The Benelli Nova has never been a front-runner when it comes to defensive and tactical shotguns. While they enjoy popularity among sportsmen, it has largely been Benelli’s autos that fill the “social” use bill. However, things are changing. Remington is not currently manufacturing shotguns, and their quality control over the last few decades has been spotty at best.
There’s a void to be filled, and the relatively new Nova 3 Tactical has an opportunity to make a splash on the defensive shotgun market. Curious to see how the Nova handles, I reached out to Benelli for a loaner to see how it stacks up against the competition. Let’s see how the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical compares.
The Benelli Nova 3 Tactical is a 12 gauge, pump-action shotgun designed for defensive and tactical use. The 18.5-inch barrel is threaded for chokes, and interestingly comes with a MOD choke installed from the factory. Benelli also includes and extended CYL choke, and a choke wrench with the Nova 3 Tactical. There are also variants available with a fixed MOD and fixed CYL chokes. The gun features a 3-inch chamber, and weighs approximately 5.9 pounds empty.
Sitting below the barrel is a factory extended magazine, which holds seven 2-3/4″ shells when using a typical “star” crimp. If using roll crimped shells, expect to have capacity reduced by one round. For shooters opting for the non-extended magazine, you will reduce your capacity to four shells. A small barrel clamp is attached from the factory, held on by a knurled screw.
Sights are standard for Benelli shotguns, in other words they’re stellar. The rear sight is a fully adjustable ghost ring, featuring two white dots at the sides of the aperture. This ring is protected by two wings, and is directly mounted on the receiver of the Nova. Our front sight is a somewhat thick post, also featuring a white dot and protective wings. My Nova 3 required zero adjustment to the sights upon arrival, allowing for easy hits on target from nearly contact distance out to 90 yards. Sights are coarse enough to allow for rapid acquisition without obscuring the target, but fine enough to make for easy hits at longer distances with slugs.
In addition to the irons, the gun comes equipped with a picatinny rail mounted to the receiver for use with optics. I opted to stick with irons for the duration of this review, however the rail stayed mounted solidly to the gun under recoil.
A component of shotguns which is often overlooked is the shell lifter. This piece can really help or hurt a design, and the Nova 3 Tactical’s managed to grab my attention. At first glance this seems to be a fairly conventional shell lifter; forked at the end, stainless steel, and slightly scalloped. The first thing that stood out to me is its function. Normally, the lifter stays in the “down” position, helping to prevent ingress of debris during shooting and administrative handling. However, once you load the first shell, the lifter stays in the “up” position, until being forced back downward by the reciprocation of the bolt. This significantly eases the loading process and virtually eliminates the possibility of your thumb being trapped between the lifter and receiver.
I love this feature. I think it melds the best of both words while avoiding the shortcomings of a constantly up or down lifter. As someone who has gotten their thumb pinched before on other shotguns, this is a stand-out for me. It also makes loading far easier when wearing gloves.
In addition to the function of the lifter on the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical, the form is also worth mentioning. I’ve done a lot of shotgun shooting over the years, and that means a lot of loading. With some other designs, the knuckle of my thumb can get rubbed raw by a rough or sharp lifter, especially those with openings down the center. The lifter on the Nova 3 is extremely smooth, with gentle curves and a slick finish. I don’t notice the lifter when loading rapidly, and that’s a good thing. Other manufacturers take note, this is how a lifter should be made.
Another often overlooked piece when it comes to shotguns is the magazine follower. These need to be durable, stable, and ideally aid us in determining the status of our magazine. The Nova 3 Tactical follower does all three with flying colors. To start with, the magazine follower here is a reflective orange, a color not found in shotgun case heads. In addition to this it steps from a meplat to a gentle cone, then flat again, almost like a semi-wadcutter bullet. That unique shaping allows us to easily determine if the magazine is loaded by feel alone, even with gloves. Being made of metal is also a plus, as the likelihood of the follower cracking from spring pressure is dramatically reduced.
Again, this is a component that most shooters and manufacturers overlook. The attention to detail here is appreciated.
At first glance the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical is a fairly conventional shotgun. However, after some time together on the range, a few unique ergonomic features begin to stand out.
