I'm not here to try to change anyone's mind. I learned long ago, that many like what they like - it's part of what makes the world go round....The Mossberg 500 versus Remington 870 debate rages on in the far reaches of the internet. What I am here to try to do, is put another option in the minds of those looking for a home defense shotgun and my choice is Benelli. In this case, it's not the desired and lofty M4 Tactical, or the tried and true Super90 Tactical, but the pump-driven Benelli SuperNova Tactical. In my personal opinion, it's quite possibly the smoothest action put into a pump shotgun. From bringing the gun to shoulder, to the first pull of the trigger, this shotgun just feels instinctive to me - everything just clicks, or in this case - booms!
Out of the box, the Super Nova Tactical is ready to roll - no pistol grip stock to buy, no fancy molded fore end to look for, no ghost ring sights to add, no sling mounts to attach - it's all there. If there's any shortcoming, it's not much of one. The SNT ships with a 4+1 tube, which makes for a compact profile, but I'd like to see a longer tube available as a standard option, rather than an added accessory. Needless to say, if you're in a home defense situation, (God forbid) and you can't get it done in 5, then you're pretty much pooched anyway - your brains will be scrambled from the boom in the room. In any case, keeping with tradition, I have a Benelli +2 inbound. It's actually a +3, as Benelli's are cut for 3 1/2 in shells from the get-go. Remington and Mossberg? Nopers...![[wink]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/002.gif "Wink [wink]")
Today being just a stellar autumn day here in the mountains, I decided it was time to do some informal testing of a relatively new home defense round marketed by Remington. Noted on the box as: "Wingmaster HD Ultimate Home Defense", how could I not give it a try? To run this test, I measured out a room space of about 15-feet. Sadly, that put me into a muck-pile, so I measured to 20-feet for the purposes of this test. When I got home, I measured the distance from my bedroom door, to the entrance to my living room and low and behold: 19-feet 9-inches, so my 20-foot measurement was not too far off - at least for me...
First, these puppies are not cheap. At over $2.00 a whack, they are anything but easy on the wallet. Secondly, the "Wingmaster HD", just makes me feel like these are nothing more than 2 3/4 high-brass BB goose loads, but what do I know? Remington claims that the HD rounds will hold a tight pattern at most commonly encountered home defense distances and rate the load of tungsten BB shot at 1200fps. They do not however list energy at impact.
The shells themselves are very smooth to fire - they feel almost "low recoil", though they are not marketed this way. This due in large part to the Benelli Super Nova Tactical I just acquired being likely the lightest recoiling pump gun I've ever fired out of the box. At exactly 20-feet, I took a single shot with the Remington HD on one target and standard Remington 00-Buck on the other. The results are shown below:
The spread at 20-feet is troubling to me. I am no impact physics engineer, nor am I an ammunition expert. The rounds just felt "soft" to me and the pattern, though I'm sure would be troubling - perhaps lethally so to a would-be intruder, I was left wondering if these rounds were really "Ultimate HD"? The pellets impacted the berm behind the target board, (spongy pressboard), with a smattering of dust kicked up at impact. the Remington Buckmaster however, tore through the target and slammed into the berm with authority - temporarily obscuring the target in a cloud of dust. I would love to give these a try in a more controlled environment with some ballistic gel and some clothing fabric. The "Ultimate HD", just didn't feel...well...ultimate. They tag line these rounds with: "Don't Trust Your Families Safety to Anything Else"... I think I'll stick with good old 00 for now thanks anyway - I have been trusting my families safety with 00-buck for years, but am always open to new ideas and I am an ammo pig, so will likely try other fodder...
Just for fun, I took the liberty of sending some Brenneke KO's down range and was absolutely impressed. Talk about an accurate and hard-hitting rifled slug. Brenneke markets them as sabots for both smooth and rifled barrels, though their definition of a sabot in this case is more like a "pusher" rather than a dedicated separating sabot found in rifled-only rounds. Sabot means "shoe", so this is more like a sandal...
For this test, I went back to the firing line and shot the below group at 50-yards. Accuracy was quite good - really good if you ask me. Recoil was crisp, but exceptionally manageable out of the Super Nova tactical. This has not been my experience firing these out of a Remington 870, which highlights the Benelli's superb recoil management - even without the ComforTech stock. They absolutely slammed the 50-yard berm - obliterating it in a cloud of dust. The stats are a 1oz hunk of slug cruising at just under 1510fps - ouchie. Though I found the pushers behind the target board, the slugs were buried deep within the berm - these pups pack a wallop...
The first two hits were in the center - the last three flyers were from me giggling like a kid...![[grin]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/041.gif "Grin [grin]")
The last thing I did was just for kicks. I cranked off the four remaining rounds of Buckmaster as fast as I could cycle it - again at 50-yards. Not too shabby for a guy just grinning and cranking off some 00-buck in the autumn sunshine.
