Best waterfowl shotgun ~$1000 or less

JWinners · Feb 7, 2018

I would suggest a Remington 1187, though it might be a little on the heavy side. Only my opinion.

Racer Doug14 · Feb 10, 2018

SX4amo is $100 @ Cabelas $899.

DJones2987 · Feb 11, 2018

JWinners said:
I would suggest a Remington 1187, though it might be a little on the heavy side. Only my opinion.

Not an option since it doesn't shoot 3.5" shells.

Racer Doug14 said:
SX4amo is $100 @ Cabelas $899.

Thanks I'll check it out!

hobiecat590 · Feb 11, 2018

SBII or SBIII

Benelli SBII or SBIII although the III will be north of $1300.

Side benni, you can buy a rifled slug barrel for the SBII and this makes a great, super accurate slug gun for deer. Max is 3" shells for the slug barrel.

In Argentina they use SBII's for dove hunting and allegedly thousands round daily thru these guns.

DJones2987 · Feb 11, 2018

hobiecat590 said:
Benelli SBII or SBIII although the III will be north of $1300.

Side benni, you can buy a rifled slug barrel for the SBII and this makes a great, super accurate slug gun for deer. Max is 3" shells for the slug barrel.

In Argentina they use SBII's for dove hunting and allegedly thousands round daily thru these guns.

I have plenty of deer rifles, no need for that feature. I've been looking for a good condition SBE2 but the 3 is $1800. I'd have to save for awhile for that one.

linkstate · Feb 12, 2018

For those thinking about getting a SBE III, check out the Benelli forum on shotgunworld. There are some reports of them shooting way high at 40 yards. I have no first hand experience, just something I read about a couple of weeks ago.

copasetic · Feb 13, 2018

I purchased an SX3 at the end of 2016 and it has been a great gun... if the SX4 is an SX3 but better, it should serve you well... also, I would think the SX3s are even cheaper now, so maybe save some more money and still get a great shotgun.

94hokie · Feb 13, 2018

linkstate said:
For those thinking about getting a SBE III, check out the Benelli forum on shotgunworld. There are some reports of them shooting way high at 40 yards. I have no first hand experience, just something I read about a couple of weeks ago.

I have one and it shoots just fine. The people that are complaining are putting the bead on the target when they shoot rather than underneath the target which is how you should be shooting at flying birds. I have had absolutely no problem with hitting ducks and geese this past season with mine.

DJones2987 · Feb 14, 2018

copasetic said:
I purchased an SX3 at the end of 2016 and it has been a great gun... if the SX4 is an SX3 but better, it should serve you well... also, I would think the SX3s are even cheaper now, so maybe save some more money and still get a great shotgun.

I'm trying to find one to get my hands on to see how it feels.

linkstate said:
For those thinking about getting a SBE III, check out the Benelli forum on shotgunworld. There are some reports of them shooting way high at 40 yards. I have no first hand experience, just something I read about a couple of weeks ago.

I shot my buddy's sbe3 last weekend and it was dead on for me.

94hokie said:
I have one and it shoots just fine. The people that are complaining are putting the bead on the target when they shoot rather than underneath the target which is how you should be shooting at flying birds. I have had absolutely no problem with hitting ducks and geese this past season with mine.

I hit two this past weekend with my buddys. No problems with his.

copasetic · Feb 14, 2018

So far, every time I let someone borrow it to shoot clays, they end up doing a better job than I with an O/U... granted I don't get out much. Bass Pro had a few for sale, last time I checked... might be a place to at least feel it out - if you can stand the 45 minute wait, that is

fabsroman · Feb 14, 2018

94hokie said:
I have one and it shoots just fine. The people that are complaining are putting the bead on the target when they shoot rather than underneath the target which is how you should be shooting at flying birds. I have had absolutely no problem with hitting ducks and geese this past season with mine.

How the gun shoots depends on how you set it up. My SBE needs to cover the bird with the bead to hit it. Same goes for all my clay guns except the o/u I use for trap. With trap, I float the target on top of the bead since it is always a rising target. Every shotgun I have ever used for field shooting has always been one where it hit on target if I had the bead in the correct spot.

Hard to imagine that a single barrel gun would shoot high if you are looking directly down the rib without any rib exposed, but I guess it is possible if the mount the rib a certain way. On my trap o/u, I can see a decent amount of the rib before the bead (i.e., my head is mounted a little higher on it.

The thing with the SBE is that the drop on the stock can be changed with the shims. This allows the owner to change where the point of impact it.

If I had more time on my hands, I'd be interested in figuring out what these people are complaining about on the SBEIII and its point of impact.

94hokie · Feb 14, 2018

fabsroman said:
How the gun shoots depends on how you set it up. My SBE needs to cover the bird with the bead to hit it. Same goes for all my clay guns except the o/u I use for trap. With trap, I float the target on top of the bead since it is always a rising target. Every shotgun I have ever used for field shooting has always been one where it hit on target if I had the bead in the correct spot.

Hard to imagine that a single barrel gun would shoot high if you are looking directly down the rib without any rib exposed, but I guess it is possible if the mount the rib a certain way. On my trap o/u, I can see a decent amount of the rib before the bead (i.e., my head is mounted a little higher on it.

The thing with the SBE is that the drop on the stock can be changed with the shims. This allows the owner to change where the point of impact it.

If I had more time on my hands, I'd be interested in figuring out what these people are complaining about on the SBEIII and its point of impact.

