870 Wingmaster mentioned so much here is hard to beat. I have a couple. The SBE has become the successor to the 870 in the duck hunting world. I don't know much about upland hunting but the SBE shows up a bunch of dove hunts in my neck of the woods. I own a Merkel and Fox 20 ga. They are cool but I shoot the big, plastic automatic better. Wish I could say otherwise. Prior to the SBE, I used a Benelli Nova for ducks. It was also a big clunky piece of plastic. This said, it would still work with sticks, mud, and rocks inside the action. Not sure an 870 would take such abuse.
