Favorite for what?
AR-15 for a nice overall package - super versatile
I have had a ton of fun with .22LR - Kimber 82G, Russian Biathlon Basic, Marlin 60, Ruger 10/22, Nylon 66 and few more that belong to other people.
AR15, M1 Garand, M1 carbine - Service Rifles are fun - Service Rifle Matches...
There are is least one guy that wrote a book who advocate removing the front bead, so you can't look at it, as you should be focusing on the target.
I never had a mid bead on a shotgun and never had one with no front bead. So I can't say how it would affect me.
I'd say a vented rib my would be...
IIRC my 12 ga BPS has a 26" Modified (before SG's came with removable chokes) Great
gun for me. Spreader wads helped with on closer small game.
"patterning board" = best thing to do !!
Spreader wad in a 12 gauge should help. I used to make them myself out of card stock. The center partition part is what I made.
Now you can buy them:
https://www.ballisticproducts.com/Spreader-wads/products/122/
You could probably modify an existing wad also if you were comfortable doing so.
I'll add this:
I have done some AR assembling, I don't consider it building.
One rifle I assembled was a 'budget match' from all take off, pre-owned, used - whatever parts.
The 2 parts I bought new were:
Lower Parts Kit and Bolt Carrier Group for 2 reasons.
1 - Why clown around on either.
2 - No...
The other morning I got a text response from the day before. It was at 4:20 am. My first thought was why didn't this weedhead respond yesterday. Who responds @ 4:20 am?
Look at the OCW method of load development. In a nutshell it is a way to quickly identify where your accuracy nodes are. If you want the highest velocity with accuracy this will identify about where that is and then you can concentrate on further tuning the load in that charge weight ballpark...
Barataria Blvd. on the way to Crown Point / Lafitte.
It was on the west side of Barataria some where in this stretch
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8286983,-90.1126407,1113m/data=!3m1!1e3