You could always go with what ammo is available first and pick a gun based on that. People picked AR15s and 9mm pistols because ammo is cheap and plentiful (normally) but the trade-off is that everyone has a gun that shoots it and is looking for .223/5.56 and 9mm and they sell out.
I picked up an AR10 from PSA a while ago on sale for ~$700-750 and you can still get one now for $850. It uses .308 Win which is a more appropriate (close to same speed but 2x-3x bullet mass vs .223) round for deer hunting. I was able to go out and grab some extra hunting ammo a couple weeks ago. Stock was still good and price wasn't too inflated.
You could always go with what ammo is available first and pick a gun based on that. People picked AR15s and 9mm pistols because ammo is cheap and plentiful (normally) but the trade-off is that everyone has a gun that shoots it and is looking for .223/5.56 and 9mm and they sell out.
I picked up an AR10 from PSA a while ago on sale for ~$700-750 and you can still get one now for $850. It uses .308 Win which is a more appropriate (close to same speed but 2x-3x bullet mass vs .223) round for deer hunting. I was able to go out and grab some extra hunting ammo a couple weeks ago. Stock was still good and price wasn't too inflated.