Benelli's New Ethos Cordoba Targets Recoil and Steel-Shot Performance

Benelli's Ethos Cordoba A.I. BE.S.T. takes the competition-bred Ethos platform and points it at the duck blind, pairing a recoil-taming stock with a barrel technology designed to hit harder downrange with steel shot.

Key points

• Comfort Tech 3 stock: American Hunter reports the diagonally split buttstock uses shock-absorbing chevrons and a soft comb to turn the whole stock into a recoil pad, making this one of the softer-shooting 12-gauges around.
• Inertia Driven action: The gun runs on Benelli's three-part Inertia Driven System with an Easy Locking Bolt, which the outlet notes handles everything from light loads to heavy magnums with minimal upkeep.
• Advanced Impact barrel: The 28-inch A.I. barrel is built for steel shot and, per American Hunter's own testing, boosts downrange velocity and penetration by as much as 50 percent.
• BE.S.T. finish and sights: The barrel carries Benelli's weather-resistant BE.S.T. coating, ships with a full set of AI Extended Crio chokes, and adds a fiber-optic front sight on a carbon-fiber rail.
• Build and options: An anodized aluminum receiver with oversized controls and an enlarged trigger guard rounds out the package, available in 12, 20, and 28 gauge.

Quick take

If American Hunter's numbers on the Advanced Impact barrel hold up in your own patterning, this looks like a serious upgrade for anyone running steel loads on waterfowl. Add in Benelli's recoil-reducing stock and weatherproof finish, and the Cordoba reads like a purpose-built blind gun rather than a repackaged clays shotgun.

Read the full story: americanhunter.org