Veteran waterfowl hunter Scott Haugen puts Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A.I. BE.S.T. to the test. Spoiler alert: It proves undeniable!
by Scott Haugen
Two minutes after shooting light, the first flock of wigeon pealed into the decoys. The skies were dark. I fired two shots, and two ducks fell dead. Minutes later, another flock funneled in. I fired three shots and dropped a pair.
I didn’t see a single duck for nearly three hours. So when a flock of spoonbills sped into the spread, I raised the gun, fired three times, and three ducks dropped. Two had holes in their beaks. All but one duck that morning were head-shot. It was my first hunt with Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A.I. BE.S.T. 12-gauge shotgun. I shot Fiocchi’s Golden Waterfowl Bismuth loads in 1-3/8 ounce #4 shot, moving at 1,450 fps. The Advanced Impact System BE.S.T. full choke was at the barrel’s end.
I was hunting a river slough for wood ducks and mallards two days later. Birds were diving straight down through towering cottonwood trees. The shooting was close, and the windows very narrow. This shotgun with a 28-inch barrel tips the scales to a mere 6.9 pounds. It is easy to swing, and it makes getting on fast-flying targets quick and straightforward. I shot the Advanced Impact System BE.S.T. IM choke on this hunt and left with a limit of ducks. The versatility of this gun was getting my attention.
Surf Scoters & Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A. I. BE.S.T.
The following week, I was in California, hunting surf scoters with Melynda Dodds, owner and operator of California Guide Service. We hunted in San Francisco Bay. We set out five decoy lines with our boat at the base. Imagine a big, bright sunrise with the boat being the sun and the decoy lines being beams of sunlight shooting above the horizon. There was a slight breeze, so decoying scoters approached the spread from all angles. Shots came from left to right, straight on, right to left, behind, and everything in between.
We hunted for two days. I picked drakes both days, mostly because I didn’t want the awesome hunts to end too fast. I was shooting Baschieri & Pellagri Dual Steel loads with a payload of 1 1/4-ounce #2 and #3 steel moving at 1,425 fps with an Advanced Impact System BE.S.T. full choke. I shot mostly singles but had a pair of doubles and a triple during the two days. Shots came a few feet off the water, meaning I was looking straight down the barrel. This is where the A.I. technology truly captured my attention.
A buddy was taking photos and video on that trip. He captured footage of me shooting two and three times, staying in the gun and not blinking on the shots. The recoil was so slight I could stay in the gun with targets in focus and keep swinging for follow-up shots. There was no leaving the target and having to reacquire it for follow-up shots. I was already on them.
The A.I. in this gun’s title stands for Advanced Impact. This could play out two ways. First, as a reduced or advanced impact experience on your shoulder, each shot’s recoil is so slight and localized that maintaining proper shooting form is simple. Second, the advanced impact is impressive in the downrange velocity of each payload. This season I’ve shot over a dozen loads through this gun, of various brands, from steel, to steel blends, bismuth to tungsten. The downrange speed and accuracy this shotgun delivers are impressive.
The Advanced Impact design features an internal barrel profile and proprietary chokes unique to Benelli’s A.I. system. This profile formula increases the velocity of whatever shell is being used compared to shooting with a standard barrel. The greater velocity results in more tremendous energy, which testing has shown can generate up to 50 percent greater penetration downrange. The maintained downrange energy was clear with higher-density tungsten and bismuth, and I shot ducks with steel and steel-stacked loads.
Diver Hunt With Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A. I. BE.S.T.
I recently went on a diver hunt on the coast. Canvasbacks and scaup were the primary targets, with ring-necked ducks and buffleheads rounding out the mix. I shot HEVI-XII in shot sizes of #2 and #4. The HEVI Shot 1-1/8-ounce tungsten load is moving at 1,500 fps.
Again, the Advanced Impact System BE.S.T. full choke performed flawlessly with this load. The authority with which this payload dropped fat cans and pummeled divers impressed me and my buddies.
A Flooded Ditch & Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A. I. BE.S.T.
A few days later, I was hunting a flooded ditch in a ryegrass field. Knowing shots would be close, I put the IM choke tube back in and went with Baschieri & Pellagri’s Dual Bismuth in 2-3/4 inch #4 and #3 shot moving at 1,350 fps. As expected, the recoil was less with this load and the A.I. design. A lot of teal and wood ducks worked the ditch. Again, I picked drakes, and the performance of the gun, choke, and loads impressed me.
Some shots were at fast-moving targets, but they were not that tough. But the last bird commanded my attention. My buddy shot a nice drake woody in the tail three times. He couldn’t catch up to the bird that came in fast, from left to right. “Kill it!” he shouted as the bird continued on its path of travel. The shot was long. So long in fact, I wouldn’t have shot were it not already hit. But the payload of 2-3/4-inch bismuth smacked the duck, breaking both legs and a wing, killing it dead at over 60 yards. It was another testimony to the downrange performance of this shotgun, even with a non-magnum load.
Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A. I. BE.S.T.: Ready To Handle Any Load
Over the years, I’ve not been overly impressed with shooting certain bismuth and tungsten loads. I’ve shot every brand, I believe, in a range of shotguns. It can be a game of chess, and finding which load shoots most efficiently in which guns with which chokes, is challenging. Bismuth, especially, if compressed too quickly has a tendency to fragment. Swat a crippled bird on the water or shoot at an approaching duck as its feet touch down between decoys, and you’ll see exactly what I mean. A pattern on the water reveals more than what punching paper ever will.
Due to the consistent tapering of the longer Advanced Impact System BE.S.T. chokes, the payload transition is more consistent. The result of the design is a gradual compression of the shot and the wad as it moves from the chamber to the barrel, versus a sudden impact which can lead to fragmentation of brittle loads, even accentuate the scattering of steel payloads that lack smooth, round pellets.
Between Christmas and New Year’s, we had a lot of rain where I hunted. It scattered ducks all over the valley. It even flooded a filbert orchard, which many folks call hazelnuts. I’ve hunted wood ducks in orchards since boyhood, in the 1970s. A few days ago, I headed into an orchard with a dozen wood duck decoys and a box of Kent Steel #4 shot. I fired at eight ducks, dropping seven. The efficiency of every load I’ve shot through this gun continues to impress me.
During waterfowl season our family eats a lot of ducks. We like it fresh, and prefer not to freeze duck meat then cook it, as it tastes too gamey for our liking. We eat ducks five to six days a week, often twice a day. Thanks to my wife’s excellent recipes—the fact she’s a cookbook author and recipe developer of all things wild helps—she’s stepped up her creativity and we never run out of ways to prepare duck. In part, we have Benelli’s Performance Shop Ethos Cordoba A.I BE.S.T. to thank for this.
Note: For copies of Scott Haugen’s popular line of hunting and fishing books, and Tiffany’s cookbooks, visit scotthaugen.com.
