I have read from a lot of people that they just had to shoulder them and one or the other just seemed to fit them better. Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback. I don't think you can go wrong either way. I also don't care about POI as I will be putting a red dot on it.
Ultimately it'll cost me a lot more than the Franchi, but the M2 was in stock and again, as a long time Benelli owner already, I'm just comfortable with them and trust them. I plan on sending mine to Rob Roberts this summer to get drilled and tapped and have the trigger worked. I'm sure the Franchi is a great gun and you'd be just as happy with it.
Yes, the trigger is not the greatest, but I just personally feel more comfortable with Benelli's from owning a bunch. I own 3 and they've all performed flawlessly. In the end I think I just trusted Benelli more. The Affinity is drilled and tapped, which is nice, but I read a few stories on here about it being finicky with not ejecting some shells, I can't remember exactly what they were. It didn't really help that my local store had the M2 in stock and not the Affinity, or I may have gone the other way, hard to say. Not for any real particular reason, and I went through everything you described when looking at the differences. I just went through this and opted for the M2. To be clear, budget is not a limiting factor in my decision, I am willing to spend for an M2, I’m just having a difficult time seeing what advantages it offers over the Affinity. Before I pull the trigger, I just wanted to ask if there’s anything I’ve missed that makes the M2 a better gun than the Affinity? I’ve not found a single reason from all my research other than the “Benelli reputation” and people claim it is “better quality”, but I’ve yet to find any explanation in terms of what exactly that quality difference is. Initially I had planned on getting the M2, but after doing more research, there seem to be more advantages to the Affinity. I’ve also read you have to be careful when drilling/tapping because of how thin the receiver is. Other feedback it seems I’ve read a lot of complaints of the M2 having a heavy trigger and not shooting POA (won’t really matter since I plan to use an optic). The only other discernible difference I’ve come across is the location of the recoil spring is in the stock for the M2 vs over the mag tube on the Affinity which makes them balance differently, and apparently is also a pain to get to on the M2. The only advantage to the M2 seems to be the comfortech stock resulting in less recoil. The Franchi is already drilled/tapped and has oversized bolt controls. I’ve done as much research and read through as many previous threads I can find. On paper, these two guns are almost identical and from my understanding come out of the same factory. The Inertia Driven system allows the M2 to digest nearly any 12 gauge cartridge, from 2-3/4" target loads to the heaviest 3" magnums.I’ve narrowed my next turkey gun down to these two options. Light, nimble, but ruggedly built, the M2 12-gauge shotgun and the M2 20-gauge shotgun are built around the ultra-reliable Inertia Driven bolt mechanism. The Benelli M2 Field is the workhorse of the semi-auto Benelli shotguns, with the speed of a thoroughbred.