Here's a pretty good thread from the duck refuge forum from a guy's experience with patterning his gun.

http://www.refugeforums.com/threads/benelli-sbe3-pattern-test.1026513/

fabsroman · Feb 14, 2018

94hokie said:
Here's a pretty good thread from the duck refuge forum from a guy's experience with patterning his gun.

http://www.refugeforums.com/threads/benelli-sbe3-pattern-test.1026513/

Quote from that site after the guy had noticed it was patterning 8" to 10" high:

I switched out the shim that came in my SBE3 with the "C" one that fit my long arms and torso. It looked like it would make an insignificant difference but when I shouldered the gun I saw so much less of the rib I was surprised. The Hi-viz sight was an easy plug and play replacement. The RR T2 had great reviews and it tightened my pattern much better than the stock choke tubes.

If people do not have a clue what they are doing with these adjustable shims/stocks, then the gun will not shoot where it is supposed to. On a field gun, the shooter should not see any of the rib. If the shooter is seeing the rib, then the gun will shoot high. Not even sure most sporting clays shooters set the gun up to float the bird either. I know I don't.

fabsroman · Feb 14, 2018

94hokie said:
Here's a pretty good thread from the duck refuge forum from a guy's experience with patterning his gun.

http://www.refugeforums.com/threads/benelli-sbe3-pattern-test.1026513/

Another guy in that thread having an issue with the gun shooting high:

Good Afternoon, OneShotBandit,

I am having the same out of box issue you are referencing (and seems like everyone else is too). Im not interested in sending the gun back to Benelli since this seems to be by design.

Can you post a little more detail on the changes you made to correct this? I am not familiar with how to "shim" the gun to fix POI from POH. Also which HiViz sight did you switch to? As that seems to be a common fix as well. Also if Im reading right, you switched the stoke choke too?

Any help would be great, I have a 3 day guided hunt coming up and was looking forward to taking daily limits with the SBE3.

That is what is nice about Beretta and Benelli semi-auto guns, they can be adjusted. I had to adjust all of mine except for the 391 Teknys so that they would come up just right and I would not see any of the rib with the bead exactly where it should be. I use a "D" shim. A "C" shim would make the gun shoot high for me.

Sounds like most of the SBEIII shooting high issues is operator error. At least from the first two pages of that thread.

dreadpirate · Feb 15, 2018

Do you need anything more than a Remington 870? Last time I went goose hunting a guy in our party had a single shot semi-auto since it would not cycle. I had no such problem.

fabsroman · Feb 15, 2018

dreadpirate said:
Do you need anything more than a Remington 870? Last time I went goose hunting a guy in our party had a single shot semi-auto since it would not cycle. I had no such problem.

Yeah, I cannot shoot a pump very well. Learned that my first time duck hunting trying to shoot teal and mallards. I had no problem using my Browning pump for quite a while on doves. Probably shot doves with it for a decade. Seemed to be alright. Then, I went to an o/u and I was shooting a little better. Started shooting clays with an o/u. Shot clays for about 5 years and then went on my first duck hunt. If I did not hit a bird with the first shot, forget shots 2 and 3 with the pump. I had left the o/u at home because I did not want to carry it in the marsh and muck it all up. So, the next week, I went to the skeet range with the pump to see what the problem was. By the time I worked the slide for the 2nd shot, the 2nd clay was already behind the house. I was just way too slow with it. Next hunting season, I started goose hunting, but I was using the o/u in a field. Had no problems killing them. Granted, they are a lot slower and they do not go vertical like ducks do. Anyway, I bought the SBE that hunting season after using a friends a couple of times. Have not looked back since then. That gun has probably killed a couple thousand birds in the 20 years I have owned it.

DJones2987 · Feb 15, 2018

dreadpirate said:
Do you need anything more than a Remington 870? Last time I went goose hunting a guy in our party had a single shot semi-auto since it would not cycle. I had no such problem.

I have an 870 express that I use now. Follow up shots are difficult for me. With my buddy's semi I can usually hit 2 clays back to back. Is it a Need, nah. More so a want.

fabsroman said:
Yeah, I cannot shoot a pump very well. Learned that my first time duck hunting trying to shoot teal and mallards. I had no problem using my Browning pump for quite a while on doves. Probably shot doves with it for a decade. Seemed to be alright. Then, I went to an o/u and I was shooting a little better. Started shooting clays with an o/u. Shot clays for about 5 years and then went on my first duck hunt. If I did not hit a bird with the first shot, forget shots 2 and 3 with the pump. I had left the o/u at home because I did not want to carry it in the marsh and muck it all up. So, the next week, I went to the skeet range with the pump to see what the problem was. By the time I worked the slide for the 2nd shot, the 2nd clay was already behind the house. I was just way too slow with it. Next hunting season, I started goose hunting, but I was using the o/u in a field. Had no problems killing them. Granted, they are a lot slower and they do not go vertical like ducks do. Anyway, I bought the SBE that hunting season after using a friends a couple of times. Have not looked back since then. That gun has probably killed a couple thousand birds in the 20 years I have owned it.

My follow up shots are terrible lol.

94hokie · Feb 15, 2018

dreadpirate said:
Do you need anything more than a Remington 870? Last time I went goose hunting a guy in our party had a single shot semi-auto since it would not cycle. I had no such problem.

Depends on how much you like your shoulders.

Best waterfowl shotgun ~$1000 or less

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