It’s not often the means of transport to your hunting spot becomes a primary attraction, but then again, it’s not often you get to hunt the historic Bighorn River (yes, that Bighorn) in the dead of winter. As my beard and hair crusted up with icy river spray, I thanked my lucky stars for the WileyX Spear goggles protecting my eyes and prayed for the trip to go on a little longer. You’d be hard pressed to find an amusement park ride as fun as being propped up in the prow of a jet boat. Dangerous as that may sound, the real danger is not the speed—the danger comes if the boat stops moving. Jet boats are favored on these rocky, shallow northern rivers as the jagged bottom will cut up traditional props and rudders. The downside? If you lose propulsion, you’ve lost steering, and you’re drifting at the mercy of the river.
As the boat rollicked over the bumpy water, there was magic in the air. Surprisingly, it was not brought on by the jet boat alone, or even by our enchanted, snowcapped environ. Instead, it was the A.I. barrel technology on hand from Benelli, which seemed hellbent on proving Arthur C. Clarke’s most famous axiom that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
A little background. A.I. in this context stands for Advanced Impact rather than Artificial Intelligence. Advanced Impact is an algorithmically determined barrel contour that undulates back and forth at a specific rate throughout the length of the bore (picture a sine wave). I won’t go too deep into it here—partially because exactly how it works is a closely-guarded secret, and partially because you can read a full rundown of the tech in my “Hardware” in last month’s edition of the magazine—but the result is a barrel that can somehow keep a pattern together so well that it slipstreams more effectively, and thus maintains downrange energy and velocity better than a traditional scattergun. The best part for waterfowlers? While the tech works on any shot type, it was designed specifically to optimize steel loads.
You’ll understand my reticence over a barrel that claims to make your shotshells shoot not faster from the muzzle, but retain more velocity downrange. Color me skeptical. So, I made the only natural decision I could and joined Benelli to see if its claims could be replicated in the field. My color didn’t last long.
We met up with R.A. Legacy Outfitters’ Andy Elser outside Billings for the trip over to Hardin, Mont., and I knew my preconceived notions were in trouble right off the bat. Our first hunt saw us brush layout blinds into a cornfield amidst a huge decoy spread. Honkers were on the menu, but I frowned at the steel we were issued. I had become spoiled, recently, by easy access to bismuth and tungsten, to the point I had begun to chafe a bit at shooting steel at anything larger than a mallard. As the first shot left my barrel and I watched a goose crash to the ground, my eyes widened. It took three more clean, one-shot kills before I really began to accept the fact that this was not mere marketing hype. These guns truly were shooting steel like lead. Foul hits and crips, though still certainly possible with an errant shot, were cut down on considerably. We filled the sky with clouds of steel that day, and the geese just wouldn’t stop falling. Banner day though it was, nothing could compare to what lay ahead.
This brings us back to my frosty perch on the bow. The jet boat had made it to our un-tropical island destination in record time, and after hoofing dekes and gear clean across it to a small pocket, we set our spread and settled in to wait. We didn’t have to sit long. Ducks started dumping into our little alcove, presenting our party with plenty of opportunities to double- and triple-up on fast-flying fowl. For hours we all sat huddled in our blind, taking turns at a small propane heater in the back trying to thaw frozen fingers, but nothing could pull us away from that shoreline.
Halfway through the morning, the pace slowed as the temperature dropped. The chill began to bite so deep that we made space at the heater for the dog, who shuffled in ever tighter for warmth. As his icy fur closed with the glowing red element, the dog began to glisten and steam like a hard-run horse. In his position, I don’t think I would ever have left the heaters, but like clockwork, the sound of the calls caused our loyal canine to perk and set, while the telltale noise of birds thumping water sent him dashing back out into the frigid depths, to return minutes later with a mouth full of feathers.
As the pace slowed, something almost inexplicable happened. Spotting the occasional goose high (and I do mean high, there were Boeings cruising lower), Wildfowl’s Ryan Barnes began to work his goose call, at first simply for fun then shortly in earnest. Almost without fail, Ryan managed to pull these stray singles and pairs from their lofty heights all the way down into our duck spread. Not a single goose that circled and cupped made it out alive. Our morning finished with a brief check from some passing game wardens before the skies fell silent and we packed it in.
While the final day couldn’t hold a candle to the previous in terms of adventure, it was a goose hunter’s dream. As we hunkered down in layouts a stone’s throw from Pompey’s Pillar—a sandstone signpost used by peoples throughout the West for 11,000 years and inscribed by none other than Lewis and Clarke—the birds just worked. All told, the whole group of us were tagged out by 10 a.m., after which we made our way to the Blue Cat Bar & Grill for some chow and post-hunt chatter.
Want to have a similar adventure? Check out ralegacyoutfitters.com. They’ll put you on geese and ducks in no time flat. And if you want to make extra sure you drop what you’re pointing at, I’d snag a Benelli with an A.I. barrel and some Fiocchi steel. It’s well worth the investment.
Fiocchi Golden Waterfowl
If you’re looking to put a hurting on geese and ducks, grab a box of Fiocchi Golden Waterfowl. This isn’t my first rodeo with this particular shotshell line—I grab No. 2’s pretty often to drop greenheads—but it turns out there are few things better for putting a hurtin’ on geese than 3-inch Golden Waterfowl BBs. With a 1-1/4-ounce payload travelling around 1350 fps at the muzzle, these BBs pack enough punch to deliver a knockout blow to the stoutest birds. This is potentially improved by a factor of around 20 percent when paired with Benelli’s A.I. barrel, keeping the patterns even tighter and the BBs flying faster (again, check out that November 2025 “Hardware” for an explanation). Whatever the official numbers, I can say this definitively: Fiocchi Golden Waterfowl through an A.I. barrel crushed geese with uncontestable authority. fiocchiusa.com
Benelli SBE 3 A.I. BE.S.T.
It is sometimes hard to feign excitement at the latest iteration of an already great and storied firearm. Not so with this SBE 3. Already one of the best-regarded waterfowling shotguns of all time, A.I. technology takes the SBE 3 to previously untouched heights, transforming it into a scattergun for the modern nontoxic age. Alchemists long labored in vain to turn lead into gold, but the SBE 3 A.I. has accomplished an even greater trick for waterfowlers by turning steel to lead, with similar results on personal wealth. Rarely would a new firearm be considered a good financial investment outright (make sure you bookmark this part to reference to your wife or girlfriend after purchasing), but the SBE 3 A.I. has the potential to literally save shooters money in the long run, by allowing them to bypass expensive bismuth and eye-wateringly priced tungsten for the most economical material on the market, while still retaining bird-flattening terminal performance. On top of all this, it still has all the features that have combined to make the SBE 3 line an all-around favorite year after year, and the Benelli Surface Treatment (BE.S.T.) to protect it for the long haul. If you’re a diehard waterfowler looking for something to lighten the load on both your shoulder and wallet, this is your gun. MSRP is $2,999-$3,199. benelliusa.com
