Bennill M3. anyone know how good it is

[sasnofear]

? intended for bird use e.g crows.


effective range?

capacity?

 

[BerettaNut92]

With the 26" accessory barrel, I'd think it's about the same as any other shotgun.... (?)

 

[HS/LD]

Depends on the shot shells you are using I suppose.

HS/LD

 

[hksw]

About as good as any other shotgun for that purpose (with the proper barrel length and the correct load).

Here in the US, the Benelli M3s are generally sold as tactical/defensive weapons with 20" barrels. Benelli does sell a 28" or 30" or regular hunting length barrel for the gun but these generally run $300+ (US). For that kind of money, you might as well just get another shotgun (if you have the short barrelled M3 in hand).

I had the opportunity to run my M3 against a relatively new Remington 1187 SP I has recently got at a plateshoot one time. I was using bulk (100 round) low recoil general purpose rounds from Winchester (or was it Remington? Can't definitely recall at this time.). The M3 choked on them, not enough recoil. The 1187 ran like a champ. The benefit of the M3, though, was that I was able to switch it over to pump and continue on when I used it.

 

[sasnofear]

whats good semi auto then. prefeably about 8rds in it

 

[hksw]

If you use a heavier load than the ones I was using on that shoot, the M3 should do OK. I haven't had any problems running game loads (usually Remington) through my M1s. Those also have magazine extensions offerred from Benelli to increase to 7+1, or if you go with the Practical, even more.

The Remington I have has a 28" barrel and a Choate extension that increases capacity to 9 rounds in the magazine. You can, as I did, do a few minor things to increase it to 10 rounds. A potential weakpoint of the 1187 is that it is gas operated and the O-ring can (and will) eventually fail needing replacement.

I haven't tried Winchester's Super X2,......yet. A Super X2 Practical MkII is on my list, though.