PA Hunter Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I am currently an owner of a SBE that I use exclusively for turkey hunting. While it is a great gun with exceptional patterns, it seems a bit long with a 24" barrel and a custom choke extending out another 1 1/2 inches. I am very impressed with the M2 with the 21" barrel. It seems more compact and I like the Comfortech upgrade. I am not concerned about giving up the 3.5" capacity given the great strides that have been made in 3" ammunition. I have one issue that has prevented me from bringing the M2 home. I am a believer in Hevi Shot and cannot seem to get a good answer from anyone about what type of choke tube I would use in the M2 to deliver exceptional pattern densities with Hevi Shot in a size 5 shot. I have talked to Benelli customer service as well as several dealers. I cannot get consistent answers. Some people say I should use the Benelli extended Turkey choke while others say it is too constricted for Hevi Shot. Others say the improved choke provided is all the tighter I should go with Hevi Shot. I have not been able to locate Hevi Shot tubes for the M2 with any of the premier choke tube manufacturers including Undertaker, Primos or MAD. In fact MAD specifically indicates that their Benelli Hevi Shot choke tube for the Benelli/Beretta will not work on the M2 or SBE II due to the cryogenic barrel design of these guns. I love everything about the M2 (including the fact that they will now be coming through drilled and tapped from the factory as Cabelas verified for me today) but, I am afraid to buy one until I am confident that the gun is capable of producing awesome turkey hunting pattern densities. I would appreciate any feedback or experiences you could share on this topic. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudhen Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I hate "some people" and "others"; those guys rarely know what they are talking about. Let me try to make some sense of all this. First of all, you really need to know something about Benellis; they can be hard to pattern for turks and they can be easy to pattern. It just depends on the true bore ID, which can vary from around .718 to .722. The closer the bore ID matches the choke tube ID, the better the patterns you will get. HS does generally like a more open choke, around .670 in most Benellis, but not all. Some have luck with .660/.665. Some have blown their choke tubes up with HS and .660 or smaller. Most folks purchase several tubes to find out what works best in their gun. The general idea is that .660 is too tight for HS and usually leads to blown patterns due to the compression of extra-hard shot like HS. I would not expect a good answer from Benelli CS about turkey hunting. It's not a CS question and the whole process is so subjective that any reply might be deemed incorrect. I can only imagine the drama if you missed a big Ocellated tom in Central America because of bad advice from Benelli CS! You may have better luck with Trulock, the maker of the Benelli Extended Turkey Choke. Don't know where you read about MAD tubes not fitting Crio Plus guns because of the crio process, but I'd love to have the link because I have never seen a MAD choke for the Crio Plus and/or Optima Plus choke system. Can you provide the model number of the MAD Crio+/Optima+ tube? The non-over-bored M2 is a Crio Plus gun and uses the same choke system (but does not share common choke names) with the back-bored Beretta Optima Plus. MANY, MANY, choke makers make HS chokes for both of these guns. No offense, but the choke makers you list are far from 'premier' choke makers. I do not think any of them 'make' anything, their chokes are made for them. What you want is a choke from someone who knows what they are doing. I'd start with Rhino, Trulock, and Briley. All three actually make chokes and test them on real guns. I leave out Comp-N-Choke and Kicks because you seem set on HS. Both of these companies make lead-only chokes. This is a great site, but you may find more turkey choke info at the NWTF message boards. I too like the 21" M2. If it were my gun, I'd buy a Rhino .660 and shoot 3" 1.75 oz Winchester Xtended Range #6's. If I had to shoot HS, I'd go to a .665 or .670 Rhino or maybe have one of the better companies make a special choke tube if those did not work well. It's all trial and error with Benellis...fun trial and error though... Good luck! mudhen - CA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoopman Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I bought a wadwizard supreme for my benelli to be used for waterfowl. I would not hesitate to use it on turkeys as it will produce tight, dense patterns in my gun. I will say that the wadwizard is actually a wad retarder more than a conventional choke tube. They also make a conventional choke tube called the "Terror" which looks like it would work well for turkeys also. Check out there web sight as all there stuff is guarenteed. Just type in wadwizard and use your search engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stmichaelalou Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 http://www.gunsandammomag.com/ammunition/hevi_hitter/ I read the following in reference to the hevi for turkey. It contradicts the concept of a tighter choke. FYI. I have not had personal experience with the stuff, but did buy a box to try with a Terror 675 and compare it to lead. Sounds like the Terror out of a SBE II is not the ticket though. I let you know how it looks and try to get pics of the pattern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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