A couple of weeks ago a national outdoors chain store had a sale on hunting rifles. One offering was a $99 Chinese copy of a Russian AK-47, complete with bayonet, the latter apparently a last line of defense if you are charged by a man-eating deer.

A better choice for new hunters would be a trip to an outdoors store, the Internet or the newspaper classified ads to find a good used shotgun. It would be more accurate, and there would be less chance of accidentally sticking yourself with that big knife.

The Michigan firearms deer season will open Monday, and only shotguns are allowed in the southern Lower Peninsula, where more than half the deer were killed last year. And even in more northerly regions where rifles can be used, most deer are shot at ranges well within the capability of an inexpensive shotgun equipped with an inexpensive telescopic sight.

Slug shells for shotguns are cheap and available everywhere, and then there’s the added advantage of being able to use the same gun for other game like grouse, pheasants, waterfowl and doves. Just remove the scope and replace the slugs with shot shells.

While most hunters use a 12-gauge shotgun for deer, don’t pass on a good deal on a 20-gauge or even a .410. Remember, a .410 throws a much larger chunk of lead than a .30-.30 or 7-millimeter magnum rifle, and at 50-75 yards it packs more than enough punch to kill a deer. And the recoil from these smaller guns is less, making them excellent choices for women and youths.

Most people probably would be happier with a repeating gun, either a semi-automatic or pump. A quick second shot sometimes is useful (although those people you hear blasting off five fast rounds at a running deer usually are just wasting ammunition and endangering anyone in the background).

But there are a lot of used single-shot guns available that will kill a deer just as dead as the most expensive semi-auto, and if that’s all your budget can handle, there’s nothing wrong with buying one.

After you decide on a gun, the most important thing is not what you will hunt with it or where you will hunt. It’s learning how to shoot properly.

If you’re going to put a scope on the gun, have it installed at a gun shop, where it can be bore-sighted using a small optical device. But all bore-sighting will do is put the shell in a two-foot by three-foot piece of paper at 100 yards.

Buy a couple of boxes of slugs and go to a rifle range, where you will find a lot of expert shooters who are happy to help novices sight-in a gun. You don’t have to achieve Olympic shooting standards. But you should be able to routinely place three shots inside a three-inch circle at 50 yards.

That’s not that hard to do, even with open sights, but it requires practice. Though a lot of us seem unable to admit it, men aren’t born with a gene that makes them instant expert shots. At least, I wasn’t, and I use guns for a living.