For me, I looked at the vintage guns, and decided the hassle & expense of loading for them was not worth it, and what I could load for them was not what I wanted to use, too restricting for me. I wanted something I could use for ducks and geese, mostly specks and snows. I live in an area where we still have decent limits on those birds, and now have spring season. So, I went out and bought the guns that will handle the modern steel loads. Bought a couple of 12ga SXS's and a 20ga SXS over the last 5 yrs. All 3" rated for steel, the last couple are the new CIP spec for the newer high pressure rounds.
They don't necessarily handle as well as some of the vintage guns,which is somewhat subjective, they aren't as pretty in most cases, and they don't have the history behind them, but, I can shoot whatever I want in them, and as much as I want. And I pretty much keep up to my buddies that shoot SBE's on the snows, I am just more careful about picking shots.
