Lloyd,
I would choose a light 2 1/2” gun every time over a 2 inch gun. You can get 21 gram, 24 gram , 7/8 oz. Or 1 oz. loads, fibre or plastic and at a push you can rattle your teeth with 1 1/8 oz. if you can’t get anything else.
Not that I would turn down that 2” H.& H. Royal self-opener I saw advertised if someone offered to throw it in with a couple of slabs of 2” cartridges.
Yes, as I said, the heavier, longer chambered gun is more flexible. But it will be heavier, which is really the point of a 2x12. Besides that, why not have something a little more unique, a little more quirky, an little more interesting?
As far as I'm concerned, shell availability is a nonissue. If you are going to mess with vintage guns of any chamber length, reloading your own is really the best way to go by far. Even 2.75" shells in the pressures, payload, and shot size you need are often hard to impossible to find for a vintage gun. Makes no sense to worry about store-bought shells. Just make your own and be done with it. Reloading has its own rewards.
Of course, I am more than happy to take any H$H Royal, fs someone is offering to give it to me, shells or no shells. I'll take a 2" Skimin and Wood the same way, but that is a facetious argument.
