I was 15 and my dad took me to the local Galyans (ya back in those good ole days). Mossberg 500 12ga combo. The guy behind the counter tried talking me down to a 20ga but I wanted something like what dad shot, so I hung out for the 12ga.
Mossberg 500 in 20 gauge with a Walnut stock (still no scratches on it) and a 28" 'goose' barrel with 3 chokes! What a great gun. It was my Christmas gift from dad when I was 16 (I'm 44 now) and I still have it. I purchased a 24" rifled, sighted slug barrel for it about 8 years go and now I have a 4x scope mounted on it. It's pretty darn accurate out to around 125 yards and 'fairly lucky' at distances thereafter. It's strickly my fall deer gun...I have other guns for HD & PP!
My wife's first shotgun is a Remington 870 Tactical in 20 gauge with a 18.5" barrel, a 7 round (+1 in the tube) factory extended magazine. I had a Meprolight front night sight installed and I also put a neoprene 5-shot shell holder on the butt stock. With #3 shot...it's devastating in a hallway. Good enough for a stay-at-home mom with little one's to protect.
old stevens 820b, dad had it in the garage for a long time, said if i could clean it up and get it working (rusted bad) i could have it, cleaned it up a bit got it working, still have it....but the 870 gets alot more use
Revelation Shotgun 20ga given to us and well, it gets the job done. Went and shot some clay pigeons with it yesterday, still works great. IndyGunWorks did some work on it a while back and looks a lot A LOT better than it did to begin with.