anniversary gift this year...

I want to get my wife a semi-auto shotgun for our anniversary this year. Any recommendations on brands and models to look at? Hoping to keep it under $700. I looked at one of the Beretta's as well as a Winchester. I will probably also want to stick with 12g since that is what we shoot right now. The pump 870 works ok for her, and she likes it, but she said a semi auto would be a bit nicer with the reduced recoil.

IMO if you hunt you HAVE to use a semi (at least if you hunt deer, not birds).

I only have a Remington 1187. I have an extra slug (rifled) barrel with a permanently mounted shotgun scope. I have used it some but not really, really hard. It has been reliable. My daughter has shot trap with it and found it comfortable to shoot and did pretty well (10-14 hits per round) for a first time trap OR shotgun shooter.

Benelli Montefeltro.  Great, soft shooting guns.

Orrrrrr the new Stoegar M3000 or 3500. Not pretty, but pretty good.

Can't go wrong with a Benelli. I'm not a fan of Stoeger personally. I try not to buy second tier guns.

any of you used beretta shotguns before?

No but they have a good reputation. Also Fiochi.

They have a Beretta for $600 at the shop, gun guy said he could take $50 off for me. I've always heard Beretta shotguns were nice. Wife looked at it and said it felt good. She liked the lower price tag than the winchester sx3's and Benelli's. She didn't really like the mossberg 930's.

Good taste, your wife.

The only semi-auto shotgun I've got experience with is the Remington 1100.

And, having grown up in the Midwest in farm country, the 1100 is as common among my family as Glocks are with police forces.

Can't say enough good things about it. I'm personally more of a double barrel or pump action shotgunner, but I'd consider looking at a used 1100.

So I ended up getting the Beretta. Wife loved it. I got it engraved with her name and how many years we've been married (16). She loves the engraving because it makes that gun unique and personalized. I think if I ever do any more gift guns I will get them engraved in a similar manner. Even though the engraving itself isn't fancy, it is cool because it makes the gun personalized. It didn't cost me much to engrave it either--I just bought some guys at the local bullet mold shop a couple of pizzas as a thank you. They told me they would do it for free, but I figured, if you buy a guy a pizza or two--it sure goes a long ways for future favors.

Engraving, if done well, always adds significant value to a weapon. Sometimes it makes it so you don't want to shoot it, a bad result, as guns should be fired. But a nicely engraved weapon can look terrific and still look like something to shoot, not put in a glass cabinet.