The Benelli M2 at 108.8 oz is the lightest gun in this semi-auto hunting batch, and the Inertia Driven system is why that's possible. There's no gas piston, no ports to clean, no springs exposed to fouling — just the bolt cycling against a captive spring in the receiver. The design has fewer parts than a gas gun and, in the field, requires less maintenance between hunts. Field reviewers consistently rate the M2 at or near the top for reliability across temperature extremes and wet conditions.

The ComforTech stock uses a gel comb pad and a series of steel-reinforced flex zones to redistribute recoil — Benelli rates it at reducing felt recoil by about 48% compared to a rigid stock. At 6.8 lbs, the gun is light enough that those recoil management features matter: light inertia guns transfer recoil faster and sharper than heavier alternatives, and the ComforTech is the engineering response to that trade-off. The Crio-treated barrel and choke tubes are chromium-plated inside, which Benelli claims reduces shot deformation and improves pattern consistency — a claim field shooters report confirms in their own patterning. The gun ships with five choke tubes (C, IC, M, IM, F), which is a full range for field and waterfowl use.

What the M2 does better than anything else in this group is give you a light, fast-handling field gun that runs cleanly in adverse conditions without asking for much maintenance. The 28" barrel at 49.5" overall keeps swing-through natural on moving targets. For shooters who prefer the gas-operated Beretta A300 Ultima's broader load compatibility for mixed shooting, that's a viable alternative.