mudhen

I honestly cannot make sense of one word of your post More so, I cannot imagine why you spent so much time drafting your manifesto. I shoot whatever gun if feel like. This applies to ducks and turkeys. I shoot whatever shell floats my boat. I like the entire process of testing chokes. I shoot whatever animals I feel like. See all those I's? It's all pretty much all about me, not you Why is chicken fried steak and mashed potatos on so many menus? Why do they call it Ovaltine? It comes in a round jar. You put it into a round cup. Why not call it Roundtine? That's gold Jerry, gold....

I could see no way to adjust drop or cast on the SG I bought for my SBE II last year. The gun shot a foot lower than I wanted it to, so I sold the stock for more than I paid for it on E-Bay. I don't know anything about the SN.

I'll be in Ohio over the weekend (Dayton & Cincy). With it being 65 and sunny just about every day here, I'm looking forward to some nice nasty winter weather I like the 1200 fps of the XR's. I'm not in love with the 1090 on the H-13. It hits hard but takes a week to get there.

Wow! That's well over 200 hits in the 10" at 40 yards. I've never seen anything like that with lead #6's at that distance. I'll see if my SBE II can do it with that shell sometime next week. Good pattern!

I axed and axed, but I was told that the .643 SSX was not a card shooting choke I hear that EM might consider HS #7's, but not this year.

H-13 is sure some slow stuff at 1090 fps, but it just whaps the heck out of the board and the birds. I've got tons on 1.75 oz H-13 and a few of the 2.25 oz loads. I might test those before the season starts.

Yes, the SSX does appear to hit a bit higher than the Jellyhead, but it did have one decent pattern. I think it's more that the SSX prints a bit higher and to the right. It may have something to do with the poor fit of the SSX in my SBE II. I will mentally adjust the POA a bit to accomodate a choke's POI, but given that I have maybe 7-8 chokes that all hit right where I want them to, I really have no desire to monkey with the SSX's internal preferences. Also, I have no desire to install one of those silly sights to correct a POA POI issue. I need a gun to hit where I want it to without too much Kentucky windage.

T'wasnt me. Today was my day to chip camo, tighten safeties, hide the camo Cordobas, grease up Gel pads, and strip the finish off the barrels so they rust faster. All in a day's work

They are called fluted ports by Primos. Federal states for optimal performance, don't use any FC wad shell with a fluted choke. There is no safety issue, it is a matter of the ports possibly preventing the FC wad from doing what it was intended to do by holding the wad back. I tested 4-5 FC loads last year thought a JH and the results were no better than I am getting with the above combination. I'll keep searching though

I tried XR 5's and got 50 hits in the 10". Actually 50 hits of XR 5's will probably kill well past 40 yards. I tried Wingmaster HD 6's and got a poor pattern. I might try some H-13 6's. I'm not going to spend much more time on the SSX unless someone can let me know about a magic combination

See my other post

I won't shoot any Flite Control shells through a ported choke tube. Federal advises against it. But my Gold threw a nasty pattern with HW #7's and a $19 Carlson non-ported .665 yesterday. I'll post the photo later.

Exact same set-up as the SSX test. 40 yards from shooting sticks. Same POA, base of neck. Given that the 3.5" XR is sending 400+ pellets downrange, I am still not thrilled with these patterns, but they are somewhat better than the average SSX patterns: I will still keep looking around, but I this is what I have been shooting for the past few years. I see no need to change unless I find something better.

Well, I was able to get the SSX choke to fit in my SBE II, barely. No thanks to Tru-Glo who did not return my e-mail or faxed message. I only grade chokes on 40 yard patterns. Every choke I have ever bought can kill out to 30 yards. In I shot from a set of shooting sticks, sitting on my normal turkey seat. I used the same POA as in the field, where the neck feathers meet the bare skin on the neck. This allows me to watch the bird's head all the way up to the shot. I had one good hit, but then the rest were all pretty much the same. All shots were Winchester Xtended Range 3.5" #6's: The best was 137 hits in the 10" circle, followed by 77, 76, and 58. All decent hits, but not what I was expecting.

Funny how Primos trying to create less confusion may have created more confusion. I'm not 100% sure (only about 99.99%) that #6912 and #6913 are the exact same choke tube. Both are .660. This is a tad odd because the bore ID's are not the same. Seperate packages are often used to keep things simple (and sell more product). Some with an Xtrema or SBE II/M2 may want to buy a choke that appears to be made specially for their gun. I'm a bit surprise that the #6913 is not a .665 or .670, but since most shoot lead, it's probably just fine.

