benelli super black eagle

[Dr. Death]

i came to the guys in this forum once before for help and i was not let down. your experiences saved me a butload of money so now i am back. i just got a benelli super black eagle 28 inch barrel semi automatic. Anyone have any input on what 3 1/2 inch shells i should use? and choke recommedations? if you do please let me know. i would like to use the SBE this last week of season. Oh and I also bagged a nice tom this season. 10 1/4 inch beard, 1 1/4 spurs, weighing 21.5 pounds. good luck to the rest of u and thanks for the advise.

Dr. Death

[fabsroman]

My advice would be to use the gun next turkey season after you have had the opportunity to work with in during the off season. Spend the rest of this week hunting for that second bird with the tried and true gun you have been using. I know, it is tough to not use the new gun, but I made a similar mistake after buying a new choke tube for waterfowl. I just assumed that it would pattern great, so I took it out for the first day of duck season. Couldn't understand how I was missing so much on the wood ducks and I could have sworn I had a mallard die in my sights.

The next day, a Sunday when I could not hunt, I patterned the new choke tube and found that it patterned terrible with #5 and #6 steel, but that it patterened beautifully with #4 Hevi Shot. So, that is what I started using. The next weekend, I killed a mallard drake dead as a stone as it and a hen came in real close. The hen did a circle and flew right back over us at about 50 yards up and I dropped her like a rock too.

If you don't have the time to spend patterning the gun this week, use the old one. It would truly suck to loose the first tom with the SBE because of the patterning.

By the way, the choke tube I was using is a Patternmaster. Haven't patterned it on larger shot, but it has been clobbering geese with BB, BBB and T shot, so I think it holds a pretty good pattern with the larger shot. I shot one goose last year at about 20 yards with T shot coming straight in and there was nearly a clear hole through the bird. The left side of the bird was completely ruined.

[WT Kevorkian]

I use my benelli for turkey, I have a mad max hevi shot choke tube and have found Remington hevi shot #6's pattern the best, the high velocity version did not pattern as well, nor did the #5's, with the standard velocity 6's the gun will blow chunks at 20 yards and will easily kill slightly beyond 40 yards, although I probably wouldn't take a shot that far it is nice to know you could do so. The turkey I shot this year was less than 20 yards and it nearly took its head off.