10 ga. nice and powerful for anything, payload and speed are the same as with 12ga 3 1/2" shells ~ patterns are NOT.
"Shells are more expensive" people say.... sounds like my wife driving 15 miles out of her way to get gas a nickel cheaper; hmm... 20 gallons, a WHOLE dollar!!!!!
I bought 2 boxes of shells with my then "spankin' new" gold lite ~ I was in a sudden urge to go goose hunting and had everything except a shotgun and shells, reloaded every shell ever fired otherwise.
Learned about barrel length the hard way, 26 on a 10 autoloader is the way for me, have a 10 bps with a 30" telephone pole and the gold w/steel receiver has a 28" tube. Little long with that long receiver made to handle those shells.
Love the 1 3/8 oz of #1 steel with 41gr of "Steel" powder in the fed hulls separated by some felt and a BPI wad. does major anti-aircraft to the gooses. Farther than I should shoot.Still limit on my 5 shells I take.
The Extrema, the SX-2, the 12ga "gold", and the Franchi Variomax 912 always seem to stay home. Ditto for the O/U and SxS 10ga in the case.They are heavy >10lbs.
As I remove myself from the soapbox I'd like to add the fact that I purchase shotguns because I WANT them, if I only bought 1 shotgun for everything - I'd get the gun I learned on; a Beretta AL-2 3"chamber, 28"vent ribbed barrel,12ga circa 1972. Still have it and it still works like new, only nicked up a tad. EXACT same as the 301 or 302, or 303, or Browning marked - Beretta design B-80. Best design of all time IMHO