I'm a little late to the party, read the first page, but I'd like to share my experiences. I run with a lot of shotguns in your price range. I'm an avid waterfowl hunter in the prairie country of central MN. Everything from cattail sloughs to field geese to tight shooting of wood ducks in timber. I also occasionally hunt flushed pheasant and grouse, pigeon shoots for various farmers, and I do shoot trap and skeet with my "bird" gun as fall approaches for practice. I've owned several different makes of shotgun, and had the opportunity to try many others from VERY high end to dirt cheap. The 1100 was good but ammo fussy, the Ithaca had issues with certain brands of ammo also and bit my cheek, the Nova was a solid gun, I shot it well, but I HATED the magazine cutoff. It was located in the perfect spot to activate it while cycling the action under pressure. It also carried hard due to the deep, molded serrations in the stock.
For primary hunting guns, I've owned a Rem 1100, Ithaca M37 (new made, not vintage), Benelli Nova, and currently a Stoeger M3000 (3"). Of those, I've found the Stoeger to be the most versatile and effective for my uses. It eats everything but extremely light 7/8oz target loads (any semi would choke on those) with gusto, even caked in mud, duckweed and dog drool. Balance is good, decent for trap shooting although I do shoot a dedicated target gun for that sport in summer. It's relatively light. Recoil is manageable even with heavy goose loads. I would recommend it highly. You'll get similar performance with a Benelli or Beretta at a higher price point with a bit more refinement, but I've found the shooting and carrying charachteristics of the Bs to be similar to the cheap old Stoeger and wouldn't spend the extra money for a gun destined for the level of abuse I call a good day of hunting.
The favorite that I've ever fired at the range and in the field was a Franchi pintail (if I remember the make correctly), but those are no longer made. That was just a sweet shotgun. Edit... the Pintail is a Beretta model. The Franchi model I liked apparently has been lost to memory. It was available as a 3" "waterfowl" model in the early 2Ks in a sleek matte grey finish, I think it had a "bird" name. Perhaps the hive mind remembers?