Semi Auto Shotgun comparison

Which Semi-Auto Shotgun would you choose

  • Browning Silver

    Votes: 6 9.7%
  • Beretta 391 Urika

    Votes: 20 32.3%
  • Benelli M2 Field

    Votes: 24 38.7%
  • Remington 11-87

    Votes: 12 19.4%

  • Total voters
    62
  • Poll closed .
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TX1911fan

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The four shotguns listed all seem to be at about the same price (give or take a little), except the Benelli which is a few hundred dollars more.

I plan on using it mostly for bird hunting of all sorts. Would almost certainly be synthetic stock, probably in camo. I don't want to have to worry about it.

Which would you choose and why? Thanks.

Edited to add purpose. Thanks Armed Bear
 
Call me old-fashioned, but I'd rather have an 1100 than an 11-87, though actually I have examples of both. All the others in the list I am not personally familiar with and therefore can't comment about.

lpl/nc
 
12 Gauge or 20?

I will assume 12 Gauge for the purpose of this...

For the record, I, too, like the 1100. But I have an old one, a good one.

Here's something you don't hear from a bird hunter all that often: "Damn, after carrying this gun around all morning, I really wish it was heavier!" If you hunt flat country and don't walk around much, that isn't a big issue. Otherwise, I think it is.

So, I would put the 11-87 last and the Browning next to last, just based on their weight. Nothing wrong with them, as shotguns.

The price of the Benelli is a bit of a turn-off. If you need to be able to shoot 500 rounds in a morning, in the heat, and 500 more in the afternoon, it's good for that. I know at least one guy who paid over $1500 for one, an ugly black plastic Cordoba, because he goes way south and hunts doves, no magazine plug, hundreds of rounds per day, in Mexico. He says it was well worth it; the gun is flawless. I shot it, and liked it. Shoots like a dream, and it's light, as a bonus. Get the Comfortech, though!

The Urika 2 is a great gun. However, I would be tempted to get a 3901 instead, in walnut, believe it or not. Save money (compared to all the other guns listed) and get a great Beretta gas-operated semiauto. It is also light, and wood just feels better, to me, all else being equal, unless you want it for waterfowl also. It's not real fancy, so you won't have to feel bad if you use it.

I might also consider the Urika 2 in walnut. It is the lightest gun of all you listed, but only in walnut.

Another gun to look at is the 105CTi from Remington. Bottom-eject, almost no felt recoil at all, light, well-balanced. It is expensive, though, and I don't know how well it's been working for down-and-dirty real world hunting. I've shot one, and I loved it, though.

All of that said, in this and surrounding states we have a 3-round limit for birds. I'm liking my O/U lately, and I don't have to go around picking up hulls like with a semiauto. But it's a 20. There are only a few 12 Gauge O/U's I'd want to carry around a lot.

So, of those 4, I'd say Urika, Benelli, Remington, with the Browning as a ???

I don't have an opinion on the Browning Silver, since I haven't shot one or spent any time around those who were shooting one.
 
The 3901 was well below these 4 guns in price, so I didn't include it in the comparison, but I am looking at it. Sounds like a great way to go, but if I'm waterfowling, I may wish I had a synthetic stock, no?
 
They make one, but it, like the Urika 2, is a good deal heavier than the walnut version. Oddly. Cheaper, though.

Depends what you mean by "birds", too.:)
 
Mossberg 930

Mossberg 930, as good as any of the guns listed and 1/2 the price!!

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I voted 11/87 but what I would get would be an old 1100. I have had at least one of each and they just feel better. I must say the Beretta makes a fine shotgun.

The O rings on the Remington are really a non issue. I always keep an extra set on hand. When they go out I just replace them and buy another.
 
Hmm

The O rings on the Remington are really a non issue. I always keep an extra set on hand. When they go out I just replace them and buy another.
I just consider it another indication that the Beretta is a better engineered shotgun.

I haven't played with the Benellis much. Could be that there even better yet.
 
Since you are going to use it mostly for hunting, Benelli. Foolproof, tested, very rugged operating system. If you plan on getting serious about clays, get the 391. I have the older versions (M1 and Urika) of both, and like them a lot. Both the M1 and the 391 have been through some rough conditions hunting with no problems, but the M1 is a little lighter and easier to carry. Less parts to lose when you strip it in the field, too! The 391 (two, actually) is my clays gun, although one of them carries a synthetic stock as a back-up hunting gun.
 
I just consider it another indication that the Beretta is a better engineered shotgun.
Eh...you can get 50 o-rings for the 1100 for 10 bucks and you should just replace them every 500 or so shells. I have an old remington 1100, and would go for that before an 11-87 or a new 1100.

I haven't played with the Benellis much. Could be that there even better yet.
Um...no, I don't think they are. When you outrun a reminton you have to pull the trigger again, when you outrun a benelli (it's only a hundredth of a second faster) you have to cycle the action. That's the kinda crap that gets people killed.
 
Smitty in CT said:
Mossberg 930, as good as any of the guns listed and 1/2 the price!!
Takes a confident (or crazy) man to declare that, to each his own I guess...

I just keep reading it and waiting for it to say something else...:banghead:
 
Whitman, the 930 is truly a nice gun, and inexpensive. I've been impressed with it. Not overweight, either. I'd have to echo the sentiments, though I'm an 1100 guy, too. Getting to be more interested in O/U's, actually, but that's neither here nor there.

That said, I think it's a common mistake for a non-shotgunner to believe the marketing BS that the same gun can be used for birds and geese.

Doves and ducks over decoys, sure.

But pass-shooting geese and brush-country quail with the same gun? That's about like saying you can hunt elk and rabbit with the same rifle. Sure, you could shoot rabbits with a .30-06, in theory, I guess...

You might take your big waterfowl gun out to hunt quail in the chaparral once, but you won't do it twice. Of course, it goes without saying that a little 20 gauge isn't all that great on passing geese.

In shotgunning, there isn't a long list of mostly-redundant calibers like there is for rifles. That doesn't, however, mean that one shotgun can really work for all game and for all environments.
 
I'd go 12 gauge with the semi auto since I have a 20 gauge for doves, quail etc. Ducks and geese would get the 12, as would skeet once in a while. Thanks for all the comments guys. The Beretta is looking like the winner, but I'll have to check out the Mossberg. Could be that I get that one sooner rather than later for the price.
 
Back when I started shotgunning. lots of us used one gun for everything. Usually a long barreled, tightly choked repeater of at least 7 lbs and oft more.

Since we were young and fit, these weren't that bad when hauled hither and yon.

Then, we found out about upland guns, oft in the form of the Ithaca 37. These were easy to carry, kicked hard with duck loads but not with loads more suited for stuff under 5 lbs in weight.

These days, most of us have multiple shotguns for multiple missions and are much better served thereby.

If I were getting a new waterfowler of the semi auto persuasion, I'd get a 391. And I'd have a good smith do the trigger mach schnell....

Were it an upland mission,with wild Ringnecks on the agenda, my new auto would be less than 7 lbs in weight, and possibly the top contender the Franchi AL48. And because of said Roosters, it'd be a 12 gauge.

Were the mission limited to small birds up close. the Semi Of Choice would be either said AL48 or an 1100 in 28 gauge.

And if I were forced to pick just one and use it for everything, I'd handle all of these and Benelli's Montefeltro and pick the one that felt best.

HTH....
 
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