The Nova is basically a high performance beater in my book. It functions awesome and can really take a beating. I feel that it is heck of a better deal than any other pump on the market. I do only use my nova for waterfowl and turkey. It is a good gun. If I were you, just pick what feels the best when shopping. If you buy a gun before you buy it, meaning have a gun picked out without looking at them and pulling it up a few times, etc. and shopping around, you could end up with a "good" gun, but one that outright sucks for you.