Looks like a very nice gun. I suggest that you simply buy a box of the 2&3/4" Federal 7/8oz. #6 standard field loads and leave it at that. I killed a bobcat with just that load several years ago and it was dead in mid air, it had jumped out in front of me one morning on the way to a fallow field corner in the early dawn light, purely a target of opportunity. Range was not great, but not all that close either, I'd guess just inside 20 yards. The cat was not torn up, but it was quite dead, instantly. I assumed that it was not torn up because I had missed it with most of the pattern, I don't think it could have been otherwise. It was about four feet in the air when hit and I had apparently moved it into the field's corner causing it to jump for safety for lack of anywhere else to go. I only had the gun loaded in case I jumped a rabbit. I was hunting dove in mid October and trying to get in position before it got too light. There were scattered native small sunflowers in the adjacent field & I wanted to shoot the incomers as they crossed the corner that morning so they would fall where I could mark and find them. 7/8oz of #6 shot is a lot more lethal than you might think.
