“inertia-operated”

The end of duck season is a sordid affair. Yes, there’s work to be done, with mud and muck encasing nearly everything you own, and the contempt you hold for your alarm clock is palpable. … But why quit now? The best hunting of the year is waiting south of the border.

From sleek Italian over/unders to pumps that punch above their pay grade, these new scatterguns should be on every hunter's wish list.

The new Weatherby 18i semi-auto shotguns are built on an inertia-operated action that provides reliable cycling in an evenly-weighted gun. The Italian-made line consists of three models; the elegant Weatherby 18i Deluxe, the 18i Synthetic and the 18i Waterfowler.

An upgrade to the original model, the new 12-gauge Affinity 3.5 sports design features that increase its appeal to the American hunter. It’s dependable, durable and lightweight, and with an MSRP around $1,000 and a seven-year warranty, it’s a shotgun you won’t hesitate to carry into the swamp.

The 28-gauge Ethos is a quality sporting shotgun from a trusted maker, and the 3-inch shells go a long way toward closing the power gap between this increasingly popular sub-gauge and its larger kin.

All things considered, the Benelli SBE 3 is a well-planned evolution of not just the SBE platform, but semi-automatic shotguns in general. The dominance of the pump gun is over, never to return.

From upland game to big game, these guns represent real value for shooters.

At the end of the day, you hunt sandhill cranes the same way you hunt just about any waterfowl. That’s no reason to slack off, though. Consider adding some of the following gear to your collection before you tackle this prehistoric-looking bird.

Weatherby’s newest Orion over/under picks up where the company’s previous Italian- and Japanese-made Regency, Orion and Athena over/under guns left off: with quality.