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Yes, but.....
Life's full of tradeoffs. One of them is the more lead we send downrange and the faster we send it, the more kick we have to handle.
I saw a table of free recoil recently. A 2 oz turkey load showed 4X the kick of a soft, 1 oz target load like I use for trap.To paraphrase Brister, it's like being in a car wreck.
BTW, our revered ancestors had better sense. A market hunter whose livelihood depended on his effectiveness would load 1 1/8 oz or less of shot in a 10 ga. A 2 oz load like that turkey load would've only been loaded in a punt gun, a small cannon mounted to a boat.The More Is Better Principle collides with the laws of Physics.
And, often the lighter loads work better, or as well as the barnburners. My Turkey load is 1 3/8 oz of lead,and only slightly better than a certain 1 1/4 oz of hard, plated shot designed as long range pheasant medicine.
And I used to bring in enough Canadas to make me happy with a 1 1/8 oz of #3s from a 16 ga.3 1/2" 12 ga loads cause more probs than they solve, IMO.
As for unbiased info on the 870, I confess to being slightly overfond of a tool I've used with complete satisfaction for over 40 years.
In that time, no glitches, and Heaven alone knows how many dead critters or how much ammo used. Best guess, over 20,000 rounds from various 870s, both personal and agency weapons.
My guess is, there's not much shotgunning in your personal history. Get an 870, 11-87, or other decent shotgun, start off with light loads and get familiarized. Then work up.
As for 3 1/2" shells, If I found a need for a load that heavy, I'd get an Ithaca or Remington Auto 10 ga that weighed about 10 lbs and use that, not an 8 lb 12 ga.Better pattern, less pain, better shooting...
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