co-exprs

You already have the shortest pad. If you want togo shorter, you will have to modify the stock and switch to a Kickeez pad. I did this for a friend of mine who wanted a 13" LOP. Fair bit of work, but it turned out nice.

24 for the win!

Stone the sharp edges off the stamped bolt catch, then polish it up. After that, shoot 2 cases of shells to peen the back of the bolt carrier. After peening, polish the back of rhe bolt carrier. If you are still having trouble, stone and polish the bolt catch until it works the way you want. Warning... If you take off too much material you will begin to experience light primer strikes. The process is trial and error. Go slow and creep up on it. Don't worry about the bolt release much. As you get better, you won't use it much any more. Focus more of your attention on proper fit, smooth operation and reloading technique.

I do all of the same mods as Pat, with the exception that i don't cut my pump arm. Instead, I shave down the pump so that my hand slides over smoothly. The mod to help keep the action from locking after firing, is to stone and polish the bolt catch, where it sticks up out of the trigger group. This is a delicate mod though and it is very easy to take off too much material, causing other problems. In addition, if the gun is fairly new, recoil forces will dimple the shell catch into the back of the bolt carrier over time, causing your delicate mod to degrade in function over time. The bolt catch mod should be approached with some caution... but on the upside, the part is inexpensive to replace. A must have mod on the S.Nova is a Benelli gel pad. The stock pad is too stiff and slippery, allowing the gun to move around too much in the pocket. Taking the time to fit the gun and adding a gel pad will greatly improve your shooting pleasure.

Yeah, there is plenty of meat all the way around. Just don't get into that SN.

Here is a photo of the bottom of the A400. The pins in question are deeply recessed into those holes and will not be any problem at all. However, there are two other issues to consider. 1st is the location of the SN. It's right where you would want to open up the feed port. This is not a major issue if your load technique is old style weak hand from caddies or if you do the over the shoulder load two method with your right hand. With those two techniques, you could get away with a light chamfer on the SN side and a deep cut on the other side of the port. If however, you prefer load two with your left hand, Horner style caddie loading or quad loading, you would need to lower the SN side more than this configuration will allow and in my opinion, would be a major show stopper. The second concern and this is a much smaller concern is the placement of the shell release button. If you are running load 2 method or quad loading, you will be striking that button often. When the button is struck at the wrong time, it will attempt to release a shell, as you are trying to depress the lifter and could gum up the works. Between you two chosen platforms, I think the SBE is going to be your best choice by far.

I know that the SBE is known as "the" hunting gun. But in this case I think it is probably your best choice for an IPSC shotgun as well. The SBE is better balanced and quite a bit lighter. The safety is in the right place and you can get it in a 24". You can easily set it up to run lighter loads as well. The A400 is a fantastic shotgun, but the main advantage is lighter recoil with the heavy loads. If you are using it for mostly IPSC shotgun, the SBE wins in almost every other catagory. I will still let you know what I find regarding the A400 load port.

Either gun willl serve you well. A quick observation if I may. If your shotgun will spend as much time in the blind as at the range and you are looking for maximum versatility, the A400 is faster cycling than the SBE, will run lighter loads for 3gun, without swapping springs and has noticably less recoil with heavy duck and goose loads. This makes it a supremely versatile scattergun. If you are an occasional hunter and not bothered by the heavier recoil of the SBE then the superior balance, weight and pointability of the Benelli would be a wonderful fit. I will be back at the local shop tomorrow and look at the pins you are wondering about. See if there will be any issues with the A400. Both guns are excellent choices and either will serve you very well.

Honestly... It sounds a little silly, but I used a thick piece of rubber and black duct tape. Lasted 3 years so far.

