[dgludwig]

I currently own three twelve gauge pump shotguns: a Browning BPS, a Benelli Nova and a Winchester Model 1300. The 3 1/2" chambered BPS with a synthetic stock and a 28" barrel weighs the heaviest @ eight pounds, five ounces (catalog listed weight spec.). The identically configured Nova comes in second @ an even eight pounds (again, per the factory spec.). The Model 1300 is the lightest of the trio. The Browning has a steel receiver; the Benelli has a unique, one piece stock and receiver,"...molded together using glass reinforced techno-polymers (housing) the embedded steel cage to form the receiver...", and the Winchester has an alloy receiver.

My Nova has proven to be a reliable shotgun but no more so than the BPS and the Model 1300. However, for me, at least, the Nova doesn't handle as well as the other two and points almost "ponderously". The three shotguns play different roles for me: the big Browning is my waterfowl/turkey/blind gun; the light Winchester is set up for deer hunting with its rifled barrel and scope and the Nova is my HD gun, with its extended magazine, "ghost" sight and receiver-mounted shell holder.

I think the Nova is an excellent shotgun and offers good value. If it were my only shotgun, it would do everything I ever needed from a shotgun and I would be well served by it, I'm sure.