I own a mossberg 935. Bought it for waterfowl.
It is not a light gun. It also recoils heavier than the some of the more expensive autos mentioned (Benelli, Beretta...). Mine was very tight out of the box. I experienced some 2nd and 3rd shot failure to feed problems during my first 100-150 rounds thru the gun (very frustrating when you have a big flock of ducks landing in your decoys). I made a point of shooting sporting clays with it to run some more rounds thru it (nice bruise on my shoulder after 50rds of 3-3.5" shooting in a t-shirt)
. That plus remmington dry lube and this year there were no problems during the minimal amount of hunting that I was able to do this waterfowl season.
This gun is made for waterfowl and turkey (and deer). A grouse gun it is not. It is made to eat 3 and 3.5 in shells. If you try and use 2 3/4" shells you will have a single shot gun. It might (might) cycle using the heaviest high-brass 2 3/4" loads available but I can guarantee it won't eat the $3.00/box light target loads. So, if you want to shoot skeet with it to get used to the gun, you might as well plan on shooting 3'' shells untill it is WELL broken in. I have been to several gun forums and other owners of this gun say that once broken and loosend up the gun will feed heavy target 2 3/4" loads. I have not come across anyone who got theirs to eat light target loads. I cannot verify the fact that this gun will in fact handle 2 3/4" shells because mine won't (yet). This does not surprise me because Mossberg never claims for this gun to be anything but a waterfowl gun that shoots the big shells.
I'm happy with it. It is (relatively) inexpensive, goes bang when I pull the trigger and kills ducks/geese when I can actually get one to fly into my shot pattern. If you want a smoother working, lighter recoiling gun...go with another make...however, you'll be paying more for it. (and you'll stress more about the scratch that gets put on it when it acidentally gets banged up in the duck boat
)
If you're ok with spending more money and you're looking for purely a waterfowl gun... check out a10ga. The guy I hunt with has one (can't remember what make..remmington I think) and it's a nice gun... not much difference in recoil from my 935 shooting 3.5" shells (actually may be less). Boy does it put a lot of steel in the air.
HTH.