Mike, just glad my ramblings make sense to a few guys.....
The X1 is one heck of a shotgun. They just don't make them like that, not before or after the X1. A pound lighter and the X1 would have ruled the world!!! Another $100 cheaper and the pound lighter would have put the others out of business......
The X2 is a pound to a pound and a half lighter. It is every bit as reliable. The X2 action is noticeably faster than the X1, but IMO there are very very few who can outrun the X1 on the trigger. The X2 shoots a much wider variety of shells, on the bottom end of the range it would relate to targets.
I had been shooting my X2 like a madman for about 6-8 months after I bought it when a friend shows up with a SuperX1 that just made you drool. The wood was beautiful, and the blue was 99% on an original gun. He put a skeet barrel on it and we shot a couple rounds of skeet interchanging X guns during the rounds. Shooting them (mine is a 3.5" X2) back to back like that was nice. I feel that the X2 moves very much like the X1, which moves very much like a target O/U. The balance and heft of the X1 are nearly identical to the Browning Citori that everyone lusts for, and the X2 feels about the same in the mount and swing to me.
Don't pick up an X2 in the gunshop, especially not if you have entertained the thought of a new shotgun in the next year or two. If the X1 does it for you the X2 will too, and you could well end up molesting a charge card......
The only other autoloading shotgun out there that is comparable in quality and shootability is the Beretta 390 and 391 guns. They are a darn fine shotgun as well. I prefer the X2 by a slight margin, most of that being that it fits me better.
One truly opinionated essay ^^^^
. Hope it helps.
