30" is great for pass shooting. The longer sighting plane helps a lot.

Personally I just find I bang it around a little as the barrels are longer than what I am used to.

I like my barrels to be around 26 to 28" so its not a lot of difference.

I'm trying to think of a nice side-by-side in your price range but it has been a while since I bought one, twenty years in fact. Bought two in the same week back then, the Simson and then a Spanish Azhur.

The Merkels are nice, not sure of the price though.

I HAVE been looking at second hand lighter weight side by sides with 2 1/2" inch chambers and started to get tempted. They WERE nicely priced when I started looking but not recently. I would like a nice light weight gun with open chokes for quail and similar shooting.