"you can't believe everything you read".
That, of course, should include the positive reviews as equally as the negative reviews. The internet is a fabulous place-and an equally treacherous place-to get at the truth of a matter.
For what it's worth, my experience with the BPS (and I've owned and shot a whole gamet of shotguns over the past fifty years or so; if just considering pumps, I've owned S&W's Models 3000
and 916
, a couple of Remington Model 870s, an Ithaca Model 37, a Marlin Model 120, Winchester Models 97, 12 and 1300, a Benelli Nova and a Mossberg Model 835) has been very positive and I consider it to be as good a pump shotgun as I've ever owned and way better than some.
Most of my hunting anymore is for grouse and woodcock, along with released pheasants (except for the occasional visit to South Dakota), and for these endeavors I generally use either a nice Merkel sxs twenty or my Browning DoubleAuto chambered in 12 gauge. But when I hunt waterfowl, most often a pump will be found in the canoe or in the blind and, these days, it's almost always my Browning BPS.