Benelli M2 Verdict?
- Thread starter mathman
- Start date
I purchased an M2 Tactical in early December 2006 as a home defense weapon.
I've extensively shot an older M1S90 so I knew what I was buying.
Sticker price was lower than I expected...so I opted for the short barrel, pistol grip and ghost ring sights. I figured I might as well go all out. Surefire forend is also on order for it...
When I picked up the gun I was surprised by the light weight. It holds a bunch of ammo (can't remember how many) and it balances good. Forend and buttstock feel good in the hand...the gun swings nicely. Ghost ring sights came straight up into my vision. The gun mounts very easily and feels great.
Reliability was fine with standard dram loads. Spotty with my powder puff skeet/trap reloads. The manual has lots of warnings that you need full power loads to operate the action... Don't equate full power with shoulder bruising 3" mags. Normal field loads and Walmart specials work just fine.
Recoil is dependent upon a lot of things: loads, gun weight, recoil pad, etc... Recoil with normal loads is on par with any other semi-auto that I've ever felt (Rem, Win, Benelli, Beretta...just about all of 'em). Recoil with the big loads is tolerable, although I wouldn't want to put 25 downrange.
The recoil pad is a POS and you should expect to be $75 lighter for a replacement. When I initially inspected the gun I noticed the recoil pad was hard. Upon shooting and a closer inspection, I realized it was petrified wood.
There aren't screws holding the pad on like a traditional recoil pad...just grab a bunch of rubber and yank on it. It will eventually pull out and you will realize how much of a POS it really is. You cannot order replacements from Benelli ( :barf: ) either; you have to purchase them from Brownells or another parts company. The replacements are their high-end pads from the SBE line and are damn expensive at around $75. Normal pads won't fit either as there aren't any places to put screws. The pad itself is just slightly oversize and you just squeeze it into the back of the stock. Effective from their point of view, lame and expensive from mine.
I was surprised that the gun doesn't get that dirty...I put a couple hundred rounds through it before I even wiped it down from the factory and it didn't complain to me at all. It does get fairly warm when you start burning up the ammo but that is to be expected.
One more thing...the rear of the trigger guard flares outward as it mates to the bottom of the receiver and catches my trigger finger every time I fire the gun. I want to wrap the gun around a tree after about 2 boxes of full dram loads. I talked to my smith about it and he said my LOP is a bit short but I'm hesitant to spend another $75 for the longer recoil pad. I had a bunch of friends shoot the gun, and they ran it hard, and everyone loved it...said it shot great. I even asked about the trigger guard issue, and it seems to be only me, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Hope this helps...
Ed
I've extensively shot an older M1S90 so I knew what I was buying.
Sticker price was lower than I expected...so I opted for the short barrel, pistol grip and ghost ring sights. I figured I might as well go all out. Surefire forend is also on order for it...
When I picked up the gun I was surprised by the light weight. It holds a bunch of ammo (can't remember how many) and it balances good. Forend and buttstock feel good in the hand...the gun swings nicely. Ghost ring sights came straight up into my vision. The gun mounts very easily and feels great.
Reliability was fine with standard dram loads. Spotty with my powder puff skeet/trap reloads. The manual has lots of warnings that you need full power loads to operate the action... Don't equate full power with shoulder bruising 3" mags. Normal field loads and Walmart specials work just fine.
Recoil is dependent upon a lot of things: loads, gun weight, recoil pad, etc... Recoil with normal loads is on par with any other semi-auto that I've ever felt (Rem, Win, Benelli, Beretta...just about all of 'em). Recoil with the big loads is tolerable, although I wouldn't want to put 25 downrange.
The recoil pad is a POS and you should expect to be $75 lighter for a replacement. When I initially inspected the gun I noticed the recoil pad was hard. Upon shooting and a closer inspection, I realized it was petrified wood.
There aren't screws holding the pad on like a traditional recoil pad...just grab a bunch of rubber and yank on it. It will eventually pull out and you will realize how much of a POS it really is. You cannot order replacements from Benelli ( :barf: ) either; you have to purchase them from Brownells or another parts company. The replacements are their high-end pads from the SBE line and are damn expensive at around $75. Normal pads won't fit either as there aren't any places to put screws. The pad itself is just slightly oversize and you just squeeze it into the back of the stock. Effective from their point of view, lame and expensive from mine. I was surprised that the gun doesn't get that dirty...I put a couple hundred rounds through it before I even wiped it down from the factory and it didn't complain to me at all.
It does get fairly warm when you start burning up the ammo but that is to be expected.One more thing...the rear of the trigger guard flares outward as it mates to the bottom of the receiver and catches my trigger finger every time I fire the gun. I want to wrap the gun around a tree after about 2 boxes of full dram loads. I talked to my smith about it and he said my LOP is a bit short but I'm hesitant to spend another $75 for the longer recoil pad. I had a bunch of friends shoot the gun, and they ran it hard, and everyone loved it...said it shot great. I even asked about the trigger guard issue, and it seems to be only me, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Hope this helps...
Ed
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