Sorry to hear about your Mom, Yogi - always a sad occasion. My sympathies.
: Very please you are happy with yor new double, though.
: A pad might be a good idea too.
: Sights can be changed - higher rear, or lower front - just one of the problems of picking a load, then sighting for it. You will probably find heavier slugs to impact higher on the target as the impacts are recoil induced with low velocity rounds. As well, if one becomes concious of the recoil, one tends to pull lower right on the target.
: To watch for - slugs from each barrel crossing each other, shooting parallel or diverging, shooting further apart than the centres of the bore. different loads and different slug weights may have different points of impact.
: 1 ounce at 1,600fps or 1,700fps as claimed on the box of slugs I bought ome time ago, puts it's power range about the same as a 16 bore round ball gun used in India for Elephant, Buffalo and Tiger. The difference is the round ball used back in the 1800's had much superior penetration. The power 'potential' is there in your double, now to harness it. This brings us back to learning to load your own ammo with round balls, if making this very best double smoothbore it can be, is your primary interest. Your double gun has the potential to smash both shoulders of an elk or moose, if loaded properly, of course. They are truely impressive.