Chuck Taylor (not the Converse guy) has an interesting article on his website about the combat shotgun. It describes some testing that his school did with pumps and autoloaders. They were trying to answer the question of whether or not there is a clear winner of the best combat shotgun designation from a test and evaluation standpoint. They tested, Remington, Mossberg, Benelli, and Browning by shooting them with multiple types of shot at varing distances. What they discovered might surprise you.
Evaluators did not choose the well known Benelli as the best combat shotgun. It gets a lot of praise from magazine articles, but it somehow left the evaluators with the idea that there were things that should have been improved. I would add that because it is priced so high, it should deliver better.
The point is that you don’t just get a great shotgun based on the name, and at the end of the day there really isn’t that much difference between the guns, especially for the home defense segment of shooters. You can go to a big name company or a builder, and end up with an average shotgun when you factor in what you have paid. Before you buy, check out your options. You may just find that there is something better out there. Check out our SM-1. We think you will like what you see.