I wouldn't recommend #1. I shot steel shot through my old Rem Mod. 11 for years. You probably won't wreck the gun, but I suspect you might put undo wear on the choke. For #2, I'd look into buying an extrabarrel threaded for choke tubes rather than convert a factory barrel.If your gunsmith doesn't thread the muzzle perfectly, you might not get the choke tube perfectly aligned with the barrel, which will throw off your point of impact. And then there's the collector's value of a nice Belgian Browning.