Two thoughts re-reading this thread:
> Benelli Reliability. Our duck guide has a Benelli Nova with black furniture and ZERO finish left on the shotgun. His shotgun is a tool. Rides on the front of four wheelers, back of pickup trucks, bottom of the duck boat, never in a case. One of my friends asked him how often he cleaned or maintained his shot gun. He picked it up and pointed to the oil hole on the side of the bolt behind the recoil spring. "Two years ago I put a couple drops of oil down in here..." Not the way I maintain a shotgun. But his goes bang every time he pulls the trigger, and he consistently kills ducks. I would not worry about a properly maintained Benelli "wearing out"...
> 3.5" shells. Our entire group has migrated to 3" shells with #2 or #3 shot. One guy brought the same partial box of 3.5" Remington shells to the duck blind for the past two years to give away. Ended up leaving them with the guide to give to the next group of hunters. I found out that Federal Blue Box, 3 inch, #3's pattern well in my shotgun. Ordered a flat and called it good.
