If a person was buying a shotgun for dove, quail, occasional skeet, would it be reasonable to buy a new or slightly used Remington 1100 vs. a new Benelli or Beretta?

New 1100's are available for a pretty high price, but not nearly as high as similar Benelli's or Beretta's.

I prefer the 1100. Frankly, an older, "used" gun in good condition would be preferable to me as well.

me one of my favorite 870s, used one to repel home invaders and once to calm a riot. But, I miss my 1100!

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

I'd go with the benelli....it's a very nice auto, comes with 6 different chokes, can be had in left hand, comes with shims to fit the stock to you, excellent hard case holds everything plus some ammo...but the $1,300 price is a bit steep for occasional use. Shotguns are a strange contraptions. If they don't fit you, you will have helluva time making wing shots. I grew up with an ole savage bolt action 20 ga...an I'm still deadly with it. Now I'm partial to Ithaca 37's. I tried a couple auto's, but during crunch time, I'd shoot them, try to pump dang thing for 2nd shot. I'm just a pump guy pure 'n simple. Hardly ever need a 2nd shot with the 37's.

Another option would be one of the stoeger 2000's. I had a 28" wood stocked version and it shot very well for me. Currently have a 24" set ip for multifunction but haven't had a hance to really run it yet. They are based on the inertia action of the Benelli's and are fairly well made. You can find them on sale at the chain stores for around $3-350 pretty often. Nice and light and comes with four or five choke tubes. Especially for someone like me who isn't a big shotgun guy they are a great combo of price and reliability.
Doug K

Rob, I'll make you a hell of a deal for my tricked out 1100!

rob at simplyrugged.com

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

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Slighty used in all three would be my suggestion.

Benellis are light 7 pounds. But are long recoil operated. Which means they kick even with dove loads. I hunt with one and have owned at least six of them. Of the
26 guys I hunt with 20 plus of us use the Benelli products.
I have not fired a Vinci, But you can shop and find used guns at good prices.
Less than 900 dollars or lower.

Berettas I have owned and shot quite a few. They are heavier, gas operated and alot more fun to shoot..They are not popular in my area other than the big Duck guns. But I am sure a very nice 300 series or 390/391 series guns would be reasonably priced used, and not worn out. I have shot the new 400 series and it is a nice gun but not worth the 1600 asking price for part time use in my opinion.

I do not like the post 1980 Remington 1100,s But the 70,s back guns are OK with more of the machined parts in them.

I personally would not buy a new anything unless I just wanted one for the purpose you stated...My opinion,,,,Stay away from the Stoeger. I have one new in the box to send back now.

Good Luck

My go to shotgun is a Benelli Montefeltro. A fantastic shotgun, but it does kick a bit more than the gas guns. This is really only noticeable after a couple of rounds of sporting clays. The Berettas are great guns but are a bit heavier. I still have a couple of 1100s and love them. If I hadn't hit such a screaming deal on the Benelli, I'd probably still be shooting the 1100s.

I was faced with the same question, and I looked at all the semi-autos available. I ended up buying (so far) three Weatherby SA-08 semi-autos. I really like the Benelli's, but I can't see spending $1000 plus for one, so after checking everything I could find, and all the feedback, I decided to try a 20 ga. Weatherby SA-08. I was so please with it I bought a 12 ga version (both with synthetic stocks). I liked those two so well that I just bought another 20 ga with high polish blue and wood stock. I'm not a person that's easy to please, and very picky about guns, but I am impressed with these shotguns.

The synthetic stocked version goes for around $450 in these parts, and the high polish blue and walnut stocked version I just bought was $560.

I'm a rather picky (my friends say anal, but I'm sure they mean it in a nice way...) engineer, and I've had all three of these SA-08's completely apart and the workmanship is first rate. The receivers are aluminum, barrel is chrome lined steel with screw chokes. The 20 ga weighs about 6 pounds, and the 12 ga about 6.5 pounds, so they are great to carry in the field. Since they are gas operated, recoil is not bad at all. They fit me the same way a Benelli does and point better than anything else I've tried (and I do have more than a few shotguns...). Once broken in with about 50 rounds or so, they function perfectly. The only negative is that they come with two gas pistons, one for light loads and one for heavy loads, so you have to swap out the pistons (an easy job) to match what you want to shoot. I've owned 1100's and 11-87's and the SA-08 is every bit as well made, in my opinion.

Weatherby is very protective of their image and is not about to sell anything that could tarnish it, and these shotguns are really first rate.

My two cents......... JD