Which shotgun would u go with for a 3 gun and non competitive skeet and trap gun?  Is the extra money worth it for the m3k?  Thanks.

I went with the m3k.. I rarely shoot 3gun and was getting tired of waiting to find the m3k in stock and almost bought the m3000 instead.  I like having the features of the m3k and it only cost me about $100 more for the m3k over the 26" M3000

The oversized controls can be run with mittens....well, except the trigger.  It would work great for hunting as well.  Its light and the 26' swings very nicely.

I got the M3K... If you don't want to immediately drop a bunch of coin into oversized controls, opening the loading port, etc, it's a hell of a bargain.  Now, you'll probably want to change some things out and open the loading port more, but it's great to start with.

Personally, I've been running mine for three/four months and I love it... Fantastic shotgun at a great price.

One word of advice?  Immediately buy a Benelli extractor and extractor spring (although the spring from the Remington Versamax works, too... That's what I have in mine.)

The Stoeger's are inconsistent and you might have issues with extraction right from the get-go.  Mine did with some - not all - brands of shells.  People on line had been suggesting this for a couple of years and it made a world of difference.

Does it have the fit and finish of an M1/M2?  Hell no... And it has a horrible finish that wears really easily.  I don't care... It goes "chug-chug-chug" with whatever I put in it and the pellets come out the end where I want them to go.  The best part is that with a $550 shotgun I don't cringe when I throw it in the dump barrel and I could give a shit if it gets scratched up.

The guys at MOA Precision had a "how to" on the extractor issue. They related that the prob was a rough extractor cut-out in the bolt and the extractor sides were rough also. A little work with a needle file and some extractor side smoothing did the trick. Read about it on BE.com.

I hope this thread is not too old to bump.  I wanted to report that I have picked an M3K for 3-gun competition myself.  It is a great gun for the money.  So far I have about 500 rounds through mine in testing and sporting clays.  My first competition is in two weeks.  I am looking into the Benelli extractor upgrade but so far I haven't found much information on it.   I think it may be a much-needed upgrade because my M3K will not extract Estate ammo at all.  On another note, I have found that my M3K light-strikes on Federal shells as well, which to me look to have a fairly deep primer seat.  It eats up anything with a Winchester logo on it however.  I have hope that with the extractor switch it will eject the Estate ammo just fine.
During the break-in process there were numerous feeding issues but I haven't been able to replicate any of them now that the gun is fully broken in.  I do highly recommend you follow the break-in procedure and fire the heaviest loads you can manage during that process.

My $.02.

I picked up my M3K last week, some 13 weeks after I ordered it. On the way out the door I bought some Estate 7 1/2 2.75" shells so I would have something to run through it. The M3K fed all 25 rounds perfectly, as well as another 125 rounds of the cheap Federal, Winchester, and Reminton loads from Wal-Mart. After these first rounds I stripped the gun and went to work on a few things. The trigger sucks. I polished the engagement surfaces with some 600 grit and that helped. I radiused the transition on the trigger guard to the loading port. I removed the extractor and deburred the slot for the extractor. I plan to do the MOA trigger screw mod and install the MOA disconnector. I have installed the new Taccom +5 XX extension tube and it has worked well. I have the later version loading port on mine and I think it will do for now. For less than $700 I have a shotgun that I think will be plenty reliable for the upcoming 3-gun season.

Just to add to the discussion of different ammo through these:

Took my M3K out today to shoot it for the first time and test out the MOA Precision +6 kit I added. I decided to take the leftover federal shells I had kicking around. 35 or so of the red, white, and blue 1 1/8oz at 1145 fps, 25 of the 1oz at 1250 fps, and 25 of the 7/8oz shot at 1200 fps - all 8 shot. The 1 1/8 went first, I had a few hiccups in the first few rounds and figured it might still be tight out of the box, or, more likely, I wasn't leaning in enough with my short, stick-figure build. the remaining 1 1/8oz went just fine. There might have been one FTE mixed in that I forgot to put in my notes, but as best I can remember it did well past the first six or seven.

Then I went straight to the 7/8oz and got to use my new M3K as a single-shot for 24 straight rounds, all FTE. The final one (barely) plopped out the side.

The 1oz shot had one FTE, ironically on the very last one.

As I have read, semi-auto shotguns tend to not like slow, light loads, such as the 7/8 I was using. I don't know much about shotguns just yet so I figured 1200 fps could maybe help make up for the light shot. I was wrong.

After reading about these extraction issues with cheaper ammo, I'm going to buy more of the cheap federal stuff that did cycle today to see what the longer-term reliability looks like or if there is a type that does work better. I'll also be bringing the Winchester AAs out next time, which I'm hoping will cycle real nice.

All in all, the trigger is a but clunky but I didn't have much trouble popping clays with it so I'll leave it be and see what I think once I start getting better. The MOA precision/Nordic Components +6 kit worked great with the spring cut to the recommended 16" past the installed tube. I also put the MOA Precision follower in. I never fired it with the stock follower so I don't know if it was any better but it pushed shells every time so... there's that.

11/8oz 3dram, after breaking mineit, m3000, not 3 gun version, it runs pretty much flawlessly. Lighter stuff it chokes

Just put an M3k on layaway. What ammo are you guys running for competitions?

I have a M3000 with MOA precision upgraded charging handle, bolt release, and safety
I have polished the mag tube and driver
its smooth as I can get it but yes I does have problems with low brass bulk shells
I think most shotguns do though