. They are a BIG step up in recoil (I have never shot one with reduced recoil loads). What type of country are you going to be hunting? For upland hunting (in brush/woods for squirrel, grouse, deer, etc.) you will probably want to get a shorter barrel.

For a 10 year old, I'd start with the .22. Especially on a tight budget, you could let the shotgun wait for a couple of years. I don't remember how old I was when I started shooting a .22 with my granddad but i didn't start hunting with a 20ga side by side until I was a teenager.

P.S. Do NOT shoot nearly straight up (butt of gun pushing down on top of shoulder) with a 12ga if you end up with one in the future. BTDT

AFLM... yeah... but it's fun to beat them with an 9 round tube fed Benelli M1S90, that goes bang every time

How on Earth do you convince the ducks to line up inside the little tarp shacks? You really do have to share that trick with me.

I suggest you add a decent air rifle to your inventory with which to practice. I don't know what your ammo prices & availability are up in the Great White North, but down here ammo is hard to find and expensive when you do. BBs and pellets are cheap.

As for caliber, what in particular do you plan on hunting? .22s are good for squirrels and rabbits but any bigger critter can be problematic. I'm a fan of .22wmr (aka .22 mag) and headshots but the .22wmr ammo costs a lot more than .22lr cartridges.

-Blast

Doug... shot my first and only duck about 50 years ago.. a wood duck that had fed on salt water fish.. it was terrible... they have been safe from me ever since....I shoot the little round guys made out of clay...

Without knowing what it is you'd be wanting to hunt, it is difficult to give any recommendations. You don't hunt rabbits with the same thing you hunt elk with or the same thing you hunt quail with.

I'd say, "just buy a .22 rifle". Anything else can come after that. .22's are cheap if you stick to the common ones and don't go high-end or exotic. You can learn to shoot with a .22. The ammo won't cost you much (current times in the US this isn't a true statement, but things will be getting back to normal soon). Typically 500 rounds will cost you less than $20. You just can't beat that for learning and having fun. Sure, by the time you get around to hunting deer (if ever) you won't be doing that with a .22. But if you ever get to that point, the time to start looking into appropriate rifles for that is when you can say "I am going to hunt deer", not when all's you can say is "I *might* hunt deer".

But you never said what you were considering sustenance hunting. If you were talking about rabbits, then a .22 is perfectly fine for that. Preferable, actually. You don't pull out your surplus Mosin-Nagant to plink at bunnies ... unless you want to have to search the next county over for the remains.

This is totally self serving, because I really want your help sorting through the mountain ranges of info and choices out there, but you can also consider it an apology if I've been a *itch over the past few months, or this week even. Pregnancy and life with a newborn have gotten the best of me a few times. Thanks for your patience!