The Noveske match is in the books and this event sort of signals the coming of the end of the season for Mr Payne. I have local matches to run, but no more big matches on my schedule for 2015. I really enjoy this event because it's an excellent, cost effective and close to home. I get to hang out with most of my local shooting buddies and watch everyone burn down stages, enjoying a technical, competitive event... which has managed to stay true to itself and remain fun, with a relaxed of atmosphere and less of the high tension experienced at other events. Don't get me wrong... there is plenty of intense shooting going on. There just seems to be a sense of community at this match, which is rare. It's the same feeling of community I feel at HeMan Nats. These medium sized matches are more grass roots, where you are more likely to see and mingle with new and pro shooters alike. The new shooters always appear to be having the time of their lives and the Pro's seem to relax a bit and enjoy themselves. This year the stages were theme based on animals. There wasn't anything overly ambitious like a zip line or rollercoaster, but a nice application of targets and props, which actually added to technical nature of the match. Snakes hanging from the ceiling of a tunnel disrupted sight pictures. Zebra stripes caught more than a few, not knowing their rifle offsets. Baby metrics on top of no shoots (kangaroos) reminded people how important it is to be able to shoot offhand. Swinging monkeys surrounded by no shots made for some interesting rifle targets. There were other challenges as well... Things like having your spare magazine buried in a bucket on a 22 shot pistol course, forced shooters to consider single "A" hits. The shotgun portion on stage 5 forced you to consider the time balance of shooting on the move vs getting your hits... while also balancing choke vs power factor ammo selection. Choose wisely and you finish well. Choose poorly and you are taking an extra static reload at the end. Lots of options and different ways to shoot stuff. I worked stage 10 and I probably saw 10 different ways to mount the tractor tire for the 200yd shots. I say "mount" because... well use your imagination. Thank you to Mark Passamaneck for doing most of the work. Thank you to all of the RO's for working in the burnin sun for 4 days. Thank you to Blake's baseball team for helping out. Thank you to Dawn Perez for the food. Thank you to Steve for running stats like a boss. Thank you to CRC for letting us have our match at your wonderful gun club. Thank you to the sponsors for adding to our fun on awards day. A special thank you to Noveske Rifle Works for again being the title sponsor for our match. Noveske has gone through a lot in the past few years and the fact that they are still able to support our industry is wonderful. Now that my last big match is over... my thoughts migrate towards dove, turkeys and ducks. Mike out

Agreed. You know it was funny. At the Shotgun Challenge this year, we put a spinner, a popper and a clay kicker into a practice bay for the competitors to practice on in their spare time. They completely filled a 55gal drum with empty hulls practicing on those 3 targets. I know of several guys who burn an entire flat of shells each, practicing on the spinner. They were so delighted to have access to targets, they don't have at home, and for long enough to get in some meaningful practice. I think the practice berm might have been everyone's favorite stage(?).

So where is tbe comprehensive list of what targets are agailable to everyone? Does everyone have access to knock down steel? How about stars? Or clamshells, max traps and swingers? Does every one have poppers? I hear what you're puttin down, but when I go to a major match, I want to do something I don't get to do at home. So longas everyone faces the same challenges fairly, I welcome something new and different, because in the end, the real problem to solve is how you keep your head while shooting some new and interesting target or shooting from some new and unusually awkward position.

Yeah, I am of the same thinking. When designing a shotgun match with it's vast variety of target types, we end up with considerably more issues to accompany the fun. I like to keep things simple and fun. I kind of like the spinners becuase they are challenging and because they are disruptive to reload plans, forcing shooters to think on their feet (perfect for our match). Unfortunately our first year saw limited use of Prairie Storm and we had a bent up target, very sore shoulders and probably a few guns that will have a reduced service life. Limiting the power factor for the entire match seemed the best solution, to keep things simple and fun for the competitors (no need for specialty ammo), improve safety and reduce wear and tear on equipment. So I am learning first hand about odd targets forcing us to rethink rules. Unfortunately, if I took all of the advice from every complaining competitor, we would have nothing but non spinning knock down steel, static clays and paper slug targets to work with. Not nearly as much fun as what we are able to put together for stages with all of the other cool stuff out there.

