Benelli Semi - Fad or Fact?

[Tom B]

OK please fill me in - I don't have alot of experience with tact shotguns but I keep hearing about how great the Benelli M? is. Why? I understand the differences between gas operated vs recoil operated but why is the Benelli supposed to be so much better than Remington,Mossberg,Beretta,etc... semis and at such a higher price? Is this the old H&K vs Glock situation in shotguns because if so I have already been down that road before and I own 3 Glocks and no H&Ks now. Now I do want to try the Nova but its price appears to be in line with everything else. I am not interested in status symbols.

[gunmart]

the nova is a great gun.it works and works and works.my only complaint is the stock is too long for me.

the m1 90 get a bad rap from people that have probably never shot one and are listening to sales reps interested in selling you a remington or a beretta because benneli requires you to be a dealer only for them and you cant wholsale them.(you must sell them for retail or you will lose your contract)

the m190 is a great gun that works well as long as you dont try and bolt a bunch of crap onto it like a side saddle and a flashlite.

some of the early models had stiffer recail springs in them and they started suffering malfuntions with lite loads.this has been corrected with new models.i have 2 and they both work flawless.

[Arizona Eric]

Well hell, I just picked mine up yesterday. So I hope it's no fad. It sure looks cool. Straight stock, ghost ring, extended mag. I'll know better after I wring it out this weekend.

[Al Thompson]

For many years the reliabilty of the Benelli's was a calling card. I've had two and a close friend has one, traded another off. We have only had problems shooting the cheap loss leader loads in them. While I prefer the 1100 and 870 manual of arms, if you aren't crippled by that muscle memory, grab one.

Giz

[Oleg Volk]

I am wondering it it would function with trap loads?
Also, the 1201 feels very light: how bad is the kick vs. an 18.5" 870?

[Dave T]

Gizmo,
I carried, trained at Gunsight with, and taught the 870 for my whole LE career.
I bought an M3S90, the one with the pump option, and the muscle memory from the 870 works perfectly. By the way, the Benelli works perfectly too.
I decided to keep shooting it without cleaning it to see how far it would go before malfunctioning (in semiauto mode). I finally got tired of explaining to people why my shotgun was so dirty and cleaned the thing. It works.

[Al Thompson]

Dave T, my experiance was a bit different. I had two M1S90's and enjoyed shooting them. When it came to load, un-load and stoppage reduction, I was constantly having to think my way through the procedure. Not so with the 870,

I firmly believe that the Benelli autoloaders are a far more efficent fighting tool. I also found that I was more comfortable with the 870/1100 series for threat management, so I switched back. The fact that I was able to sell my last M1S90 (pre-ban) for enough to buy two used 870s and have money left over was a big plus. :D

Different strokes, you know...

Giz