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I've got two hunting shotguns. The 12ga pump Winchester was a birthday present when I was 12 or so. I start hunting with the 16ga semiauto Browning when I was 16 or so and a family member gave it to me when I was about 21.

So, 12ga vs. 16ga personalities... Obviously, the pump is slower than the semiauto firing rate but that doesn't reflect the differences in the cartridges. The 12ga has a substantial kick to it and takes a LOT longer to get a second aimed shot off. The key word in this is aimed and and not shot in the general direction when going for speed for follow on shots.

For several years while in college, I was skeet shooting quite a bit. Usually there were four of us and each of us often going through a couple of hundred rounds. In homage to my 1st shotgun, I usually shot my 1st round with the 12ga pump. I got a lot of ribbing for that and for good reason. The first shot was okay but the second was pretty much a general point and pray. After that, I switched to the Browning 16ga semiauto so I could hit the clay's reasonably. Also, we swapped guns a lot so I got quite a bit of skeet range time usually on Benelli 16ga over-unders. At my level of competence, the Benelli was better balanced (as it should be at several times the cost) but my round scores were not much different. For the better shooters in our group though, they could properly take advantage of the Benelli for better scores.

Speed though in a self defense situation at shorter range. With my semiauto 16ga Browning I can empty it of 3 adequately aimed shots in a touch over 1 second (it's plugged for hunting). A lotta lead in the air. That's assuming one target so not refocusing on a second target. No way no how can I can come close to that with a 12ga pump.