In short, the stock is long. Length of pull comes in at 14-1/8 inches from the factory. As with all Novas, the stock is integral with the receiver–it’s all one connected piece rather than two components mated to each other. This means our ability to mount an aftermarket stock is effectively zero. This is my primary complaint with the Nova series of shotguns, and what I most often see cited as why someone opted to go another directly. While I don’t mind a long stock as much as others, it’s become a rather larger sticking point over the past few years. I’d love to see this updated, bringing LOP down to 12-12.5 inches, with spacers available for those wanting a little more length.
Despite its long LOP, the shaping of the stock is good. The pistol grip is nicely vertical and allows for good access to the trigger and safety without shifting my grip. Mildly aggressive texturing helps keep hands in place on the grip during recoil, in both wet or dry conditions.
Hardware on the stock is solid. We have QD sockets on either side of the stock for modern sling use, with rubber plugs filling the void when not in use. If you’re a little less tactical, traditional sling swivels can be mounted in the typical location, with a forward mounted swivel being accepted near the magazine extension. The rear of the stock features a nicely made foam butt pad. This is slightly rounded at the top, which helps to avoid catching when mounting the gun.
Despite being a tactical gun, the Nova series of shotguns sport a long forend, more along the lines of what you’d see on a sporting gun. While I see some shooters complain about this, I actually don’t mind. Yes, the forend does cover part of the receiver when opening the action, and this can interfere with shot cards.
Some people act like this completely negates the ability to have onboard ammunition, but this simply isn’t the case. There’s plenty of room at the rear of the receiver for a 4-round side saddle, which are gaining in popularity due to their improved balance over stands 6-round variants. Additionally, this longer forend is friendly for shooters of smaller stature, allowing them to get a proper grip on the pump handle without having to dramatically blade their body. This helps to mitigate felt recoil, and improve control of the gun.
Shaping and texturing of the forend are decent, but could use a little improvement. There’s a distinct “step” in the forend; it’s wider towards the receiver where the action bars are covered. Then once you move past the bars, the forend “steps” in, only needing to accommodate the magazine tube. In addition to this step, the forend tapers as you move towards the muzzle, being somewhat cone shaped.
Regarding texture, the forend is made up of what I’ll call lands and grooves. The grooves feature decent texturing, not what I’d call aggressive, but reasonable for a typical gun owner. However, these grooves are virtually untouched by the shooter’s hand. Completely smooth lands, or ribs, separate the grooves into individual cells. The lands are proud enough to prevent my hand from contacting the textured groove.
This, paired with the cone shaping of the forend can cause my support hand to slide forward when aggressively manipulating the action. I’m good for two to three shots, but typically need to reacquire my grip afterwards. I’d prefer to see a forend with texture more along the lines of the Benelli M2, or the standard Nova 3 Tactical. The higher portion of the forend needs texturing to help keep hands in place.
The Benelli Nova 3 Tactical is a little unique when it comes to controls. First we’ll discuss aspects that are more standard with the design. The gun features a cross-bolt safety, located at the front of the trigger guard. Upon unboxing, the safety was very stiff and a little difficult to manipulate. However, this quickly changed over the course of some dry practice and my first two range sessions. Now the safety requires a deliberate press to move, but not what I’d call a significant or unusual amount of force. I have no issues reaching the safety with my firing grip, though shooters with shorter trigger fingers may find themselves adjusting.
The action release is somewhat similar to what you might see on a Remington 870, or the shell release on a Benelli M2 semiauto. This lever is located on the right side of the gun, near the front of the trigger guard. It is well shrouded from accidental manipulation, but not difficult to use.
The most unique control on the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical is the magazine cutoff button. This is a square button centered on the underside of the forend. Pressing this inward when opening the action stops the magazine from feeding a round onto the lifter. Means we can unload our chamber without having to also remove an additional round from the lifter when opening the action. I think this would be an excellent way to set our guns up for Cruiser Safe/Ready storage, especially when coming off of the range.
It also is an interesting method to work a select slug drill, or other ammunition swap. Activating the magazine cutoff requires slight repositioning of the support hand to access the button. Initially I took this as a detriment, but now I think this may be a benefit to avoid accidental activation. My proficiency is growing with each use, and I’m slowly becoming a believer. At the very least it’s certainly a good way to avoid dumping rounds on the ground when swapping loads for one or two shots. I’d be very interested to see this in the hands of some peers and mentors for their opinions.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical into any classes or matches during the review process. However I did take it to the range several times for both short and long training sessions. I wanted to extend my time with the gun into multiple fresh days to help me better flesh out my thoughts on some of its unique features, rather than dumping everything into two or three sessions. Below is the round count on the Nova 3 as of this writing.
