howie,
To re-evaluate value on those 1200's. Add another $50 for the recoil system. Yes with foster slugs you can use full chokes but it may not give you the best accuracy. Safe? Yes with 12ga. 2 3/4",it should be OK as long as you're using pure lead slugs. You might want to consider having the choke opened up to IM though. It probably would be worth going to the range and grabbing a few boxes of Wins, Feds, Rems, and see which work the best. Also, there are Lightfields, and Brennekes, if the Big 3 don't work well.
If you haven't thought about sights other than the beads on the barrel........You can pick up stick-on fiber optic open sights, Red-Dots and low-power shotgun scopes with saddle mounts that don't require gunsmith installation.
Jim