Have one. Love it. It's a shooter!
It shoots best with 70 to 80 grains of bp. I don't use all the wads commonly used. Found the over powder card (about 1/4 inch thick) was blowing through my shot patterns and hitting the target. I only use two types of wads now. The over shot card is a thin white card that will easily load through full chokes. The cushion wad I cut to 1/4 inch thick and lube. So I load: Powder/2 over shot cards seated directly on the powder/one 1/4 inch cushion wad/shot/single over shot card.
This seems to give me pretty good patterns. I hunt several state parks that allow only shotguns and it has never failed to drop a squirrel from the upper reaches of the pecan trees. It kills doves if I managed to hold my lead and though I haven't tried a ball out of it, I'm sure that I could kill a deer with it if one walked within 25 yards of my stand.
As for the short barrels, I believe that the ATF did in fact make them "destructive devices" and no new ones can be manufactured. Those in existance prior to the judgement are exempt...but if you cut the barrels off one now, you may be violating the law.
Dan