I'm looking to move up from my Beretta A300 to an A400 Xtreme. This will be for waterfowl, turkey and occasionally doves. Which one? Why?
I've never been a fan of camo guns, I think it's unnecessary unless you're a sniper under deep cover in the military. So I vote black synthetic. Actually I'd find a wood stock, but I do understand synthetic if you're in a duck blind.
I like the looks of a walnut stock too, but synthetic is definitely what I want. Only the synthetic stock guns come with the full "Kick Off" recoil system, and my primary reason for getting this gun is to decrease felt recoil due to my rheumatoid arthritis acting up in my shoulder.
I have a Browning Gold 10 Ga in Mossy Oak Shadow Grass. It probably doesn't do much to hide me, but the geese come closer just to check it out because even they think it's cool as hell!
The down fall to camo is it can be hard to locate if you set it down in the grass to do something. Once while pheasant hunting, my buddies lab fell in some water that he could touch bottom but couldn't get back out. I threw my black synthetic gun and ran to the dog and even that was difficult to locate once I got the dog back to dry land.
I like how you think!!!! A 10 ga is darn near a blunderbuss! That there is an absolute killing MACHINE!
I say optifade. Then you have an excuse to buy that Sitka jacket to match! Just sayin. Whatever way you choose to go, congrats on a great new gun. I'm leaning towards a super vinci for my next duck gun. I've loved my super black eagle II for a long time, but new guns are more fun. We all know that.
Looks like Optifade was discontinued in 2016. (?) Not impossible to find a new 2015 gun, but probably that little amount of hassle will tip me to the Max5
If I was getting a specific use gun like yours I would get the camo version over the black. I think some birds will see the black moving against the lighter background colors. Having said that, I am kind of an excitable or adventurous hunter at times, and would be concerned that the gun would get lost as I returned from chasing a downed bird across a cut cornfield! If you have the ability, try shooting a Benelli auto too. That shoulder issue may be a fan of their recoil and auto system. My R1 06 is the smoothest shooting rifle I have ever shot.