To try to add on to the very helpful reply from the first guy: Both are good guns. Both are very good slug guns. Lots of differences though. Silver - fastest cycling shotgun in the world, much faster than the M2. Until Browning makes a factory open sight slug barrel, Silver slug barrels (actually labeled Gold at this time) will use the cantilever system for attaching optics. I prefer open sights and a drilled and tapped receiver. Gas requires more cleaning than Benelli's inertia system. Here's where the Silver gets tricky. At first, Browning was offering a 3" Silver and a 3.5" Silver. Now it looks like the 3" is being dropped and the Silver will proceed as a 3.5" gun. Remember that you cannot put a 3.5" barrel on a 3" receiver. I don't know what receiver the Silver slug gun comes with, but you had better find out first. Spare matte smooth bore barrels for the 3" gun run $325, but in reality, most will be looking at $394 for a matte 3.5" barrel and $431 for a camo 3.5" barrel. At this time, finding spare Silver barrels can make looking for Benelli barrels seem like a walk in the park. I like the Silver line and would buy a Silver slug gun in a heartbeat. They are accurate and reliable. Just keep them clean and oiled as they don't usually like to run dry. If you hunt sub-zero temps, you might want to pass on a gas gun though as they can be less reliable in freezing conditions that an intertia or pump gun. M2 - Excellent slug gun. Easy to clean. M2 slug gun comes drilled and tapped. I would slap Warne bases and rings on an M2 and fire away. If you prefer open sights, I think the M2 open sights are excellent. Benelli barrels are a very scarce in general. Most new gun barrels are hard to find. Camo barrels are especially hard to find. If you want an M2 combo, you would be better off having your Benelli dealer call Benelli first to find what barrels they have in stock, and then buy the slug gun to go with that barrel. In all reality, you might be better off buying two seperate guns. With the cost of barrels being about 1/2 the cost of the whole gun, it's almost a better deal to just own both versions. Good luck

I was having too much fun putting folks on hold - it's a gas watching 36 hold buttons flash away and knowing how pizzed the callers were getting while I stuffed my fat face with do-nuts

Make that 13 consecutive negative and worthless replies Maybe try contributing something other than your usual vinegar and water Hah, me work for Benelli? I can only dream brother, only dream....

Here's the issue: Benelli Crio barrel ID's run .723 - .719, some even say .718. Beretta Optima Plus barrel ID's run .733 The chokes technically interchange. Same size and thread pattern. But they don't necessarily offer the same choke effect. So while the choke may say .660 Turkey, it doesn't always work the same in each barrel. .723 choked to .660 may not pattern the same as .733 choked to .660. Even more so if your Benelli is .719 (like my SBE II). I've gone round and round with some choke makers on this. Yes, the chokes work almost the same. Probably fine for most folks. But not always. Like Hog said, you can waste some real serious $$$ pretty quick if you don't know the specs. If Kicks labels a choke Ben Crio, I bet they did some homework on the gun.

Don't post up if you can't handle the replies I own Glocks, Berettas, Benellis, Rugers, Weatherbys, S&Ws, Sigs, a butt load of Brownings, and I post my experiences, good or bad, about each brand. Bye

I'm sure you do feel his pain, the pain of not being familiar with your firearm. It's this lack of knowledge that leads to the full used guns racks. Guns are mere machines. Did you check the nut behind the gun No rubber mallet is required to reassemble a Benelli. You just don't know how to put your gun back together. My guess is that you didn't depress the carrier latch, as required, and that the rubber mallet pounding did it for you. Next thing we will hear is "my carrier latch is broken and Benelli is junk". I don't belive one word of the original poster's post. I suspect he 'dinged' the camo film himself when he tried to force the gun together and now he's off to blame some poor 18 y.o. kid for his own ignorance. Could be that the gun was assembled improperly before though, so the return could be justified, but I doubt it. As to the 1/8" gap, the guy simply does not know how to reassemble his gun. It's that gap that causes the light strikes I suspect. Go ahead and flame me. I don't care. I'm tired of new guys, who don't know their arse from a hole in the ground, coming on here and ragging on Benelli with their first post. I agree with Tucker. Buy something else. You don't deserve a Benelli......

Excellent reply Tucker If you watch Tom Knapp's videos, you can clearly see where he is aiming when he releases the shot. I'm actually pretty hooked on the rising shot for turkeys. I pattern my guns using the line where the feathers meet the neck skin. Using a B shim, the shot pretty much rips into the head area. That way I can see the bird's head all the way up to the shot.

It goes in a few turns and then just stops. You can armstrong it a few more turns, but it will not come close to seating. It appears that the choke is too large for the barrel ID.

My brand new Tru-Glo SSX TG154X choke does not fit in my Benelli SBE II Not even close. Similar reports are showing up at the N W T F website. I hope I'm wrong, but I predict that when I contact Tru-Glo today, they will not reply or reply that they can't do anything until after turkey season, and I'll end up returning the choke to Cabela's for credit. Too bad. I have heard so much about this tube. I'll just stay with my Primos Jellyhead for now.

If you have to ask, you just have not done your field work I pattern hundreds if not thousands of rounds through dozens of choke tubes. I get better patterns with certain choke tubes. I have chokes for windy days that throw a more dense pattern. I have chokes that like certain brands of shot. Not all shot material patterns the same way. I have chokes that prefer certain sizes of shot. There are few chokes that will work well with all sizes of shot. I like how extended chokes are easier to remove by hand. I will sometimes use 3-4 chokes during a single hunt. Don't even get me started on turkey chokes. Only a real moron would question the use of extended turkey chokes.