I bought one in early October and I am quite pleased with it so far. It's the black 28" model. I changed the shim in it because it was shooting low. After approx 3 boxes of shells playing hit and miss I learned about cast. hmm nice thing to know, not in the manual. I've owned and shot lots of different brands and models but never had one you could customize yourself.
I've been wanting a SBE for some time, heard about this shotgun and jumped in with both feet because of the price.
In the goose blind I found it to work reliably. I had it out in some fairly nasty weather and it cycled without incident. I don't really fuss with it but gave it a good cleaning when it got a good soaking. It is certainly not a pretty gun but it points well, patterns decent, and you don't get that feeling in the pit of your stomach when it gets scratched and banged around in the blind. I fired approx. 4-5 boxes of 3" and 3 1/2" bb through it. I never bothered to install the recoil reducer because I never feel the recoil when the birds are in the rig anyway.
We shoot some crows using cheap target rounds and it worked very well at that also. No jambs or trouble of any kind.
I took it hunting rabbits and found it quite heavy. Not something you really want to drag around for the day unless you have to. Having said that I'm used to a CIL single 410 and a mossberg 20ga.
If you want fit and finish and are looking for a gun to set as a centerpiece then you better look elsewhere. It is a working gun. I shoot geese at every available opportunity and don't want a gun I have to baby. If I could afford it I would have a SBE II, but in this price range I don't think I could find a better shotgun for my needs.
My hunting companion is a die hard Browning A5 man. I'm not sure this gun will win on the longevity scale but lots of others don't measure to the A5 that way.
Appologies for being long winded but I think this gun deserves a fair review.
