best pump gun out there?

I have a Benelli Supernova and a Remington 887 (for my 16y son) and recently sold my Brownong BPS. In my opinion the BPS was the smoothest by a good margin. Seemed like the slide had ball-bearings! The Supernova is a very good gun and of very high quality. I'm a lefty so the BPS was great for that....but I have no problem shooting the Benelli left handed.

The only issue with the Browning BPS was when shooting singles in trap. I had to load a shell and shuck the slide every time, rather than dropping a shell in, like it an 870 or a Benelli. I believe the BPS is the best pump. Some complain that it is heavy, but the weight is in the solid steel (quality) receiver. A fair penalty.
 
Boomer said:
Okay, let me clarify what it was I was talking about. When the Ithica's slide is all the way to the rear, and I assume the BPS is similar, the carrier is pointed downward to allow the chambered round to dump out. Because you can't get a round past the carrier once the action is fully open, you have to close it, then add a round to the magazine. If the action is locked closed and you simply drop a round into the ejection port on the bottom of the bolt surface, when you cycle the slide it again dumps the round out. What you can do is move the slide partly to the rear, and drop a round in, then close the bolt. That works, but its far fussier than dropping a round in the ejection port of a side eject gun. As I said in my earlier post, I tend to use my shotgun as a rifle, and I wouldn't want to be in a stressful situation and not be able to add a single round to my gun unless the slide is in just the right position; when bird hunting, its less of an issue. In bear work, one might wish to switch from shot to a slug, or from a cracker shell to a rubber bullet. With an 870 or a 500/590, if the bolt is closed, rounds can be added to the magazine and if the action is open, a round can be dropped on top of the follower. Rather than consider this a criticism of the Ithica/BPS actions, just keep it in mind as a peculiarity of the bottom eject action, which for most people will never be an issue.
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Actually, with the action open you simply place the loaded round on the carrier and slide the action forward...carrier drops, shotshell follows and bolt chambers it! Works with Ithaca M37 & M87, Browning BPS and even the old Remington Model 17!
 
Grouse Man said:
Probably a gold-plated Ithaca 37 with a titanium receiver and stock made from the wood of the USS Constitution.
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I think the gold plating would take away from the nice titanium finish. Plus, it would be far too shiny; the Grouse and Turkey would see you coming from miles away....
 
VLT79 said:
Actually, with the action open you simply place the loaded round on the carrier and slide the action forward...carrier drops, shotshell follows and bolt chambers it! Works with Ithaca M37 & M87, Browning BPS and even the old Remington Model 17!
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I'll concede that works, to a point. But I found as often as not, the round tipped nose first towards the chamber and when the bolt closed, it trapped the round sideways between the bolt face and the chamber. In a situation where you have a full magazine and you want to select load a round other than what is loaded in the magazine, cycling the slide fully rearward, releases the subsequent round from the magazine, which now lies on top of the carrier. It requires some manipulation to get this round to drop out of the gun before you can attempt to load your select shell, particularly if you have gloves on. Conversely, you could chamber the round from the magazine, add the select load to the magazine, then cycle the action once more to chamber it. But with a side ejecting gun, simply rolling the gun towards the ejection port drops the loose round out on the ground, and the select shell can be dropped in and chambered by pushing the slide forward.
 
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Boomer said:
I'll concede that works, to a point. But I found as often as not, the round tipped nose first towards the chamber and when the bolt closed, it trapped the round sideways between the bolt face and the chamber. In a situation where you have a full magazine and you want to select load a round other than what is loaded in the magazine, cycling the slide fully rearward, releases the subsequent round from the magazine, which now lies on top of the carrier. It requires some manipulation to get this round to drop out of the gun before you can attempt to load your select shell, particularly if you have gloves on. With a side ejecting gun, simply rolling the gun towards the ejection port drops the loose round out on the ground, and the select shell can be dropped in and chambered by pushing the slide forward.
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The secret is to keeping the muzzle pointing at a slight downward angle, And it's not that hard to actually clear the chamber on the Ithaca or BPS guns without having a round feed from the mag...but there's also not much point even debating about it here as there are very few of us that ever need to pull off such a stunt...even with a side loading/ejecting shotgun.
 
BPS for hunting.If I had to launch slugs at bears frequently I'd have an older Marine Magnum, but for using a shotgun properly BPS hands down. Mine had probably 50k shells through it when I sold it, it only got better with age.

If you are switching shells enough to have to worry about it you are not hunting and require a different sort of shotgun.
 
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