Follow-Up Review: Remington Versa Max

Got in two solid duck hunts with the Remington Versa Max, so thought a follow-up review was in order.

From the hunter's perspective, it's clear this shotgun was designed for the waterfowler. The weight, swing feel, and action seem ideally suited to tracking down and stopping a duck on a smokin' approach.

I find the light pipe fiber optic sight is really helpful for aquiring your target and establishing a solid lead. So far, I haven't swapped out colors, but it seems to me that this will eventually be a solid feature for dealing with varying weather conditions.

Best of all is the soft-shooting action. Remington claims that this 12 gauge has the recoil of a 20 gauge. Thus far, my shooting confirms this. 2-3/4" shells on the sporting clays course were noticably softer, but the real proof was with 3" shells in the layout boat and duck blind. WOW! Only a very small difference versus the lighter 2-3/4". Haven't shot any 3-1/2" shells yet, but eager to see those. Definitely a solid benefit, especially if you throw a lot of steel at ducks.

Interchangeable chokes have been excellent. Being able to swap out based on the decoy spread has been excellent. I seem to be alternating between Modified and Improved Modified as optimum. As time goes on, I'll probably settle on one and adapt my timing to that.

Thus far I've got about 4 boxes of 3" shells and about a case of 2-3/4" through this gun without a single cycling issue. All indications are that this gun should approach the legendary performance of a Benelli.

Hoping to get one more duck hunt in before the snow falls and it's rabbit season. More reports to follow, but VERY happy with my purchase so far!

-Sean-