re: Looking for a new 12 gauge

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Or, get the gun you like and shoot it a wholeeeee bunch. No amount spent on a gun replaces trigger time. Buy any gun, shoot it enough to get good with it.

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I'm inclined to agree, I would love to amass a ton of shotguns as a collection and tbh when I first got the SBE3 I couldn't hit shite with it, and the a5 was straight 50/50 or close, I just had to teach myself to remember to aim a little low with the Benelli's.

But if its a buy once cry once situation, I would try to shoot as many as possible before buying. But you can train with it and get used to it. If you come from an 870 (which is basically an extension of any shooters arm with their aiming) a Benelli may take getting used to, but you can.

Then again buy once cry once, isn't always a bad thing if you don't like your new Beretta, Browning, or Benelli because you can usually find someone to buy it for just about what you paid for it.

ETA: I wouldn't overlook Winchester SX4's, I know a lot of guys who duck hunt every day and guide that use those. FWIW.

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I have 2 Benellis and love them for duck hunting. But they suck when it comes to light loads. My next gun will be a Beretta A400 or even 300. The gas operation allows it to shoot anything you put in it. My SBE2 and Vinci have let me down multiple times on dove hunts and at sporting clays shoots.

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How many rounds do you think you have put through the Benelli's? I'm curious as to the light load issue because I have heard people mention it but mine haven't had any issues, granted they are not very old and probably only have 500 shots each on them.

A pseudo uncle duck hunted for years with a Browning Gold and it eventually basically "went out" on him when we were hunting one day, so I have heard of that happening with those. This was after years of use though.

My M2 shot light loads without issue out the box; I teal hunt with steel dove loads, never a failure.

Any inertia gun WILL punch you a bit more in any shooting situation, you can book that, compared to a gas gun. It’s just when hunting you don’t notice it and/or you’re usually padded from hunt cloths.

I have a safe full of shotguns, from Remington 870’s and 1100’s to Benelli M1014 and Beretta 1301 Tactical. My experience has been the higher end semi’s often struggle initially with the light game loads but eventually break-in where they’ll eat it all. And once that happens you can really enjoy a lot of trigger time.

Give me a 1100 all day long, unfortunately it has to be 30+ yrs old to be worth a damn.

Get you a supernova pump and never look back. I had remington versamax and went back to pump it was a pos out of the box. Supernova goes boom everytime pull trigger after being submerged,full of marsh mud and only cleaned twice a season spray down with gun cleaner prevent rust during season. Have hunted with few buddies with super eagles and all fancy expensive brands in similiar elements and they tend to have jams etc. But i hunt in pretty rough terrain during duck season. Would love a semi auto for doves though. JMO.

My 16 year old son does competition sporting clays, skeet, and trap. He has two Browning 725 Sporting O/Us. One is high rib for trap and the other has a standard rib for sporting clays and skeet. They are ported barrels and have the adjustable comb. The guns fit him well and he likes the weight. I have shot clays for decades and the 725 is probably my favorite gun. He has improved a lot since he started 3 years ago. He scores in the low 90s in sporting clays and skeet and is mid 90s in trap. Still not good enough to get a 1st-3rd but this is his 1st year in Senior/Varsity division and he has two more years and he usually finishes 5th-8th place out of 120 competitors.

All of the Bs are great guns. But for shooting clays, I recommend checking one of the 725 Sportings out.