Benelli M2

Benelli’s long reputation for top-of-the-line shotguns isn’t going away anytime soon. The M2 is a lightweight, inertia driven, semi-auto that was an absolute joy to shoot. It had surprisingly little recoil. It has a cryo-treated barrel and is drilled and tapped for a Picatinny if you want to add a red-dot sight. It was easily one of our top picks, but missed the number one spot because we felt it needed a few small tweaks. The bolt release button was small and hard to press. A quick aftermarket upgrade would fix that. The other issue was the trigger. The faster shooters kept outrunning it. Again, it can be fixed, and everything else about the gun is amazing, but we have come to expect perfection out of the box when we get to this price point.