I'm looking to purchase a replacement for a Benelli M2 Tactical. The primary purpose will be a home defense shotgun. Going through the living room and down a hallway through the bathroom, the longest shot inside my house is about 18 yards. I'm trying to balance the indoor HD aspect with something I could potentially get my wife to practice with.
At this stage, I'm pretty much set on a Beretta. The question is 1301 Comp or 1301 Tactical? Regardless of which one I get, it's going to have an Aimpoint mounted. My heart is telling me Comp, but my head is telling me Tactical. I am thoroughly in the paralysis by analysis stage. While the cost of the shotgun is not a showstopper, it is high enough that I'm trying to make the right choice the second time around. The current Benelli will get sold after I have the Beretta in my hands.
To give some idea of my shotgun experience, I have many thousands of rounds through my O/U Skeet gun. I have a lot of rounds (thousands) through various pump and auto "hunting" shotguns. I have about 25 rounds through my Benelli M2 Tactical (18.5", pistol grip, rifle sights, https://www.benelliusa.com/shotguns/...tical-shotguns).
Just looking the M2 and working the action, or in a disassembled state, I am thoroughly impressed with the build quality. However, with regard to shooting, I HATE that gun with a passion, (mainly) due to outsize recoil, pistol grip, and the raised rifle sights. I developed all that HATE in 25 rounds... I WANT to like the M2, it's the "Glock 19" of the semi-auto shotgun world. But I don't like it. I thoroughly dislike it. I would NEVER hand that shotgun to my wife to shoot. I enjoy a marriage that many would envy, and I'm not going to jeopardize it by handing her a shotgun that I feel kicks like a mule. A replacement short "normal" stock is over $400, which is serious money compared to what the gun is worth. I think that stock would make me happier, but it's still a recoil operated shotgun with sights I dislike. That makes me very leery to experiment with a gun that I'm currently in the HATE portion of the relationship. I'm worried that I'm throwing good money after bad. I know many very smart people are going to tell me to "take a class" to learn some recoil control methods and love the M2. I could take the class. My petite 5' 0" wife won't. That's a huge issue for me.
Enter the 1301 Tactical. Massive thread known to anybody on PF that's spent any time in the shotgun forum: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....-1301-Tactical. If you don't want to read the 3,622 posts in that thread, it's the other "Glock 19" of the shotgun world. It's gas operated and known to have WAY less felt recoil than an M2. And it comes with a "normal" stock (https://www.beretta.com/en-us/1301-tactical/) that GJM considers one of the best. Here is the easy button: https://www.langdontactical.com/ltt-...-2-base-model/ . But either Tactical has the same damn sights as the M2 that I hate. That fixes 2 of my 3 main gripes. But the 1301 Comp (https://www.beretta.com/en-us/1301-comp/) fixes all three of my gripes (recoil, stock, and sights). But, it is longer by 2.5".
There is also the Comp-Pro: https://www.beretta.com/en-us/1301-comp-pro/. I'll gladly pay the $400 price differential between the Comp and Comp-Pro if my wife is more willing to shoot it...but then replacing the stock with a Magpul/Aridus to reduce the LOP defeats the purpose of the Kick-Off system found on the Comp-Pro.
So round and round I go. It's time to make a decision: 1301 Comp, 1301 Comp-Pro, 1301 Tactical, or something else?
Thanks in advance,
Toonces