Help picking an auto loader

Can't beat a Benelli

Sure you can - Benellis are not gas guns, and they are lighter, so their recoil is a lot more than a good gas gun; many are also finicky about shooting light target loads

IMO, the best gas guns today are still the Berettas - either the 39X series or the new A400. The Super X1 is also right at the top of the list. Some like the Versamax and the Browning version, but if you look at the gas guns on the sporting clays courses, the one you see the most - far and away - is Beretta. They work, they are easy on the recoil, especially with their Kick Off system and they are adjustable with shims to make cast and drop work for most folks. My wife has the A400 Xplor for sporting - this is their light field model weighing in at 7#. While designed to shoot up to 3.5" goose loads, it handles my light 3/4oz target reloads with ZERO malfs in over 5000 rounds so far. Their sporting model with the blue receiver is a little over 1 pound heavier for even better recoil reduction

If you want to shoot sporting clays with a semi-auto, then you need to look at the Beretta UGB25 Xcel Sporting. It is made specifically for competition and is much easier to load/unload than a standard semi-auto - which is a feature you will need when you are changing stations.

much easier to load/unload than a standard semi-auto - which is a feature you will need when you are changing stations.

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All my current semi auto shotguns are pretty easy to load/unload as is, is this a feature looking for a problem to solve?

A standard Beretta sporting clays model seems a pretty safe choice, as is the Remington 1100 Sporting. Benellis are great, I own one in 20 and one in 12. I really don't understand the issue some people bring up about recoil. I notice absolutely no additional recoil with them over my Bernadelli or Mossberg gas guns. Speaking of Mossberg my 930 Rythym model would work just fine for sporting clays with the standard magazine tube installed (included with the gun).

Recoil is a function of weight of the gun (gas guns are typically heavier than inertia guns) plus the weight of the ejecta and the velocity of the ejecta.

With an equal load, the lighter gun will have more actual recoil. A gas gun also tends to have less perceived recoil because bleeding off some of the gas to work the action spreads the recoil pulse out over a longer time (in milliseconds)