Don’t really start in LMOE’s but a bit of advice on your start. If you get the chance, don’t overlook that flintlock rifle, they’re surprisingly powerful, if a bit slow. The ammo is easy to make early game, which is certainly important, just use the hand press you found to disassemble all the other ammo and rip books up for paper when you can. Also maybe drop the Deagle in favour of the M14, something to pick targets off at a distance, but that depends upon your playstyle. I do personally favour having multiple RivTech short shotguns strapped to me for the cool imagery of my survivor
Edit: only just saw your edit, my advice was a bit late. Flintlocks are still cool though, any they will fuck turrets up if you can hit them without dying.