The answer I found to this question was a Weatherby SA-08

by JD, Western Washington, Monday, November 28, 2011, 15:07 (4744 days ago) @ bj

I was faced with the same question, and I looked at all the semi-autos available. I ended up buying (so far) three Weatherby SA-08 semi-autos. I really like the Benelli's, but I can't see spending $1000 plus for one, so after checking everything I could find, and all the feedback, I decided to try a 20 ga. Weatherby SA-08. I was so please with it I bought a 12 ga version (both with synthetic stocks). I liked those two so well that I just bought another 20 ga with high polish blue and wood stock. I'm not a person that's easy to please, and very picky about guns, but I am impressed with these shotguns.

The synthetic stocked version goes for around $450 in these parts, and the high polish blue and walnut stocked version I just bought was $560.

I'm a rather picky (my friends say anal, but I'm sure they mean it in a nice way...) engineer, and I've had all three of these SA-08's completely apart and the workmanship is first rate. The receivers are aluminum, barrel is chrome lined steel with screw chokes. The 20 ga weighs about 6 pounds, and the 12 ga about 6.5 pounds, so they are great to carry in the field. Since they are gas operated, recoil is not bad at all. They fit me the same way a Benelli does and point better than anything else I've tried (and I do have more than a few shotguns...). Once broken in with about 50 rounds or so, they function perfectly. The only negative is that they come with two gas pistons, one for light loads and one for heavy loads, so you have to swap out the pistons (an easy job) to match what you want to shoot. I've owned 1100's and 11-87's and the SA-08 is every bit as well made, in my opinion.

Weatherby is very protective of their image and is not about to sell anything that could tarnish it, and these shotguns are really first rate.

My two cents......... JD