Benelli’s groundbreaking Advanced Impact shotgun barrel design has stirred a quantitative vs qualitative debate. Our waterfowl expert tackles both angles on a San Francisco Bay surf scoter hunt.
by Scott Haugen; photography by Conner Olstad, Olstad Media
UPDATED: 3/6/26
I hunt ducks in a lot of places and talk to a lot of duck hunters. Less than 5% I’ve spoken with pattern their waterfowl setups on paper. For comparison, nearly 90% of turkey hunters I’ve asked, pattern their setups.
If you want to master waterfowl hunting with Benelli’s new Advanced Impact (AI) system, start with patterning it on paper. In today’s specialized world of loads, chokes, and guns, covering every detail is important.
When I was a kid hunting in the 1970s, friends and I used the same shotguns for everything. From ducks to geese, quail to pheasant, chukar to turkeys, one gun did it all. And with lead shot, the same load was largely used across the board. The setups were effective because we knew how they shot. We accepted their limitations and got birds within range before pulling the trigger. Simple.
With today’s technological advancement in shotgun shells, chokes, and the operating system of guns, accurately shooting with consistency is not as simple as it once was. So, before you deem a gun ineffective or go on a social media rant, do your homework. There are two options to dialing-in a Benelli A.I. shotgun: test loads until you find one that works, or swap shims to fit the gun to a load you like.
Last year, I shot the ETHOS Cordoba with the new A.I. system. From the moment I picked it up, it was one of the best performing shotguns I’d shot. No matter the load or choke, it killed ducks and geese with consistency. Every load, be it steel, stacked steel, blended loads, straight bismuth, or TSS, shot lights-out. I shot several 7-bird limits in 10 shots or less. Accurate and lethal. I loved the Cordoba A.I.
This season, when I picked up the SBE3 with the new A.I. barrel, I expected it to perform as the Cordoba did. It didn’t. It didn’t pattern TSS well and struggled with some brands of steel loads. But it shot Baschieri & Pellagri Dual Steel in size 2 + 3 shot in both 1 1/8 oz. and 1 1/4 oz. with accuracy and impressive downrange energy. With the stock full choke, I was so impressed with the performance of this combination, it’s what I took to Florida to try and complete the 41. Unfortunately, I never saw a fulvous duck but did shoot black bellied whistlers. I still have one bird to go.
This 12-gauge with B&P loads is what my hunting partner, Austin Crowson, chose on our surf scoter hunt in California. I picked up an SBE3 with A.I. in a 20-gauge. It performed just like the Cordoba, shooting a wide range of loads with precision and killing birds with authority, right out of the box.
On day one of our scoter hunt from the big boat, I shot four different loads in the 20-gauge. This was intentional, as we were shooting ducks low, on the water. Scoters are tough, meaning water-swatting is inevitable. Even better than shooting paper is seeing how loads perform on water. Essentially, it’s simultaneous pattern and energy testing on live birds.
Two loads stood out in the 20-gauge: Migra and Winchester. It was the first time I shot Migra’s 3-in. Steel Staxd Load of 2/4 shot moving at 1,350 fps. Winchester’s Final Pass was a 2 1/2 + 4 shot steel blend traveling 1,300 fps. With a factory full choke, both loads shot impressively tight patterns. The downrange speed and energy delivery of these loads in the A.I. system killed ducks at considerable distances. I’d shot the Final Pass on nearly a dozen hunts earlier this season, and it did a fine job on mallards and pintails in big, open water, along with wigeon and wood ducks in flooded timber sloughs. That was the load I chose to hunt scoters from a layout boat on day two.
Crowson stuck with the SBE3 12 gauge and Baschieri & Pellagri Dual Steel load for his layout hunt. He shot good, killed birds cleanly. After Crowson took his limit, I hopped into the layout with the 20-gauge and Final Pass load. In nine minutes, I fired at eight scoters and killed seven birds, only one needed a follow-up shot. There’s no better feeling in duck hunting than picking up a gun and knowing it will kill. That’s how the 20-gauge SBE3 and Cordoba, with the new A.I. barrels, felt to me. Once I got the 12-gauge dialed-in, it delivered the same level of confidence.
The first 12-gauge SBE3 I shot in Alaska on this September’s opener performed with impressive accuracy and downrange power, killing pintails out to 60 yards in high winds with the B&P Dual Steel load. In the second 12-gauge I shot later in the season, I tested loads to find what shot well in the gun. It took time, but Winchester’s Last Call Double Shot in 2 1/2 steel + 9 TSS was exceptional, along with the B&P Dual Steel. I’d hunt ducks anywhere, in any condition, with those two loads.
A buddy who has an SBE3 A.I. 12-gauge stuck with his favorite steel load of size 3 shot and swapped out the shims to get it shooting with precision. There’s more than one way to achieve an accurate-shooting shotgun.
With precision guns, loads, and chokes, gone are the days of assuming every shotgun shell will shoot the same way. They might, but not all the time, and not in all guns. But once you get a setup performing with precision, the level of accuracy and amount of downrange energy the A.I. system delivers will keep you awake at night for the simple reason you can’t wait to start dropping ducks, one shot after another.
- FIELD TEST: Dialing in Benelli’s New A.I. Barrel Technology - February 27, 2026
