I guess famous SEAL Patches Watson was just a fool when he chopped the buttstock on his Ithaca Model 37 and it became his favored weapon in Vietnam.
His very shotgun resides in the SEAL museum. He a spreader choke and #4 Buck (BTW, another choice the current dogma criticizes).
http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1583
In fact, all the old timers must have been pretty dumb, since they began chopping stocks and barrels almost as soon as shotguns were invented. Handygun and AutoBurglar shotgun pistols were popular back in the day.
Bonnie and Clyde were known to be dangerous with their chopped Remington Model 11's.
Likewise the US Marshals, who often packed chopped Witness Protection 870's.
And the police deptments in several large cities who issued factory PGO Model 37's to detectives.
Nobody doubts that a Buttstock is good to have. But there are times when a really short shotgun is also a good thing to have. They are not nearly as hard to shoot well as is claimed, even with the standard pistol grip, and birdshead is even easier to master. Particularly at close range HD distances.
I always shot full power buck or slug in mine. I'm certain that today's low recoil loads would be even easier to shoot PGO.