2na-n-birds

Hey everyone - new member here. I am a long time upland game hunter (20+ years) and have several shotguns I hunt with routinely. I use a 20G Beretta 686 O/U for doves, quail and clays, and Ithaca SKB 12G SXS for pheasant and chukar. I have a Browning BPS Stalker pump 3" I have used for the occational waterfowl hunt. I am looking to get more into waterfowling and wanted to get a semiauto. But I don't want a dedicated duck gun - I want something more versatile. 9 months of the year I am shoot clay targets, not feathered ones. My buddy has a SBEII that he just loves and so I was looking at this gun. After looking at the Benelli line-up however, I really started liking the versatility of the Cordoba. I have read through a lot of posts here and have learned a lot, but have a couple of concerns. My worries are this - if I get the SBEII, I may not be able to shoot clays with lighter loads due to cycling problems. On the other hand, it seems some of you are concerned about the noise of a ported barrel of the Cordoba in a duck blind. Is it really that bad? How many people hunt ducks from blinds with ported guns? How many of you really hunt with 3.5" shells? Or are 3" Heavy Shots good enough? In short if you had $1500 for one Benelli today - SBEII or Cordoba?

Hey everyone - new member here. I am a long time upland game hunter (20+ years) and have several shotguns I hunt with routinely. I use a 20G Beretta 686 O/U for doves, quail and clays, and Ithaca SKB 12G SXS for pheasant and chukar. I have a Browning BPS Stalker pump 3" I have used for the occational waterfowl hunt. I am looking to get more into waterfowling and wanted to get a semiauto. But I don't want a dedicated duck gun - I want something more versatile. 9 months of the year I am shoot clay targets, not feathered ones. My buddy has a SBEII that he just loves and so I was looking at this gun. After looking at the Benelli line-up however, I really started liking the versatility of the Cordoba. I have read through a lot of posts here and have learned a lot, but have a couple of concerns. My worries are this - if I get the SBEII, I may not be able to shoot clays with lighter loads due to cycling problems. On the other hand, it seems some of you are concerned about the noise of a ported barrel of the Cordoba in a duck blind. Is it really that bad? How many people hunt ducks from blinds with ported guns? How many of you really hunt with 3.5" shells? Or are 3" Heavy Shots good enough? In short if you had $1500 for one Benelli today - SBEII or Cordoba?