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I have been killing ducks with my 1187 for 20 years or more, in a salt water marsh.

Of the ones I have used enough or seen used enough to have an opinion I have been very happy with my Beretta 390. I did a lot of walk in duck hunting at one time and it was perpetually muddy, filled with cattail chaff and dumped in the slough more times than I would care to admit. It has worked very well and balances well. I know a lot of people swear by 1187s but a friend that did a lot of duck hunting broke extractors on his twice at inopportune times-this kind of worried me. The first time we were out of state and he disregarded my suggestion to bring a spare shotgun (it's never failed me before!). Luckily my 870 was along to bail him out.
I bought my daughter an 1100 LT20 and so far so good but it really doesn't get used hard.

Once I attempted to usurp my Dads Browning Double Auto with an 870 express due to the very unkind conditions of the salt water duck hunts I was regularly taking part in.
But the gun my dad learned to break a rooster with is still my favorite. Just cool. Steel frame not the ultra cool aluminum in green..... even have both a solid rib Browning Barrel in mod and the extra ultra amazing cutts compensator with chokes on another.
Wish I could go back and not have cut the stock for my son when he was 4.5 feet tall. He's 6.3+ now....... Ah EBAY let me get lucky on a nice old early round knob with the original but plate.....
BUT my safe is groaning trying to hold in the 1100s. For a youth clay team these are just too easy. Wood stocks to cut are cheap and all over. Jack West sealed the deal for taller shooters with an awesome adjustable comb synthetic stock. Actions are a dime a dozen and half the price of a 390 on the club for sale board if you wait. Left hand actions are available for the 30% of those that start with us. The original 26 inch fixed choke barrels are a joy. In Skeet, Mod or Full they handle the ends of the target spectrum. The Rem Choke barrels are a bit heavier but that helps soak up recoil on a long day. The new Comp 1100 with a Ken Rucker bump buster is the softest shotgun with a 1 1/8oz AA Supper Handicap i have ever pulled the trigger on. Even better with a back fence load of Kentucky 9's for games. The LT 20 is a stunner with the right choke and a slow 7\8 load when that kid figures out where to point it at a trap target in the back on break a chip. And is a heck of a gun on pen raised roosters with 6's.
For the dollars spent there is a set doing the work to introduce new shooters every weekend. A few drops of Safarilands Break Free CLP on the piston and rails, a smear of grease on the top of the barrel and just under the chamber where they touch the receiver seem to keep things healthy. Any auto loves a good chamber brush with some copper chore boy strands wrapped around the bristles.
If any benefactors want to upgrade this kit to Italian Models, we will gladly keep them moving.

The one autoloader I could never shoot well is the A-5. They are a great gun and the one Franchi used as a pattern when the A-5 patent ran out.

That's funny.

As I mentioned before, A5s (Belgian ones anyway) fit me better than anything else I've used. My late brother gave me a customized Ithaca SKB straight-grip SXS that he was deadly with when he switched to OUs. I seemed to always miss the first shot with that one and connect with the second. In fact, with my young son along, I once ran into a flock of about a dozen roosters, probably just off the PGC truck. They started rising in ones and twos and I took my two with four shots, about the quickest limit I ever got, as we had just parked the car about 100 yards away. This was on a friend's farm at Gettysburg and the PGC apparently just cruised the back roads, dumping birds off at random, a far cry from the days when wild birds were as thick as fleas.

My brother was never able to shoot the fancy Superposed Lightning he bought nealy as well as he did the SKB either.

The current crop of Brownings, along with Berettas, seem to be popular with the British pigeon shooters and waterfowlers I see on YouTube. Doubles only, of course for gamebirds.

Used to work with a guy, kinda small-framed, that shot skeet with one of the 20ga 1100s on a 12ga frame. That big frame soaked up the recoil.

Every time I think about selling my 11-87 I can't come up with a logical reason why to do so. I'm sure there are better out there but it works just fine for me. Never felt the need for a 3.5".

Always liked those, though I never bit. Seemed like solid, no-nonsense guns, and looked good too.

Not a waterfowler, but I think that stuff like Hevi Shot made 3 1/2" inch guns unnecessary for a lot of folks, except the high-volume shooters that use steel for economy. Never saw the need for turkeys either, as 2 3/4" shells do just fine for them.

The only reason I shoot 3 1/2" is they don't make a 4"

Not a semi-auto shotgun guy, but when in doubt I'll take a Browning A-5 or a Remington Model 11.

Seems like if you know where to build a blind, brush it and set out decoys, you don't need 3.5" or even 3" most of the time. I hunt with a friend (showoff!) who kills ducks with a .410 out of our blind,

I agree. Snows and Blues, I want all the shot and range I can get.

I'm not sure where you hunt or when you hunt but I guess you're a lot better at it than I am. While I use an open choked o/u for swamp ducks early season, there are not a lot of blind options on the shoals and breakwater rocks along the big water where we shoot late season divers in single digit temperatures. I consider myself fortunate if I can get them to swing in to within 40 yards for passing shots. At those times I am glad to have 3 1/2 inch cartridges. I would be glad (and my dog would too) if you were to come the first week of January or so and show us how we could do it better.

You're a better man than I am. Unless those ducks are solid gold, I'll pass on that much fun. One of Tred Barta's later shows had him out in Long Island Sound (I think). Almost lost his dog, and just looked like an endurance test more than a day afield. No place for an old fat man with a wood-stocked gun, for certain.

.410 vs 3 1/2” 12 for high flying geese is laughable.

My first auto shotgun was a Winchester Model 50. I shot the hell out of it for almost twenty years, but it had some quirks that took getting used to and had to be maintained regularly. I followed that with a Remington 1100 and it was a work horse that simply required occasional cleaning, but it didn't point naturally for me and I traded it off. It's been all doubles since then, but I have agreed to trade for a Belgian made Browning Double Auto and I am looking forward to trying it on sporting clays.

If I were buying a new, auto, it would be a Beretta.

I bought my first Remington 1100 in 1974 for $172, which was a lot for 16 yr. old boy. It was one of the best firearms I have ever owned. Later in the late 1980's I guided at Hawkeye Hunting Club outside of Center Texas, I'm sure many of you writers have been there. There were many great shotguns in their gun room, but the most used and reliable guns there were the 1100's. All we did was clean and replace O rings occasionally. They were shot more than all the others combined and out preformed all the over and unders, pumps and other autos. I don't think the 1100 3" mag and 1187 were as good and that is one reason the trend in waterfowling autos has gone to mainly Beretta and Benelli.

Benelli M2. If they fit you, they'll run no matter what. Was hunting ducks last evening with one, covered in muck and cattail fuzz with the dog standing on top of it on a muskrat hut. That's been its entire life with me, and it hasn't failed yet.

SX4. I've run the SX2 and two SX3s, but after a round of skeet with the SX4 its my new favorite. All in that series have been very reliable in all conditions.

Beretta 390 by a wide margin. A distant runner up would be a Winchester SX3.