A 6 lb. 12 ga. can be a delight, especially when you are doing more walking than shooting. But I've noticed that if you carry and shoot a 9 1/2 lb. gun for awhile, when you switch to a 7 lb. gun, it will seem light as a feather and swing like a wand.
Lloyd, you mention that your proposed lightening project is an old American 20 ga. gun. I have two Ithaca Flues 20 ga., and a 16 ga. Flues that I bought as parts guns. All three have barrels that are ruptured in the forearm region. I have no idea what caused the ruptures, but the barrels are typically pretty thin in that area on a Flues. I doubt any of these had ever been honed, and none had pitting. You might do better to just keep shopping until you find something safe that was originally built as a light upland game gun.
