If you get a '97 let Harland do his majick on it. Once he gets done going through it you won't have anything to worry about.
Right there is the single most important piece of advice in this thread Andy. Like your rifle and your pistols, if you don't get a '97 slicked up, it is much more prone to breakage and other problems.
I found an original '97 on
www.gunbroker.com for $350. If I had simply cut the barrel and ran that gun in it's original condition I would have ground it down to metal shavings by now.
Instead I let Harland do his magic. Every single person that has handled that shotgun and cycled the action has one comment, "Wow!" The gun does not require the jerking and slamming that you see other '97 shooters doing. And the parts that are prone to breakage due to normal wear, the ejector and extractors, are replacable by
you.