Leaderboard

A little teaser. This is shiny, final version will be sand blasted, I'll try and get a photo of a blasted one this weekend. Also, likely to reduce the wall thickness to take weight down a bit more. But as it is, it is the same as OEM. Doing more tests this weekend. Went with “volcano” knurl which has a dimple at the peak of the knurl to reduce sharpness. It feels good.

Okay...I decided to finally weigh in on this. I do not have an overly technical understanding of anodize, but what I do have are a plethora of high level industry contacts NOT associated with Benelli. I've discussed anodizing with multiple people in the industry regarding thickness, surface growth and propagation, all that jazz, and what it amounts to is that type III anodize, black, can and will show color variance even among the same batch. It's all about the witch brew of chemicals, time, current, surface hardness and specific alloy, and other factors involved. Brighteners, surface treatment, all manner of things go into anodize type III and will influence it. As long as it meets thickness and hardness spec, this is cosmetic. If you don't like it, I don't blame you. But a company sets the "drift" they will accept, and then moves on. Did Benelli lower their ano "cull" rate and allow for increase in drift? Did the Benelli anodizer have "a moment" and change the brew in some way? Is the "age of the internet" and sales volume just exposing a drift rate that has always been at a constant? (Let's be honest, how big was this forum in 2008?) That, I cannot answer. But it's not necessarily indicative of bad QC or anything else, unless you would have Benelli trash the receivers instead of sell them, in which case you would need to position yourself on their board or whatever and make that decision. The anodize on these is quite likely just fine, technically, but with a bit of color drift. Anodizing is a science that is also a art. Instead of explain all of this, CS reps got a bit creative I think. If you do not like the blue, again, I don't blame you. I don't. That said, I am not upset at Benelli over this, nor do I think the ship is sinking.

I will reach out to some cerakote companies and see the rates. Black would cost more but if people want to pay it that is okay with me. Plain sand blasted titanium will sell for cheaper.

Benelli should sell them as a thin blue line law enforcement edition. People will pay a premium! A forum member sent me a blue M4 and a black M1014. The color is drastically different between the two. They used to release a bunch of M4’s that had an OD green hue. The blue ones still look better than the purple Barney preban Bushmaster AR-15’s.

I highly agree with the bolded part.

The blue "fuck up" has been around for a long time. Here is one in this youtube video from 4 years ago, and I have a friend who had one like it from factory in like 2012. It's always been a thing for some to be blue, not really a quality control flaw, as it doesn't affect the quality of the gun. All that being said, I do understand that if you want a black gun, it could be upsetting to not receive one. Benelli should just start actually labelling the ones that turn out blue as such, and then sell them as that separately from the black ones.

Mine is kind of a funny story... I’d had a Glock pistols for a bunch of years and carry regularly in a few states we’ve lived in. Somewhere in the last year I decided that the home needed a shotgun and I started doing research. I’d always been aware of the Benelli brand, just like Mossberg, Remington, etc. but I had limited experience with SGs, let alone had an opinion on a SG manufacturer or model. In April I decided I just needed to make a decision on one, narrowed it down to a Mossberg 590 or a Remington 870 after a bunch of review reading and video watching, and finally settled on the 870. Throughout my research I’d show various models to my wife, she’d see me watching videos, etc. so she kind of knew what was on the table and the various prices. She’s always been cool with guns in the house and was fully supportive of getting a SG. On May 4th, I said to her that I was going to head down to the LGS the next day and tinker around with some SGs, might even start the paperwork on one. She mentioned that we had some other errands to run anyway, why not just take her and the kids (6 & 8 years old) and they’d poke around the store while I did my thing? OK cool, sounds like fun. She asked me what I was thinking about buying, I told her the 870 but joked that I was going to ask if they had a Benelli M4, you know, just to actually hold, fantasize about owning and then come back to reality as I handed it back to them. The next day we roll into the LGS as planned and the clerk asks what he can help with. It’s early, nearly no one else in the shop except employees so there are 3-4 of them listening to our conversation. I tell the guy I’m there to check out some SGs, have the 870 at the top of my list and can I hold one. As he’s turning toward the racks and racks of long guns, my wife says, “Wait one sec” to the clerk, turns to me and says, “What’s that other one you were talking about? A Benelli?” The clerk looks back with this goofy “yeah right”/“what did I just hear?” grin and I say, “She’s kidding, I joked about getting an M4.” Shit you not, my wife looks the guy dead in the eyes and says to the clerk, “Please grab him an M4”, guy looks to me and I just shrug stupidly, so he puts one in my hands. After shouldering it (and a bunch of others for fit/feel), Benelli won out and that was all she wrote. Wife even further elevated her legend status around town that day. The last one they had on the rack had clearly been handled, had some marks and scratches on it, so they ordered a new one from the gettin’ place and after some paperwork and installing a new long gun safe in the home, I was the proud owner of my very own Benelli M4.