If you are a seasoned waterfowler, you certainly already have a shotgun style preference.

Semi-automatics and pump guns are popular among waterfowlers because they offer a third shot.

But how long has it been since you thought about the advantages and disadvantages of your waterfowling gun?

I cannot list every advantage and disadvantage of the four shotgun types, but here's a summary of the primary factors that make semi-autos, pumps, over/unders and side-by-sides the shotgun types of choice for North American waterfowl hunters.

Semi-Autos
Semi-autos are the most popular shotgun type for duck and goose buffs. And rightly so.

Like pump guns, autoloaders give us a third shot, which can be a big advantage in bringing down an escaping cripple still in the air or to dispatch a cripple on the water.

One disadvantage of semi-autos has been reliability and foolproof function. However, it has become less of a problem over the past decade or two. The Benelli Super Black Eagle and the Beretta Xtrema have raised the reliability bar. These shotguns, and others, have taken away a major advantage pump guns once had -- pumps work -- over and over, time after time. Such reliability was not always the hallmark of a semi-auto, especially when steel shot was introduced and while shotshell companies worked to develop suitable powders for steel shot loads. Today, steel loads and other non-toxics are simply great in comparison to early loads. But steel shotshells were once a real problem for autoloaders.

Another advantage of semi-autos is reduced felt recoil, particularly in gas-operated guns.

Wildfowl hunters desire less recoil because of the heavy loads we shoot, and because they are driven at very high velocities. Gas operation bleeds off gas in vent holes in the barrel to eject the just-fired shell, release a live shell from the magazine tube and then feed it into the chamber.

Semi-auto actions that do not use gas operation (for example the Browning Auto-5 and all of the Benelli models) reduce recoil very minimally in comparison. However, Benelli has largely addressed the problem with the development of the ComforTech stock for its Super Black Eagle. Its recoil-reducing stock is also fitted to several other Benelli models.

Further, the new Vinci semi-auto adds even more recoil reduction qualities with the gun's ComforTech Plus stock. Browning's new Maxum model semi-auto, even though it works with recoil-reducing gas operation, has a newly designed stock to help reduce recoil.

Yet another advantage of the semi-auto, especially those featuring the most modern designs, is reduced weight. Lighter weight accentuates recoil, but it tends to improve handling qualities in a fast-shooting situation -- sporting clays champions who fire 30,000 shells a year out of heavier over/unders not withstanding. Of course, plenty of sporting champs shoot semi-autos.

Ejection can be a disadvantage. Semi-autos can throw the empties into the face of your shooting partner, which is not the greatest of etiquette when birds are swirling above. So if two shooters are in the blind, one with a semi (or a pump gun) it's probably a good idea to put that person on the right side of the blind, assuming the person shoots a semi that spits hulls out the right side of the receiver.

Pump Guns
For decades, the forte of pump guns has been reliability. Most pump guns will keep denting primers and ejecting fired shells, despite rain, crud in the action and worse.

But operator error can be a problem. Shooting a pump gun effectively and rapidly is more difficult to learn than shooting a semi-auto. I'm not claiming it takes forever to learn how to operate a pump gun, but it takes practice, as evidenced when sporting clays first came to our shores.