I use 3.5" load for goose hunting, gives you a little more reach, and it makes your buddies look at you like ***?!?! are those when you start putting them in the mag tube. Good gun, the only problem I had with mine is that it would kick shells out from the mag tube once in awhile, fixed that by stripping it down and cleaning some sticky gunk (aka swamp mud) out of the receiver. Almost all the 500 series after-market parts fit except the barrels, they are the same chokes as the 500 also.