If you are starting out and on a limited budget, I would look at a 12 gauge because the price is much lower and you can shoot really light loads 7/8 or 1 oz loads or beef it up for plains hunting to 1 1/4oz (if need be). You can find nice shooting Trojans in 12 ga that's a shooter for under $1000 or near that if you look but a 20 is probably going to be close to $2000. I have seen guns with little case coloring, nicks in the stock, blueing fading but the gun is tight and on face because it's been well taken care of, and I've seen guns that look in nice condition that have problems. When looking at a gun if you can have a second set of "eyes" looking at the gun they may pickup something that you missed. If you are unsure pay a hundred buck to have Brian or Bachelder look at the gun and do a general strip and clean. The more guns you look at the better.
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