A 6 lb 3 oz 12ga is a delight to hunt with. Sounds like you have a perfect early season woodcock and grouse rig and a great late season grouse and pheasant over dogs all in the same gun.
If the 2 1/2" chambers are the problem a MEC 600 with a 2 1/2 conversion is a much cheaper solution. I load lead 11/16 9's for skeet 7/8 oz 8's for SC and trap 1 oz for upland hunting and 7/8 oz of ITX 6's and 1 oz of bismuth 5's for waterfowl. I even shoot 2 1/2's in all my 2 3/4" shotguns just so I don't have to deal with two different length shells.