Another excellent RM3G is in the books and it was a really fun match, As usual Denise kept things running very smoothly. Even when things didn't seem to be going smoothly for her, the competitors would never know, cuz she know's how to take care of business. JJ did a great job on the stages as well. All of the stages really fun and well balanced and... they were more technically challenging than I was expecting. A huge thank you to the staff. I've had my boots on the ground at this match and I know how tired you are today. You guys make this match happen on game day(s) and everyone there was terrific. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors and a huge thank you to JP Enterprises. John Paul's speech during awards was inspiring and we all left knowing that his passions for family and country, run much deeper than just making great rifles. Thank you to the Marines for flying the Colors each day and to the AMU for honoring Old Glory with excellent shooting. Thank you to the Whittington Center for playing host for this outstanding event. I just don't know of a better shooting facility in the U.S. The scenery was spectacular and the facility well maintained. There were clean out houses and water on every stage, the stages were mowed and roads were all maintained from the heavy rains. The team event was really cool and I hope that comes back next year. It was fun watching the top competitors in the match, throw down as teams. Some great shooting for sure. Got my pin, had a great time and I'll be back again next year for sure. Mike

Ah, Blade Runner quote! Epic!

Sadly no. But I may be doing a LOP adjustment on my M2 and will document that.

It's all for you man.

The Nova has a fixed stock. I did a cut down job on a lady's gun. I cut down the remnant and used epoxy for plastics to mount it to the inside, and used hard wood dowels for the crross bars. Then screwed down a grindable kickezz pad. Ground the pad to shape and done. It was an entire Sat afternoon, but it turned out nice and her Nova now has a 12.25" LOP and a really squishy butt pad.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I just finished setting up my M2 for 3 gun and was very minimalist in the approach. Kurt's gun proved to me that simple tricks are the best tricks.

Actually, shooting the past two years at SMM3G with you and your old M1 was proly the very best Benelli marketing any one could hope to find. That old Super 90 is the shizzle. Some day I hope to be able to brag about the 100k rounds I've put through mine. Seriously though, there are still tons of people jumping on social media asking what shotgun they should buy and whether or not the M2 is worth the money. After getting mine... this is the only auto loader worth this price.

A video review of the X-Treme 200gr HP bullets. Note: I am sponsored by X-Treme bullets... so everything I say is lies! https://www.facebook.com/495735763781812/videos/vb.495735763781812/918133234875394/?type=2&theater http://www.xtremebullets.com/#

I was so excited to get my first M2 that I did a video review. https://www.facebook.com/495735763781812/videos/vb.495735763781812/936769869678397/?type=2&theater

Starting to modify my new M2 for fast smooth reloads. https://www.facebook.com/504559829685716/videos/vb.504559829685716/590598731081825/?type=2&theater

I'm still new to the MD thing but I can tell you how we design stages for the Shooter Source Shotgun Challenge. I don't plan around magazine capacity. I figure out what challenge I want the shooters to experience, what problem to solve, then rough it out. Once the start and the specific challenge has been established, I fill in the gaps with however many targets I need to keep the stage moving and flowing. I've found that it is better to break up large blocks of targets into smaller segments separated by barriers and movement, than to have a large group of targets here and another large group there. Since I started out shooting USPSA, and shotgun is mostly within pistol engagement distances, I lean heavily on my pistol shooting experience when designing stages. Particularly the larger, pistol, field courses. All stage designers eventually develop their own style. I design stages I would lile to shoot myself (and then rarely get to shoot them) and my stages tend to lean towards flow and movement. If I do end up with a large array in one spot, I rarely go over 9 shots. My 9 shot limit is because a lot of guys show up with an 8 shot magazine and my larger arrays usually have clays launched with Black Sheep Kickers. It sucks to have to stop and reload in the middle of a thrown bird. At least this way, some one with an 8 shot tube can top off and shoot the entire array, if they don't take any extras. Even then, I don't do very many 9 shot arrays.

Yep... I used some black duct tape and folded cardboard for the spacer. It's lasted for 3 years of heavy division shooting.