Sharperover said:
John: What matters to me is my inteded use. A higher capacity magazine, different sight options and so on don't matter in the hunting world that I participate in. The Montefeltro and most other autos can carry 4 in the mag and 1 in the chamber, but if DOW catches you without the plug, you will pay to play ($200 ticket here)
Yeah, I realize those things don't come into play for most hunting. But the options are there if you ever want to utilize them, and you mentioned wanting a shotgun that could do everything fairly well--an "all around" shotgun. For example, let's say you get a SBE with walnut stocks and 26" barrel with vent rib. You can adjust the buttstock for drop for cast, and then fit the gun to you. You might not achieve a perfect fit, but at least you will be able to tweak the buttstock a little to your liking. You can't do this with most guns. That gun will serve you well for your wingshooting. You can hammer waterfowl with the 3.5" loads, you can shatter clay targets with 2.75" target loads, etc. You can plug the magazine easily for hunting. Benelli sells plugs or you can make your own out of maple dowel.
I mention the other interchangeability features because some people actually use them. For example, aren't deer hunters on the east coast relegated to using shotguns with slugs? If you wanted, you could fit a rifled choke tube and create a wannabe Holland's Paradox or a Westley Richards Explora. If you wanted a rifled barrel, you could fit a rifled barrel with 3" chamber. Benelli offers this for the SBE. If you can't use metallic sights for whatever reason or you hunt in low light, you could fit an optical sight to the upper receiver on the SBE, which is part of the barrel extension and removes when you remove the barrel. A problem with other shotguns is that when you mount a telescope onto the receiver, the telescope stays on the gun when you remove the barrel. This necessitates quickly detachable telescope mounts and the mounts are unsightly on the gun when the telescope is removed and the shotgun is used for wingshooting. Or, you can remove the mounts entirely and have four threaded holes in the top of your receiver, which looks like ass. Also, you would have to zero your telescope once again when you remounted the telescope. And these systems with the telescope mounted on the receiver and the barrel loose inside the receiver have never provided satisfactory accuracy.
For whatever reason, some turkey hunters like using pistol-grip buttstocks. The SBE permits you to do this, as the SBE accepts the same buttstock as the Super 90. The Super 90 is mostly geared for the tactical/military crowd, and so things like pistol-grip buttstocks and co-axial lights abound for the Super 90. These things fit on the SBE because the Super 90 and SBE share the exact same stocks.
The idea of a co-axial light on a hunting gun isn't as funky as it sounds. I remember in my younger days, well before co-axial lights came about, I used to a tape a Mag-Lite to my air rifle and shoot at rats that hung out in my neighbors' fruit trees. My friends and I did this at night and needed the flashlight to illuminate the rats. Peter Capstick also mentioned several times that when he had to flush out a wounded leopard at night, he would don a very thick leather jacket with steel collar, and be armed with a Winchester Model 12 with a Mag-Lite taped to it. He would use the Mag-Lite to illuminate the leopards. (Capstick is a great writer and you should read his stuff if you ever get the chance.) I don't hunt regularly, but I'm sure there are lots of co-axial light applications out there that I have no clue about. At least the SBE gives you the option of using a SureFire forend with co-axial light, the one shown here on the Super 90 entry gun shown here:
The SBE also gives you barrel length and type options, something the double wouldn't do unless you had beaucoup money. You could easily make the SBE into a very nice combat shotgun. Just pull the 26" vent ribbed barrel and install an 18" cylinder barrel. Install a serrated ramp front sight and a ghost-ring rear sight and you have a very nice combat shotgun. Because of the SBE's upper receiver design, these sights will come off the gun with the barrel. The SBE works reliably with all buckshot loads, including the reduced buckshot loads like Federal's Tactical loads. I have also found the Super 90 is a very accurate slug shooter. I get lots of cloverleaf three-shot patterns at 50 yards with Brenneke slugs. (The Brenneke is also an excellent choice because the hulls are white, and you can differentiate between slugs and buckshot loads at a glance.) If you want, you can fit the extended magazine that is just about even with the 18" barrel, and you can fit the Surefire lighted forend. Add a sling and you have a combat shotgun supreme.
Several others here have recommended doubles. I must respectfully disagree. The double is a thing of beauty and I love it, but it is inherently weak because of its hinged breeching system. Every double I've ever shot was stiff to open after firing a slug through the gun. This is no sweat at all for a SBE, which has a rotating bolt head with opposed locking lugs. The lock-up is very strong. I never had a double come off the face, but I always got the impression that the double was just barely hanging on when I fired high-pressure rounds through it.
Also, you should beware of low-priced doubles. I've seen lots of them that didn't shoot right. They patterned funny and the barrels weren't regulated properly. Their actions also had slop in them and the lock-up wasn't nice and tight. If you have your heart set on a double (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with a double), my recommendation would be to start at the Beretta 682 or Krieghoff K-80 levels and then go up from there. I can't recommend any of the 686 series or equivalent price/quality doubles. I used to own a 686. It shot like shit, as did the others I've been lucky enough to play with.
