mudhen

Great Outdoors in Sacto for almost everything. mudhen - CA

Doubtful the SBE II is too tight with the skeet choke. Much more likey the POI does not match the POA. I have to fudge with my drop spacers all the time on my SBE II. It shoots 70/30 with the A, 60/40 with the B, 50/50 with the C, and 45/55 with my homemade D (best for me for ducks). My Browning BPS shoots 50/50 all the time. No spacers to adjust, so I guess I got lucky. Go pattern it and see if it hits where you are aiming. Make adjustments from there. You can also look into the higher cheek pad if that helps you. mudhen - CA

Most sabots will shoot poorly even with rifled choke tubes. There are some slugs made for rifled choke tubes. Best I have tested are the Remington Buckhammers. In pure smoothbore, best to stick with Fosters... mudhen - CA

I use dozens of different mouth calls from different makers with no problems at all... mudhen - CA

Yes, any Benelli dealer can order any available Benelli accessory directly from Benelli. Benelli dealers buy directly from Benelli. Rhino & Trulock make good chokes for Benellis too. mudhen - CA

You get what you pay for here at the Benelli Forums. Maybe ask for a refund of the forum dues?... mudhen - CA

I hate "some people" and "others"; those guys rarely know what they are talking about. Let me try to make some sense of all this. First of all, you really need to know something about Benellis; they can be hard to pattern for turks and they can be easy to pattern. It just depends on the true bore ID, which can vary from around .718 to .722. The closer the bore ID matches the choke tube ID, the better the patterns you will get. HS does generally like a more open choke, around .670 in most Benellis, but not all. Some have luck with .660/.665. Some have blown their choke tubes up with HS and .660 or smaller. Most folks purchase several tubes to find out what works best in their gun. The general idea is that .660 is too tight for HS and usually leads to blown patterns due to the compression of extra-hard shot like HS. I would not expect a good answer from Benelli CS about turkey hunting. It's not a CS question and the whole process is so subjective that any reply might be deemed incorrect. I can only imagine the drama if you missed a big Ocellated tom in Central America because of bad advice from Benelli CS! You may have better luck with Trulock, the maker of the Benelli Extended Turkey Choke. Don't know where you read about MAD tubes not fitting Crio Plus guns because of the crio process, but I'd love to have the link because I have never seen a MAD choke for the Crio Plus and/or Optima Plus choke system. Can you provide the model number of the MAD Crio+/Optima+ tube? The non-over-bored M2 is a Crio Plus gun and uses the same choke system (but does not share common choke names) with the back-bored Beretta Optima Plus. MANY, MANY, choke makers make HS chokes for both of these guns. No offense, but the choke makers you list are far from 'premier' choke makers. I do not think any of them 'make' anything, their chokes are made for them. What you want is a choke from someone who knows what they are doing. I'd start with Rhino, Trulock, and Briley. All three actually make chokes and test them on real guns. I leave out Comp-N-Choke and Kicks because you seem set on HS. Both of these companies make lead-only chokes. This is a great site, but you may find more turkey choke info at the NWTF message boards. I too like the 21" M2. If it were my gun, I'd buy a Rhino .660 and shoot 3" 1.75 oz Winchester Xtended Range #6's. If I had to shoot HS, I'd go to a .665 or .670 Rhino or maybe have one of the better companies make a special choke tube if those did not work well. It's all trial and error with Benellis...fun trial and error though... Good luck! mudhen - CA

I have broken two wood SBE stocks, but the choice is yours. Yes. Yes. Dunno, that's your call. Maybe. mudhen - CA

Best choke I found for older Benellis (M1 & SBE I) was a Kick's .660 + any fast lead #5's or #6's. Never tested Win XR's, but they should work fine in any .660 choke. HS will need to be shot from a more open choke. You cannot judge HS from a tight choke, nor lead from an open choke. mudhen - CA

Birchwood has a cleaner that is safe for camo film finishes. Saw a spray can of it at my local shop yesterday. mudhen - CA

Your ID can vary greatly depending on the condition of the bore tool when your barrel was made. They generally run .718-.722, but I've heard of ID's larger than .722. I guess the only way to know for sure is send the barrel somewhere and have it mic'ed and then have custom chokes made. I think Briley may offer this service. As for me, I don't have the desire to get that precise, so I'll stick with what I have. I did have to buy a few chokes to find what worked though. mudhen - CA

Just regular 1" Hush II's. They have always fit with no problem. They will back out if you don't tighten pretty good. Metal Uncle Mike's fit fine too, just rub a bit. mudhen - CA

I have not, and I doubt many, if any, have had the chance to test them yet. They are new for 2006. A similar set of tubes was shown in the 2005 catalog, but never available in 2005. The 2005 catalog didn't even show the right style of tube. The 2006 tubes are made by Trulock and my dealer says they are not available to him yet. I would think you would have to special order them from a Benelli dealer. With so many other tubes available, my dealer said he will likely not stock them. You could call Trulock and order the tubes today, www.trulockchokes.com many say they are a great company to deal with. mudhen - CA

Ya... mudhen - CA

The lever trick is not so great. It works most of the time, but not always. My fat fingers do not help... Unload by cycling like the boys above mention. mudhen - CA

Break Free CLP keeps black Benellis looking pretty good - I use on the plastic and metal surfaces. mudhen - CA

Hush II fits my SBE II fine. mudhen - CA

From the first page of these 'disappointing' forums, in bright red letters; THE FORUMS ARE NOT A CONDUIT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE. ALL CUSTOMER SERVICE QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO CUSTOMER SERVICE VIA PHONE OR EMAIL (301-283-6981). DO NOT POST CUSTOMER SERVICE QUESTIONS IN THE FORUMS. Maybe the next forum will have someone who can read for you... mudhen - CA

GT = 'G'obblin 'T'hunder... .660 is my favorite GT for the SBE I... mudhen - CA

This is pretty much a standard pattern from my SBE II with a Rhino .660 and Winchester 3.5" XR's #6's at 36 yards. I put the B spacer back in to get the lift in the pattern. About 56% in the target. I'd like a few more, but this does allow for some snakey-head movement. 29 hits in the 3" is fine for me. Same for 19 in the bones. It drops to about 45% at 40 yards. I think this gun can do better, but it will have to do for now... mudhen - CA

Nut should be 13mm - nylon lock nut - shouldn't be any locktite. I've never seen grease in the trigger assembly, but never looked that close either. mudhen - CA

I have used it in the past. It is thicker and stays in place I recall. Works fine. I prefer how CLP runs into cracks and down the rails. Also really like how it blackens synthethic stocks. So, I prefer CLP, that's why I said it... mudhen - CA

Wrong post mudhen - CA

Yep, I prefer the CLP too. mudhen - CA

High yes, it's a Benelli I love the high POI for turks, I can watch the bird's head all the way to the shot by aiming at the base of the neck. The pattern just rips right into the head and neck area. Not so great for ducks, so I made a D shim by sanding the A and adding it to the C. Left or right, no, mine are all dead on. What you may have there is a mismatched combination. Test a factory choke to see if it's the factory set-up or a result of using the Rhino. If it's the Rhino, send it back and get a new one. Might just be off a bit. mudhen - CA