If you own one of these tell me what you think about it. I just recently purchased one and haven’t shot it yet. I’ll be using mine for hunting and try to bust some clay’s with it.
I have the Nova Tactical model. It has been reliable and easy to operate. I found it very accurate with Winchester Super-X slugs at 50 yards off hand, head shots on a B27 target. I like the ghost ring sights. It doesn’t have the modularity of a Mossberg 500 or Remington 870 and extra barrels often cost the same as a new gun. But as a simple street howitzer with GR sights and 18.5" barrel its ready to go out of the box.
I’ve had mine for years and have a few thousand rounds through it. Never a single issue I can remember…
[video=youtube_share;RW6-4WJrbyg]https://youtu.be/RW6-4WJrbyg[/video]
It was my first shotgun and love it. Buy the aftermarket Limbsaver recoil pad and its golden. Its a very soft shooting shotgun with the aftermarket pad it good to go. The weight helps it. Great solid gun, bullet proof.
PB
The Limbsaver Air Tech is on my M1…very, very nice recoil pad.
I sold mine last year to a friend, cause my right shoulder simply cannot take the recoil anymore. The shotgun is freaking AWESOME…and I am currently looking into ways of recoil management, I might get another. But, as I said, the gun is very nice, love the unload feature, sights, chrome bore, just a solid shotgun, but kicked like a government mule.
And the price was very good also.
Here is a review I did back a couple years ago I just remembered.
Benelli Nova Tactical LE Report
Got this shotgun about 2 months back, been trying to get to the range, finally did on New Years Eve.
My overall impression of this shotgun is very good. Built very robustly, looks a tad different from other shotty's, but Ive grown to like it now. so here is my list of pro's/con's:
PRO'S:
1. Well made. {in Italy} Beefy bolt, receiver has a polymer "exoskeleton" over it..for lack of a better word.
2. 7+1 Capacity and handles all lengths of 12 gauge including 3 1/2".
3. Chrome lined chamber & bore
4. Safety is in front of triggergaurd, so is bolt release.
5.EXCELLENT LPA peep sights. Night sights available and I will eventually get them. LOVE these sights.
6. Had a button on bottom of pump that when depressed, lets you unload the round in the chamber without another popping up to be loaded. You can close action on an empty chamber, or pop in a different type load. I like this feature.
7. Polymer front/rear stocks. NO extended pistol grip..thank God.
8. Nice trigger
9. VERY easy to field strip.
10. Action is smooth & slick. Not quite as slick as a well used 870, but its new and should slick up more with use.
11. Patterned nicely with military brown box 00 Buck..some old Remington Magnum 4 Buck...0 Buck..and at 25 yards even some dove loads were patterning nice.
12. I shot until my shoulder gave out...then kept on firing from the hip in order to break in the gun and see if any initial problems popped up. None did...gun was 100%.
CONS:
1. BRUTAL RECOIL! The rubber..pad..on the end of the stock, I WILL NOT call it a "recoil pad", was very very hard. It was in the upper 30's for the near 6 hours at the range, and it in no way helped with recoil. Maybe the cold temp made it harder. My 50 year old shoulder was sore this morning I tell you!
2. Aftermarket accessories are not too available yet. I did find a light/sling mount combo..if I can remember where. But there isn't a whole lot out there for this shotgun yet.
3. Going to have to buy a mercury recoil reducer for the stock..AND a Limbsaver recoil pad. May even get the barrel ported some day. But the recoil reducer and Limbsaver are gonna be mandatory.
In all, its a well made shotgun, very pointable thanks to excellent sights, patterns well, but the recoil is something else. Maybe it wont bother some of you as much. Maybe it did me cause I was pretty cold by the time I laid down the other weapons I was shooting and got to the shotgun. Or maybe its just the number of heavy loads I fired.
The Benelli Nova Tactical LE came to me OTD a wee bit under $500. I like it, and will like it more when I install previously mentioned recoil reducing items.
Hope this is useful info.
Last edited by Straight Shooter; 01-02-16 at 12:34.
Build quality is quite a lot better than anything I’ve seen the U.S. manufacturers put out of late.
My Nova was the smoothest running and easiest loading pump I had. I bought it for 3gun comps (HM) and sold it when I quit 3G. I did pick up a Vinci tho.
I’ve had a non-tactical Nova for a few years. It’s a nice shotgun. Well made and pretty smooth. I like the mag cutoff button deal that allows you to cycle the action without advancing the next shell from the tube. I ended up installing the mercury recoil reducer in the stock. It was a little spendy, but works pretty well in toning down the beating.
My only real complaint is that every time I wipe the exterior of the barrel with an oiled patch, it comes off rusty brown. I suspect it’d wouldn’t take much weather exposure for it to go into full fuzzy-red-rust-bomb mode. It’s regularly maintained and lives in a climate-controlled safe, so I’m pretty sure it’s the finish and not how it’s treated. Could just be something wrong with mine, though.
Anyway, they’re good guns and should serve you well.
The Benelli Nova (not tactical or SuperNova) was the first shotgun I bought. Very lightweight but smooth shooting and a very smooth action. I used mine for shooting clays until I got a nice O/U.
As mentioned above a neat/nice feature is the magtube cutoff button which allows you to cycle the action without taking a round out of the tube.
Have thought about selling it a few times then shot it and decided to keep it.
Seems odd with rusty rag situation. However, I live in AZ, where nothing rust. Couldn’t be a normal problem or they wouldn’t be popular bird guns in the marsh.
Good luck.
PB
Yeah, there’s probably just something wrong with the finish application on my individual gun. I never got around to contacting Benelli about it, though.
If it progresses, I’ll just send the barrel out for Cerakote and call it a day.
That is bizarre! I’ve seen the rusty rag problem all the time with the later Remington shotguns with their matte blue faux parkerizing that will rust if you just speak a salty word to it.
The metal on the Nova is supposed to be nitrited to prevent rust.
I’ve hunted with mine for several years in everything from Hot Texas late summer Dove Seasons (sweaty!) to midwinter waterfowling (rainy - muddy) with the gun being well handled and environmentally exposed for the weekend and I’ve yet to see a spec of anything looking like rust (or a rusty rag run) on mine.
One more reason I love it so much, and don’t love my former always go to 870s as much.
It is an awesome Pump gun and my favorite of the bunch.
I’ve been shooting a 24" barrel (I know - NOT a 26" or 28") but I smash skeet & sporting clays and connect well with the birds, so I must have learned to stop spot shooting and just keep swinging - just keep swinging…
BIGGER_HAMMER
Yeah, mine had rusted too. I never had the rust problems in South Carolina but in Tennessee, it rusted. Not pitting like rust but thenkind that will show up of you wipe it with a white rag.
have thousands of rounds thru mine, purchased one when they first came out so this one is roughly 19 years old I believe. the older models the forearm will rattle a bit and the recoil pad sucks. Only complaint I have. get a better recoil pad and it will last a long time. mine is used for clays and hunting and has some scars but nothing that has kept the gun from working.