My Benelli Nova is my least favorite shotgun. I'll never get rid of it due to odd sentimental attachment, but I never shoot it. Probably haven't shot it in 20 years. Every once in a while I'll pull it out of the safe, dust it off with the intention of either selling it or giving it to my brother and then I'll remember it's pretty much the only gun left from a time in my life where I found myself having to choose between keeping guns in the safe or keeping something more than beans in the pantry. I'll then set that relic back into the safe and promise to shoot it more, after which I promptly forget it exists for a year or two.

It's not a bad shotgun, but it definitely has some operational quirks. Mine likes to dump the first round from the magazine on the dirt pretty much every time. I have to load the tube, hit the magazine disconnect, and then run the action once to make sure the lifter drops in place. Not sure if they all do that or if there is something wrong. Runs fine after that, until you top off the tube again.

^^^ Zero problems with feeding or ejection with 2¾" shells.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

I've been working with the shotgun some more. I think the problem is more on my end, either because of short-stroking and not pushing the bolt fully in battery, not letting the trigger reset, or both. When I pay attention to these fundamentals, it runs 100%. I am fairly new to pump shotguns, coming back to them after a ~30-year absence.

Also, for some reason, I encountered some feeding and ejection problems, not related to the above, with the 7-round extended magazine kit. I haven't the patience to fool around troubleshooting it or trying to make it work, just run the shotgun stock with 4+1. Lower velocity buckshot solves the excessive recoil problem.