What are your recommendations? I'm not a shotgun guy, don't have a clue, looking for places to start looking.

Immediate use would be deer hunting (scoped, rifled barrel with sabot slugs), but wondering if it's a better value overall to get a combo with interchangeable barrels?
12 or 16 gauge?
Chamber? (ie, if 12G, 2-3/4" or 3" etc)
Auto, pump, single shot? (anyone make a bolt or lever action?)
?

You may want to dig around on the Shotgun Slug Shooters sub-forum of Shotgunworld.com

Shotgunworld/Slug Guns

I'm a big fan of the Mossberg 930. It's an extremely reliable semi-auto at a great price, with lots of aftermarket support. You can get a combo with a 28" bird barrel and rifled 24" slug barrel for $550, and that will do whatever you need. It's chambered to shoot 3" and 2 3/4" shells. In my opinion, the best value out there in a shotgun!

I can't say which brand will be best but I will agree get a combo if available cause you will need a rifled barrel. However I have read where someone used a regular Shotgun but a certain choke was used but can't remember which one. Sorry.

I will say the same thing I always do on this sort of post...
This post will be most fruitful for you if you list something of a budget; like a range, an absolute max or some number you'd like to say around.

After that, I highly always recommend common calibers/gauges for first time anything. If your just getting into rifle shooting, getting some cool wildcat is not as useful as getting 223 or 243 or 308 because the extra trigger time is just that much more important. 12 or 20 gauge is the way to go, and between those I'd still rather do 12 if the marginal recoil difference is not that important.

Good luck.