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Benelli question

Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited June 2003 in Ask the Experts
How's everyone been doing ?

I have a friend who I work with that has bought a Benelli SBE 28" 3.5 mag shotgun.

His question is this : Has had the barrel checked and it is a .721.
Is this a good waterfowl barrel ? ( Bigger bore better shooting or has he been fed a bunch of Bull hockey )

Let us know please

Thanks in advance Wayne

NRA MEMBER
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Comments

  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Anyone know whats the difference between the Montefeltro and Legacy shotguns by Benelli?
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  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am in the market for a new shotgun. Looking at the Benelli Super Black Eagle II or the M2 Field model. Question: is the only difference between the two is that the SBE can use 3.5" or is there other differences between the two? The difference in price is not enough to make me go one way or the other. I mainly use the shotgun for upland birds. Should I get the 3.5 in case I start duck/turkey hunting or will the 3" suffice? Thanks.
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  • OleDukOleDuk Member Posts: 1,195 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Normal 12 gauge bore is .729 inches. Backbored barrels give you a somewhat shorter shot string but someone else will have to convince you that the results are commensurate with the expense of having it done.Competitive skeet shooters who can't stand to miss one target in a thousand will try anything to improve their scores, including back-boring, sleeving, porting, forcing-cone mods, etc.
    What counts for a hunting shotgun is how it shoots on the patterning board. If it patterns OK don't worry about the bore diameter.
    Good luck,
    OleDuk
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  • rsnyder55rsnyder55 Member Posts: 2,526 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A patterning board will not always tell you how the shot string leaves the barrel, only the path. The shot can be separate into several clumbs with gaps of sufficient size to allow a target or bird to fly through. Another check that is useful is to shoot over open water while swinging the barrel and looking at the pattern in the water. If it is an even spread, great. If there are gaps in the spread then the shot is clumping into groups. A pattern board can not tell you this.
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  • bambihunterbambihunter Member Posts: 10,792 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I've had a SBE 28" since '93 and I LOVE it. That gun would honestly be the LAST gun I ever got rid of.
    Now, for your question (which I'm still not aswering directly)... I have shot a lot of different shot, a lot of different shotshell lengths as well as various factory and aftermarket chokes with mine.
    For duck, I found 3" 4's steel to pattern and have better kill than 3.5". However, the 3.5" with 4's (lead) in an extra-full turkey choke will roll the bird like none I've ever seen.
    If I were him I'd grab a bunch and start shooting various stuff. Mine didn't seem to like any of the exotic non-toxic stuff like Bizmuth or Tungsten, but I didn't like paying for it either.
    This is a little off the topic, but my friends can't believe the distance I can drop a dove using 2 3/4" Winchester AA's in 7.5 shot using an IC choke. I never have measured it but it's at least 10 - 15 yards further than they can even seem to wing a bird and when they shoot mine they too can hit 'em out there. A friend of mine used to always ask me if I brought my Ithaca 12 gauge or my missle-launcher (his nickname for my SBE). [:D]

    It really doesn't matter what the barrel size is, what matters is how it shoots, cycles, and patterns. I've had some very poor patterning guns (on paper) that would take anything I used them for and I never cared about thier barrel specs.
    Fanatic collector of the 10mm auto.
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  • AlpineAlpine Member Posts: 15,092 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I broke my SBE in with the 3.5 ammo. And it has worked with trap loads 2.75 inch shells flawlessly ever since. I put an Edwards Recoil Reducer in the stock (those 3.5 incher are mule kickers). I also reworked the trigger and it didn't pattern well with the standard chokes. I put a Briley choke in it and it shoots well at game and now I can shoot it at trap with a clean round.
    Now I have to arm wrestle my son to use it. But that's not fair as he is bigger and stronger than I am.

    "If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."
    ?The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.?
    Margaret Thatcher

    "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
    Mark Twain
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  • Spring CreekSpring Creek Member Posts: 1,260 ✭
    edited November -1
    Combining a "Slug" barrel with the standard barrel makes the "package" and All Around Winner.
    The Inertia System is Unbelievable in how smooth and dependably it cycles all different rounds.
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  • interstatepawnllcinterstatepawnllc Member Posts: 9,390
    edited November -1
    HarleeDude, we be missin ya over in gen discussion, been awol or out on the rig?

    Ted Kennedy's breath has killed more people than my car.
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  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thanks guy's


    Interstate nope just doing what I said.
    I quit hanging around here but still look
    at guns and everyonce in a while say
    happy birthday that's about it.

    NRA MEMBER
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