One more thought:
Everyone wants you to shoot their favorite gun, I suggest you get the gun you will like. A nice SxS with an English grip and splinter forearm will point better and you can get a good London, Birmingham gun in a 12 gauge that will weigh no more than the Spanish 20 gauges and still less than German 20’s.
Shooting well with light loads will compensate for bad shooting and more powerful loads.
Patterns are essential when you talk of lighter loads and the 12 will excel in that category. Double triggers are a plus, you can shoot either barrel first and still follow up with a quick second shot and you don’t have to remember the selector on a single trigger gun.
You can find something you will love for under $2600.00 and they will still be worth it years later when the Brownings and European guns have lost their luster.
Only problem with many of the older ones, and the old Brit shotguns are especially suspect, is soft steel. Will only show itself if the gun has been shot more than a little. However, one of the reasons the Brit guns of the past were sent back to be tightened up on a regular basis. Which also was true of the old London "Best" that were used extensively on the driven fields. And a good reason for having any older double checked out by someone who knows what they are looking at. That and if a part lets loose, you are most likely looking at having a good smith duplicate it. Which may or may not hurt more than a little.
Two triggers on older SxS are more reliable, but with todays modern shells....IC or Mod both work about the same out to were most of us consistently fail. So trigger selection becomes mostly a non-issue.