Overall the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical did really well on the range. During shooting I had zero stoppages of any sort, nor any parts breakages. The closest thing I had to an issue was a walking magazine clamp, and a trigger pin which would slightly pop out under recoil. This pin did not impact function, and could be pressed back in with my finger. No issue, but something worth mentioning.
Much of my shooting was fairly close range on steel targets, specifically working manipulations, transitions, and follow-up shots. While I typically avoid mag dumping, I did substantially decrease split times throughout this review. Not everything was for speed however. I took three range sessions to work on further distance shooting with slugs. I had no issues hitting my reduced size IPSC torso at both 50 and 90 yards from standing with full power slugs. Basketball sized pumpkins were also turned to mush with ease at 70 yards unsupported.
For my final range session for this review I started cold with my Practical Shotgun Skills Test. This was done using Federal Power Shok slugs for ease of scoring. My first two hits went a little high, but I still managed to pass with a 90% overall. Par times were all in the “Intermediate” category, though some were nearly “Advanced” times. Even with iron sights and longer LOP than I’m used to, the Nova 3 never felt like it held me back on the range.
To close things out I also hand-threw some clay pigeons on the range, going 17/24 on my first run. It’s not an ideal bird gun, but it did about as well as I can hope for at my skill level.
I do have a few pieces of feedback for the Nova 3 Tactical. This is a good gun, but it could be a great gun with just a few changes.
We’ll get the simplest out of the way first. Get rid of the barrel clamp, it isn’t necessary. This clamp does nothing to hold the magazine extension in place, and slides around under recoil despite not loosening itself. Since the clamp doesn’t feature any sling hardware or other benefits, it’s superfluous, adding cost and complexity. The barrel bells out slightly near the muzzle which stops it from falling off the gun, but it scratches the finish and doesn’t help us.
As mentioned above, the forend is slightly cone shaped, tapering towards the muzzle. This allows my support hand to slide forward when aggressively running action, especially with higher recoiling loads. This really came to my attention during an early morning range session, with temperatures below freezing before sunrise. I wore my PIG FDT gloves to keep my hands warm, my only instance of something other than bare hands during the review process. This caused my hands to slip more dramatically, resulting in slightly short stroking the action. This led to failures to eject, the only occurrence throughout the review. After a few failures I removed my glove, confirming that they were the cause.
Overall, I like the design of the Nova 3 Tactical’s forend, but it’s not perfect. Maintain the step down to reduce bulk where action bars stop, but then keep a straight profile, no taper. That should eliminate any slipping. Making the texture more aggressive, especially on the “ribs” should help here as well. Despite this, I can still run the gun fairy quickly, and have greatly improved my follow-up shots. Moving forward, I would likely stipple the forend to increase traction on a personal gun.
14-1/8 Inches length of pull is crazy for a tactical gun. This is the #1 complaint I see from people online and on the range. The long LOP is losing sales, no question. Benelli, reduce the standard LOP down to 12-12.5 inches, and provide spacers for people to increase it if they wish. Short statured shooters, people in armor, and those in heavy layers will thank you. The Nova 3 Tactical could be a home run for small shooters between the long forend and low weight if you could shorten the stock. If you change anything, change this.
Overall I’m pretty pleased with my first experience with the Benelli Nova line of shotguns. The Nova Tactical 3 has some stellar features that I think other shotgun manufacturers should take note of. While I’d like to see some reshaping of the forend, and a reduction in LOP, I’m still able to run the gun quickly and effectively in its current configuration. As it is now, the Nova 3 Tactical blows most other tactical pump guns out of the water.
I’d really love to see these in the hands of more people, as I think more support and feedback to Benelli may help enable the changes mentioned above. If you’re thinking about picking up a shotgun for defense, training, or fun, consider the Benelli Nova 3 Tactical.
MSRP starts at $649, with this particular model sitting at $979 as of this writing. You can check out the Nova 3 Tactical’s various configurations directly on Benelli’s website >>HERE<<.
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