Interestingly, I ran 475 rounds through my Benelli Legacy on Fourth_of_July weekend. Yes, I was hurting in the end, but no worse than I did in the past using my 1100 Rem(now my wife's). This was for a 400rd Sporting Clays event. I fired 3 boxes(75rds) the day before for practice. These were Winchester's AA 1 1/8oz Sporting Clays load.
FWIW-I easily fire over 200 rounds of 1oz Trap every weekend, and an additional 100 every Wednesday evening(Trap night), it just doesn't sound as dramatic as my 400rd weekend.
My Benelli recoils no more than the Rem it replaced. I hadn't even heard about this recoil issue until I came across it here a few months ago. Benelli's are highly regarded as 'top autos' in my area, which led me to my purchase, and I'd never heard anyone mention additional recoil before TFL.
I don't think most have ever tested them(gas vs. recoil) side by side. When target loads are used, damned if I can feel a difference between the 2. But I havn't fired a 'magnum' load through a shotgun for about 15 years, so perhaps these are what everyone's comparing.
When you think about, both system's bolts are stationary during that initial 'push' during detination. The bolt of the gas system is forced rearward after the load passes the gas taps, roughly half way down the barrel. I can't tell when the benelli system releases the bolt, but since it's noticably faster during my rapid fire testing, it must also be occuring during bore travel. If it was occuring after muzzle exit, I'd think it would cycle slower than the 1100.
Anyways...I can guarantee my next purchase will be a Benelli also, probably one of the Presenation models, since this Legacy has proved to by 100% reliable with ZERO malfuntions. And the engraving & nickle look great!
Take care!
As a side note-There was a young fellow that shot a couple rounds of Trap here two weeks ago. He was using a synthetic stocked Browning BPS(pump) in
10ga. I don't know what the loads were, but they were some long, brown suckers.