shotgun needed for 3-gun as well as other competition

[shooterx10]

I'm looking at getting a shotgun for 3-gun competition. I saw a dealer in my area offering a Winchester SX2 Practical Mark 1 (not the Mark 2;P ) for around $756 brand new. Is this a good price considering the MK 2 is already being shipped?

Also, can I use the existing barrel for skeet, trap, or sporting clays, or do I have to use another length barrel? ;d I would hate to buy another shotgun just for clays.

Any help is greatly appreciated!;b

[Yips]

Shooterx10, My choice is the benelli M1 Super 90, My brother owns three. Everyone on our shooting team uses one(seven of us) In the USPSA magazine, Front sight, Pat Kelley would probably disagree, but he claims to shoot faster than the benelli can function. NO WAY!!! Its quite fast and you nor anyone else can outshoot this shotgun while putting shot on target down range. he claims he shoots .11 splits with the new Browning Gold. What he fails to tell the audience is that he put the shotgun butt against a tree and got his splits that way. Fastest time I have seen anyone put two shots on target is .18 and that was done by my brother. I am sorry i got off the subject a little, but wanted everyone to know that there is no way you can outshoot a benelli.

Scott

[alienglockster]

yips,

Your brother did do a few splits in .12 and .13 from the shoulder...I seen the timer.

But for about the same $$ as a SX2 you can get into a Benelli. Most of the Post ban M1's where shipped with light recoil kits and if you try to go fast on this setup you WILL have hammer follow. But in a match (target-to-target) the fastest (usefull) splits we have ever gotten was .20-.22 having poppers set between 1-2 foot apart. I have 2 of them and would never shoot any other kind... one (my preban) is set up for 3 gun matches and my other one (post ban) is set up as my back up gun and my bird gun.

[Yips]

Randy,
I got your point, but like you said, in competition you cant shoot faster than the gun. like the pic, good ol prescott, i miss that place.

[Intel6]

Everyone always talks about how fast the different shotguns are. The point is that there is a big difference between seeing how fast you can blast rounds into the backstop for pure speed and actual pratical speed. I get tired of hearing people regurgitate the Benelli marketing gimick about it being the fastest shotgun. Sounds good but what does that have to do with anything? And unlike you both (Yips and AG) ususally the people who are preaching this stuff talk more about than actually shoot and they don't even know what a shot timer is. Benellis are great guns but they have some positives and negatives just like Remingtons and all the others.

Alienglockster said it all when he talked about "useful" splits. Being able to trip the trigger quickly is only one part of the equation. Being able to recover from the recoil and transition to the next target to re-engage is another part. I am able to get .15 sec splits (two rounds on same steel plate) with both my Rem and Benelli shotguns. My transition times between poppers (a few feet apart) are in the .23-.26 sec range. When it comes to pratical/useful speed both brands are equal IMHO. While I like and shoot both I tend to shoot lots of slugs ( cast and reload my own) and prefeer to shoot my 11-87 Police more often as it handles the slugs with less recoil than the Benelli.

Getting back to the original question, you need to decide what you want to do with your SG other than competition. If you are planning on using a different barrel for something else you will have some problems finding extra barrels for the Benelli's. Extra barrels are easy to find for Remingtons and cost a lot less. If you want to use the same barrel for everything then the Benelli is no problem but if you want to change barrels then you might consider something else.

[shooterx10]

Thanks for the advice on the Benelli. The prices I've seen for the Benelli M1's are like $800+, but then again the prices for the Winchester SX2 Practical runs about the same. The $765 for the Winchester at the dealer near me is a steal (to someone out of state), but with tax and all, it'll be around $800.

Are barrels hard to come by on the Winchesters?

[Yips]

Intel6, good write up and I completely agree with you.
ShooterX, please dont get me wrong, every gun has a place, I just happen to prefer the Benelli over the winchester and browning. Good discussion. Thanks