The Super Nova tactical is everything I thought it would be, (and then some). I am looking forward to ordering a Mesa Tactical saddle/rail and finding a sling for this most excellent defensive tool...The Remington Ultimate HD left me unimpressed, though perhaps further testing lies ahead - I still have 8-rounds left anyway....
More Info Here:
http://www.remington.com/products/ammunition/shotshell/home_defense/
And Here:
http://www.brennekeusa.com/
Out of the box, the Super Nova Tactical is ready to roll - no pistol grip stock to buy, no fancy molded fore end to look for, no ghost ring sights to add, no sling mounts to attach - it's all there. If there's any shortcoming, it's not much of one. The SNT ships with a 4+1 tube, which makes for a compact profile, but I'd like to see a longer tube available as a standard option, rather than an added accessory. Needless to say, if you're in a home defense situation, (God forbid) and you can't get it done in 5, then you're pretty much pooched anyway - your brains will be scrambled from the boom in the room. In any case, keeping with tradition, I have a Benelli +2 inbound. It's actually a +3, as Benelli's are cut for 3 1/2 in shells from the get-go. Remington and Mossberg? Nopers...
Today being just a stellar autumn day here in the mountains, I decided it was time to do some informal testing of a relatively new home defense round marketed by Remington. Noted on the box as: "Wingmaster HD Ultimate Home Defense", how could I not give it a try? To run this test, I measured out a room space of about 15-feet. Sadly, that put me into a muck-pile, so I measured to 20-feet for the purposes of this test. When I got home, I measured the distance from my bedroom door, to the entrance to my living room and low and behold: 19-feet 9-inches, so my 20-foot measurement was not too far off - at least for me...
First, these puppies are not cheap. At over $2.00 a whack, they are anything but easy on the wallet. Secondly, the "Wingmaster HD", just makes me feel like these are nothing more than 2 3/4 high-brass BB goose loads, but what do I know? Remington claims that the HD rounds will hold a tight pattern at most commonly encountered home defense distances and rate the load of tungsten BB shot at 1200fps. They do not however list energy at impact.
The shells themselves are very smooth to fire - they feel almost "low recoil", though they are not marketed this way. This due in large part to the Benelli Super Nova Tactical I just acquired being likely the lightest recoiling pump gun I've ever fired out of the box. At exactly 20-feet, I took a single shot with the Remington HD on one target and standard Remington 00-Buck on the other. The results are shown below:
The spread at 20-feet is troubling to me. I am no impact physics engineer, nor am I an ammunition expert. The rounds just felt "soft" to me and the pattern, though I'm sure would be troubling - perhaps lethally so to a would-be intruder, I was left wondering if these rounds were really "Ultimate HD"? The pellets impacted the berm behind the target board, (spongy pressboard), with a smattering of dust kicked up at impact. the Remington Buckmaster however, tore through the target and slammed into the berm with authority - temporarily obscuring the target in a cloud of dust. I would love to give these a try in a more controlled environment with some ballistic gel and some clothing fabric. The "Ultimate HD", just didn't feel...well...ultimate. They tag line these rounds with: "Don't Trust Your Families Safety to Anything Else"... I think I'll stick with good old 00 for now thanks anyway - I have been trusting my families safety with 00-buck for years, but am always open to new ideas and I am an ammo pig, so will likely try other fodder...
Just for fun, I took the liberty of sending some Brenneke KO's down range and was absolutely impressed. Talk about an accurate and hard-hitting rifled slug. Brenneke markets them as sabots for both smooth and rifled barrels, though their definition of a sabot in this case is more like a "pusher" rather than a dedicated separating sabot found in rifled-only rounds. Sabot means "shoe", so this is more like a sandal...
For this test, I went back to the firing line and shot the below group at 50-yards. Accuracy was quite good - really good if you ask me. Recoil was crisp, but exceptionally manageable out of the Super Nova tactical. This has not been my experience firing these out of a Remington 870, which highlights the Benelli's superb recoil management - even without the ComforTech stock. They absolutely slammed the 50-yard berm - obliterating it in a cloud of dust. The stats are a 1oz hunk of slug cruising at just under 1510fps - ouchie. Though I found the pushers behind the target board, the slugs were buried deep within the berm - these pups pack a wallop...
The first two hits were in the center - the last three flyers were from me giggling like a kid...
The last thing I did was just for kicks. I cranked off the four remaining rounds of Buckmaster as fast as I could cycle it - again at 50-yards. Not too shabby for a guy just grinning and cranking off some 00-buck in the autumn sunshine.
The Super Nova tactical is everything I thought it would be, (and then some). I am looking forward to ordering a Mesa Tactical saddle/rail and finding a sling for this most excellent defensive tool...The Remington Ultimate HD left me unimpressed, though perhaps further testing lies ahead - I still have 8-rounds left anyway....
More Info Here:
http://www.remington.com/products/ammunition/shotshell/home_defense/
And Here:
http://www.brennekeusa.com/
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
