Benelli M2 malfunctions and safety features

M

mukjp22m

New member
I had an odd occurrence with my Benelli M2 today at the range. After functioning fine for an hour, I pulled the trigger and no bang. I held steady for 30 seconds and then pulled the action open, ejecting a live round with no marking on the primer, so it wasn't hit with a firing pin. There was also another shell on the elevator ready to go in. When I pulled the trigger, I knew something mechanical happened, which I then determined to be the sound/feel of the next shell loading from the tube onto the elevator like it is supposed to when you pull the trigger. It's as if the hammer was already forward before I pulled the trigger.

I fired a few more rounds fine, then I had another strange thing happen. Mind you, I'm bench rested here doing slug shooting, and before even putting my finger near the trigger, I heard something happen. In the confusion on the range, I cannot remember now if it was the sound of the firing pin going forward, or the sound of the next shell ejecting from the tube to the elevator. But it spontaneously did one of the two actions (maybe both) associated with pulling the trigger.

Analyzing it on the spot, I concluded that the trigger/hammer sear must be slipping and the firing pin block did its job preventing the gun from firing. It then went on to work fine for a good 20 more rounds.

But now, at home, I took it apart. For one thing, the sear will not slip no matter what, with the trigger group in my hand. I can bang it, shake it, pull in the hammer, nothing. Also interesting is I do not see a firing pin safety block, at least not one that I can understand. In a pistol and some rifles, the trigger pull pushes a spring loaded safety block out of the way, but I don't see anything like that here.

Any ideas what's up?
 
Shotguns do not have firing pin blocks, don't need them! It sounds like short cycling, the bolt comes back far enough to eject and feed a fresh shell but not far enough to cock the hammer.

Chances are the trigger group needed cleaning or the inertia system needed cleaning.
 
That's a reasonable guess. On the one hand, they were slugs, so there was plenty of recoil. On the other hand, I was wearing a really thick recoil pad which might have been doing TOO good a job eating the recoil in a couple of cases.
 
I don't have any experience with the inertia systems, just the older long recoil guns. That is Browning A-5's and the Franchi AL48.

With both of those if the guns are loosely held (limp wristed) they will malfunction. As you have said that thick recoil pad might have caused the problem.
 
An inertia gun needs to recoil to function, and then has to be stopped. If you do not find anything wrong during your teardown and cleaning and then have problems again on the range, then I would start looking for answers. It could have been a piece of shell base shaving or any number of other things. I don't like them, but M2s are pretty darned reliable with the right loads, and buckshot falls in that category.
 
I discovered another possibility. If you load a round and don't let it slingshot forward, the lugs can come just short of fully engaging with the barrel. It's not very noticeable if you aren't looking for it, and in that case the trigger will pull and not strike the primer because it doesn't quite reach. I cannot remember if this happened in auto-loaded shots or the first shot where I racked it myself. I don't think I would've eased it forward, but I cannot say for sure that I didn't.

The only thing that doesn't fit is the spontaneous whatever that happened also. I swear, I was just sitting there between shots with my finger away from the trigger and something happened, like a shell extracted from the tube. That wouldn't be good. I see nothing wrong with the gun looking it over in a disassembled state and it looks beautiful and clean still. This after years of reliability. I guess I will take it out again and monitor for the problem, this time paying much closer attention to all the variables if it happens.
 
You might need a new shell latch. Depending on the type of shell, they can slip a round here and there are some wear, especially if the shell latch has been tuned. I had one do that earlier this year, changed the shell latch and all was good. The face of the shell latch needs to be square to the rim and you can fold it more if you want. This should only occur with high spring tension at first, but as the shell latch gets polished and bent, can happen more frequently.

There are a few possibilities for the first issue. If you had a dead trigger, it would not also release a shell. It is more likely that you were slightly out of battery and therefore the hammer hits the heel of the carrier instead of the firing pin. If your shell latch is loose and letting two shells out, that can retard the carrier and cause this. Also, if you are benched, you can stall the gun and short cycle it causing the same result.
 
I discovered another possibility. If you load a round and don't let it slingshot forward, the lugs can come just short of fully engaging with the barrel. It's not very noticeable if you aren't looking for it, and in that case the trigger will pull and not strike the primer because it doesn't quite reach. I cannot remember if this happened in auto-loaded shots or the first shot where I racked it myself. I don't think I would've eased it forward, but I cannot say for sure that I didn't.
Click to expand...
That's the "Benelli Click". Famous. Look it up.
 
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