Benelli Shotguns are Not What They Used to Be

J

Jim1776

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I have owned three Benelli shotguns and had no problems with them. I have used Benellis in Argentina where one shoots ammo by the case. It is the only autoloading shotgun most of the outfitters will buy because of its ability to shoot and shoot reliably without cleaning.

However I recently bought a Cordoba 20 gauge Benelli. It is a nicely put together gun with all sorts of recoil abatement features. I took it out on the range and it jammed 8 times out of 75 rounds! My old Benellis would shoot reliably right out of the box.

Well this one I took completely apart, everything including the plunger tube in the stock. I cleaned everything with brake cleaning fluid and the lubed it with dry lube.

I took it out to the range and it went about 125 rounds without a jam and then it jammed twice!

I am not the only one with this problem. A friend bought a Cordoba for his wife and it does the same thing. This guy was a Benelli fan too and owns several of their guns.

I am beginning to think the problem is the new design that doesn't allow a shell to be floated on the carrier. When the controversy over this feature was being debated a few years back I heard that Benelli claimed that it was an anti-jam feature and was not meant to be used to load four shells in the gun to break hunting rules.

However at some point they changed the guns, I heard under pressure from USFW, to not be able to float a fourth shell. I believe the result is a less reliable gun.

Really, the old Benellis shot and shot, even with horrible Argentinian ammo. This new one can't go 200 rounds with Federal and Elite ammo without jamming. There is some difference and I don't think it is my particular gun since someone with the exact same model is experiencing the same thing.

I heard there is a way to modify the bolt so it will work like the old gun. I am looking into it. I think sending it back to Benelli for warranty work would be a waste of time and shipping costs. All they are going to do is clean it and say it works fine. They certainly are not going to shoot enough ammo through it to see it jam and I very much doubt they will modify the bolt themselves.

Has anyone done this modification on the newer Benellis to make them work like the old ones? I've heard it is simple. I don't give a damn about the legality, I want the gun to work. Besides I can't see how it would be illegal anyway unless one actually loads four loads in the gun. Anyway this gun is mainly for clays and dove shooting Argentina where there are no shell restrictions.

Shooting a gun that jams just isn't fun.
 
A common cause of miscellaneous cycling issues is lack of lubrication. The bolt rails (where the bolt rides in the receiver) and the recoil plunger assembly (where the tail of the bolt goes down into the stock) must be lubricated in order for the gun to function properly. We recommend that a good synthetic gun oil be used on the internal parts. We do not recommend using WD-40, 3-in-1 oils or any kind of dry lube on the internal parts of Benelli guns, because those products have a tendency to gum up over time.


http://www.benelliusa.com/support/faq.php
 
Believe me, my friend has tried every lube available to no avail. This is not a lubrication problem but a design flaw. The old Benellis did not have this problem. You could take them out of the box and shoot and shoot them.

My question was, has anyone filled the rear slot in the bolt, the alteration that has been made in the last few years and was this enough to cure the problem and make the gun work like the old ones? I have heard it might be necessary to change the carried spring to a weaker one too.

I will say the gun did work better after I cleaned it completely but it still jams. This is not how the gun is supposed to work. For Christ's sake they call it Cordoba! I have shot a case of shells in 2 hours down there and could have shot more. I was using a Benelli but an old one. It is the only autoloader they used and recommended there. Not many autoloaders can do a day of shooting down there with out needing a cleaning. A day of shooting can be as many as 3,000 rounds.

The new design, in a word, sucks.
 
Recently bought my wife a Montefeltro 20 and it has never jammed. We have run 300-400 rounds through it thus far and it cycles everything with no problems.

My Super Nova has not had any cycling issues either. :) Of course it shouldn't being a pump.
 
There is a place where you can send the bolt to have the modification done. The name of the place slips my mind right now...Zak Smith (a very well respected member of this forum) knows where to send them...you may want to PM him. He has been really good about responding to questions in the past. I sure hope he doesn't mind me saying this...

I am thinking of sending my Benelli bolts in as well.
 
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There is a notch on the right-hand side of the bottom of the bolt carrier. This needs to be filled in or its edges ramped. I know Triangle Shooting Sports in TX does the mod, but it's very easy to do.
 
I have two.

M1 black and M4 Camo. I have never shot the Camo (and likely wont) it took OVER a year to recieve.
The black i put to work, and over the years, i honestly cant recall a single jam!
My favorite Shotguns
:D
goodluck
 
I have a SBE II that jams on 3.5 shells. I switched to a Beretta Extrema 2 and have had only 3 jams (each time pointed stright up, I think the sling got in the way) after thousands of rounds, even without ever cleaning it ONCE. True story. It's dirty as sin right now.
 
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