In the run up to next year’s SHOT show, manufacturers have to do something to keep the pot boiling. Call it The Attack of the Minor Variants. In this case, we have the Benelli Waterfowl Edition Super Black Eagle II. Big Ben’s Performance Shop blesses each shotgun with a custom-tuned trigger group (in C sharp), a Hi Viz Comp front sight and a lengthened and polished forcing cone (who doesn’t need one of those?). But here’s the deal maker: Rob Roberts’ Custom Triple Threat Chokes. Which isn’t a sports headline, but a really sweet trio of chokes that “apply specifically to waterfowl hunting at short-, medium- and long-range distances.” So, you can buy the Benelli Super Black Eagle II for $1759, forgo the trigger and cone job and PayPal Mr. Roberts $150 for his chokes, or shell-out $2899 for the Waterfowl Edition. Do the birds care? No. No they don’t.
Does even a 1760 dollar shotgun REALLY make that much of a difference over one a quarter its price, tops? As a frugal pragmatist, I’m truly curious if such excess is really worth it.
Does it make a significant difference in duck-puncturing ability? No. No it doesn’t. The difference is in build quality and length of service.
If you can overlook the less-silky-cycling-by-comparison action of, say, a Mossberg 930 you won’t kill any fewer waterfowl. And there’s the added bonus of buying three 930s for the same price. So you can just throw one away when it breaks down and take another one from the safe.
I held my consumer grade Winchester 1300 yesterday and was sad that it’s out of production.
My Rem 870 Expresses are TERRIBLE in comparison.
At the same price point, quality has gone DOWN. You’d think 25+ years later, that quality would have gone UP due to advances.
I’d pay as much as needed to get a smooth, reliable, quality gun that works the way it’s supposed to. Although functional, “lower end” guns can lessen the experience.
Try a Browning BPS instead. I have an Ithaca 37 I love. Benelli makes good guns, you can get a Nova or Super Nova for a lot cheaper than the gun in the article.
I’d like to see a Benelli Jackson Pollock Tribute Edition. Now that camo job would be cool.
Just in reference to a few things, 1. Apparently nobody who has replied or posted here is a shear fire waterfowler, 90 days in the blind shooting 3 1/2in shells wears you out to no end ( even shooting a 3in shell does the same) with the polished inertia system they have put into this shotgun to help reduce the recoil the hardcore waterfowler will pay the price just for that, 2. Patterning most of the newer style shot out of shotguns especially out of the older ones can be a headache you can never really tell where it may go or what it may do, what Benelli has done here is completely redesigned the way a shotgun handles patterns for the new and old shot no matter what you are shooting… 3. I would love to see any shotgun ( other than the 870) go through the torture and abuse that a true waterfowler puts a shot gun through season and season out and last longer than 2 years, oh that’s right that’s when the beretta’s, Remington’s, browning’s, and everything else out there are getting repalaced so I’ll pay the higher cost for their new shotgun and you know what I won’t ever have to buy another shotgun for the rest of my life end of story….
I second that Byron. I waterfowl hunt 80+ days a year and would trust nothing else but my sbe2.
Just to let you know beretta and benelli are made by the same distributor. I have a maxus and it’s a bad ass gun. It has taken a hell of a beaten and hasn’t failed me once. There is definitely advantages to a higher priced gun.
I just purchased one new for $2100.00. Well worth the price for the upgrades (trigger and cone) to this gun and the chokes compared to a base sbe2 currently selling for $1700-$1800 online.
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