IdahoDucker

"The "13" year old started it! LOL " Wouldn't surprise me if he could finish it too. I don't think $700 is bad for a used SBEII that wasn't made to handle 3.5" shells.

A little story to add to this. My friends 9 year old is packing a 20 gauge single shot in the blind this year. He actually fell down once when he shot it (he's small) so we rigged up a chair for him to shoot from. When he lets one fly he'll rub his shoulder and say, "Ouch." Us old f@rts just grin and say, "Nice try you almost got that one." Next duck comes by and he does it all again. Us old f@rts just grin some more. He says ouch because it kicks but he's not complaining. He's usually got the biggest grin in the blind. sbeIIfan, it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, 13 or 30, big hands or small, you can either handle it or you can't. Keep shooting, the world needs more kids like you.

Since we're asking mudhen questions . . . what's with the hat?

Sorry lfharch, wasn't flaming you specifically. You have valid questions. My camo SBE doesn't SNAP either, it's more of a quiet snick. Don't worry though. Just gently push into place and then slide it over the mag tube. Once you do that everything will be where it's supposed to. It's not going to fall apart. Not sure about your carrier button problem.

"Thing kicks like a mule ..." - Guns do that. "...obviously not made to handle the shell." - No comment. "Trigger guard repeatedly kicked back into my middle finger." - Guns do that. Grip the stock firmly. "If not I've got 1 for sale ..." - I have an extra $500. Wait you said SBE II make that $700. Let me know. "...and will be buying the Xtrema." - If you had no idea that a 3.5" 12 gauge round would kick in an inertia driven gun and can't hang on to it when it does then the Extrema is for you.

Dang! I had no idea that my SBE was so difficult to disassemble, clean, reassemble and operate. I'd better trade it in on something else now that I'm going to have all these problems with it. Here I thought that common sense and the manual were enough. Who knew? Relacing my shoes everytime I take the pointy thing out of the slidey thing is really going to get tiresome.

Allow me to paraphrase. No. Bad idea. However, there are these but I've never used them and I get the feeling they wouldn't work well in an auto.

Steel shot tends to pattern tighter than lead. In other words, through a modified choke it will pattern like lead through a full. Likewise with an improved cylinder it will come out like lead through a modified. Never shoot steel shot through a choke that isn't specifically designed for it. Steel will eventually if not immediately damage the choke or barrel if you do.

Check out the "Benelli" forum instead of the "Waterfowling" forum for more help. Do a search or two there on cycling issues and such.

It's looking like I'll be working at Camp Pendleton in San Diego starting in late January or Febuary. What's the duck season down there? Still open then or not? If so, any decent hunting in that area?

What's the motto? "Performance worth the price." Not "finish worth the price." If that was the deal they'd have to charge another grand for it. I'll take an ugly gun that works over a pretty gun I'm affraid to use any day. No $3000 a season clubs for me. I hunt my birds and my dog, my friends and I work hard for them and that means my gun is going to get some rough treatment. Beat the tar out of it and it still performs like it did out of the box. Better than ever actually. I wore out two shotguns in 21 years of hunting(neither a Benelli) so now I'm going to see if I can wear out a Benelli.

Southeast Idaho is really rockin! 92 ducks in the last 5 trips. 88 of them mallards. Close to 300 now for the season. 5 bands in my group too. Just an amazing winter here and it's all on wide open public land.

An awful lot of whining about the finishes on Benelli's lately. It's like crying about your 4X4 getting scratched when you took it off road. What do you expect? Take any gun hunting and pretty quick it won't look like it did when it came out of the box.

Must be for hunting rufled grouse. [ 12-20-2005, 10:00 PM: Message edited by: IdahoDucker ]

By the time a bird or whatever gets close enough to tell that your camo (or the lack thereof) doesn't match the immediate surroundings it's too late.

Do a forum search for float or floating. You should get several threads on the subject.

$1275.00 here. If I remember right. I think I read somewhere here that sims is not making a pad for the sbe2 but maybe that was for the extrema2. Now I'm confusing myself. If you can get it for the sbe2 try it by itself first. It's alot cheaper than the reducer and just might be enough anyway.

I'll sort of repeat some of what's been said. I have two friends with extrema's. They love them. I love my SBE. Both top shelf hunting guns. If you're recoil sensitive get an extrema. If you're just a little kick shy a Sims recoil pad and/or a Benelli recoil reducer will help a lot with a SBE. That Sims pad does what it says it will. If you happen to be upgrading from a pump gun and it's recoil doesn't bother you then the SBE won't either. Taking apart and cleaning my SBE is kind of fun. Takes about 20 seconds to take the whole thing apart including the bolt and the cleaning is simply simple. Everything is wide open and accessible. Anyway, I'd pick the Benelli for those reasons. [ 12-13-2005, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: IdahoDucker ]

Holy Migrators Batman!! What a day! That's my dad Leon on the left, my best girl Abby next(she really is the best), my brother Steve with his shiny new M2, friend Chris and then I'm the funny looking guy with the really nice looking SBE. In front of us are 23 greenheads, 3 suzies, one canvasback and one pintail. Probably my best hunt in 22 years. Getting that kind of shooting on public land with my dad, brother and that old dog will really be hard to beat.

My SBE and my brothers M2 are the same with the bolt lever. Usually won't come out with just fingers so we use a piece of plastic or a screwdriver wrapped in cloth to pry it out. Doesn't take much, just a little pressure with a tool like that and it pops out. I think $655 is a very good deal even if it's been shot a lot.

Second hunt with the SBE and managed a tripple and a band. I think I like this gun.

No, not yet anyway.

I will say it was the snake but not exactly where. Like I said, it was on easily accessed public land but I had to spend some time and energy to find that exact spot.

You got that right! The more the better. Here's an example of a late season hunt (January this year) on public land where "hunting" and fairly straight shooting was all that was needed. [ 03-26-2005, 11:04 PM: Message edited by: IdahoDucker ]

Nothing works as well as basic hunting. There is a difference between duck shooting and duck hunting. Go find the birds and set up where they want to be. If you do that all you'll need is a gun, a few decent decoys and, occasionally, a call that sounds like a happy duck. If you can't or won't hunt for them then buy every electronic/motorized gimick out there that you legally can use and once in awhile one of them will help. [ 03-26-2005, 10:46 PM: Message edited by: IdahoDucker ]