I have an 835 and love it, but never fired a 3 1/2" out of it. Seems crazy but got it for wing shooting, but turned it into a nice turkey gun. Has dropped all my birds and one other with 3" shells, so never saw a reason to use 3 1/2" shells......[8D]so i guess it goes to what you want. If you want 3 1/2 go for it, yet, if you have had success with 3" then if it were me, I would stick with 3". I guess I think of the many toms that have fallen to 2 3/4" so IMHO what is the need for more then a 3"?