I purchased a Win 101 back in the day and it started life on a steady diet of 1 1/4 oz International Trap loads, hammered the head of the stock enough to change the dimensions of the stock and split the forend. New wood and backed off to standard 1 1/8 trap loads, it has over 250,000 rounds through it and you can't close the action on a piece of computer paper.
I now shoot nothing but hand loaded low pressure 2.5" loads and still break a lot of birds and kill my share of game.
The only need for high pressure loads is to cycle a semi auto and while I've spent a little time with them I've never found the need for one.
3.5" shells, rottweilers and pit bulls are for guys that think God short changed them.
