truckcop

Standard M2 field, 21" barrel with a Nordic extension/barrel clamp. Did anyone EVER put their hands on an actual Benelli 3-gun shotgun? Other than maybe a couple of their sponsored shooters? added: Wow, who knew? There's actually 2 for sale on GunBroker.

Birdshot: http://www.chuckhawks.com/pattern_shotgun.htm Buckshot: You should shoot at various distances with different loads/choke combinations. It really depends on what you intend to shoot at. Best pattern at the greatest distance is generally what you're looking for here.

When you "cleaned it completely", did you remove the stock and inspect the recoil spring assembly? If not, that's where I would go first.

Serial numbers not much help on Italian guns. Proof marks on the receiver give you the answer. On all my M1's, the relevant proof mark is on the receiver just above the trigger guard. There's a little square with two letters in it.

If I'm not too far off, I think the only difference in the stock is in the recoil pad, which is easily replaced. That is, if you can find one. I just bought a compact model because I wanted the 24 inch barrel and the only other difference I could see from the standard version is that the compact came with a thinner recoil pad than the standard. I would take a measurement for you on the stock itself but it's headed to SD right now waiting for me to follow for opening day of pheasant hunting next week.

As I suspected. That rattle IS normal. When the bolt assembly is in battery, the locking head is pushed backwards against the inertia spring within the bolt leaving it no room to move around. When the assembly is out of battery and the locking head is forward, the inertia spring is just sitting in there and can move around freely, causing it to "rattle". Take the bolt assembly out and shake it back and forth with the locking head held forward and you'll hear it. Then press the locking head back into the bolt as it would be when in battery and do the same thing. No rattle. Yes, you can grease it up and mitigate that somewhat but it is, by no means, a problem. It's just the design of the inertia system.

Did it "rattle" with the bolt locked open or when it was closed and in-battery?

Well there are 2 M1's there but I assume you're referring to the SBS entry gun at the top. It was custom-built by GGG way back when they did that type of thing(late 90's if I remember right). They were making barrels for Vang Comp Benellis, back when he did that type of thing. The entry gun doesn't come with a barrel threaded for chokes. I wanted to be able to choke it so Vang referred me to GGG. They built it using the Benelli barrel extension (the part that goes into the receiver), a barrel blank which they threaded for the chokes, and put XS sights on it.

Plain-Jane entry gun at the top. Of all my Benelli's, it's my favorite. Except maybe for the M1's. Or maybe the M4. No wait, the M2. Oh, never mind.

Factory or Nordic. I've got both. Each works. Nordic has larger diameter than the factory. I like the factory front sling attachment that's integrated into the barrel nut. For Nordic, you need to use their barrel clamp with the appropriate attachment. The guns I have the Nordic on aren't used with slings so it's not an issue here. The factory extensions are getting scarce and expensive. Nordic ain't cheap but they're mostly available. I've tried a couple of others but wasn't happy with the quality. One had a barrel nut that wasn't threaded deep enough to tighten the barrel down. Buy cheap, get cheap. There are other quality brands. Briley comes to mind but I don't have any experience with them.

Nope, just gonna take my tried and true M1. Might take along the M1 20ga. for its first hunt. It has had some skeet exposure but would be a first with live birds. We leave a month from today headed to SD.

As I noted above, that's a limiter for hunting purposes. As you found out, it limits the magazine to 2 shells, allowing only 3 total in the gun when you add one in the chamber. You don't need the limiter if you're not hunting game that has a capacity limit such as migratory birds, i.e., ducks. Take it out and you'll be able to fully load the magazine. The only parts within the magazine that are needed for the operation of the gun is the plug in the forward position, the follower in the rear position, and the spring in between the two.

If you've just assembled the gun for the first time, suggest you look in the box for the plug (the round thing with the hole in the middle in front of the extension above).

The end of the extension isn't threaded. It's rounded over to hold the plug in. The plug goes into the extension prior to placing the extension over the magazine spring.

No, it isn't all right. Is this a new gun or did you buy it used? If the magazine spring is only held in place by the "circle" or "little round plate with a leap" (lip??), then you're missing the plug that should go into the end of the magazine extension. The spring should NOT come out of the magazine without unscrewing the magazine extension. and is held in place in the front by the plug. It looks like a small "cup" with a hole in it. The "metal pole with sorta cap in the middle and T at the end" sounds like your round limiter. You don't need that unless you're hunting game that requires a two-round magazine limit. The little round plate is designed to hold the limiter in place at the end of the magazine tube.

Yep, it's that simple. The real question is; why do you need to replace it? I've never seen one break. Just curious. I've seen the older-style cast metal links break on SBE's when shooting 3/3.5 inch shells but they redesigned the link to the current style found on the M4.

Sabot rounds are non-starter in smoothbore shotguns. Pi**-poor accuracy. I tried a couple of 100 yard shots way back in the day and they would hit the ground anywhere between 50 and 75 yards, and at various spots within a 30 degree arc in front of me. I think you're trying to squeeze too much out of the gun for 150-200 yard accuracy with ANY slug shot out of a smoothbore. Rifled barrel, maybe? I have no experience there so I'm of no use. I've used Brenneke slugs to good effect with my smoothbore M1's but I'd never try a hunting shot (if I hunted furry game) on anything past 75 - 80 yards.

Well, I'm not SD but what he's talking about (I presume) is this: The "button" portion of the release mechanism that protrudes through the receiver is a friction fit into the release mechanism that is inside the receiver. It's possible to torque the button loose from the base if you get too aggressive when you tighten or, especially, try to loosen the GGG pad (or anybody else's for that matter). When tightening or loosening the release pad it's advisable to get hold of the pad with a wrench to keep the whole thing from turning when rotating the screw to put on/take off the pad.

It depends on which version magazine tube you have. There are different versions. Check out the 4th post here. http://forum.benelliusa.com/showthread.php/29184-Difference-between-early-and-later-m1-forends-Will-later-models-fir-HK-m1S90 I have a M2 barrel/forend on a newer M1 receiver (bottom in the pic) and it fits just fine. Will not fit without some sort of spacer on the top two receivers.

I've got these on 3 M1's. Never had that happen. One's a pheasant gun, gets thrown around in the back of a pickup truck bumping up against stuff and getting knocked over by exuberant dogs while leaning against trees, and otherwise banged around out in the field. One's a 3-gun shooter. Gets thrown down on tables, thrown into barrels, and crashing into the ground when I bust by a## while running downhill on wet grass to a target (ok, that only happened once). The other is on my house-gun entry model. OK, that one basically sits around waiting for me to do something with it. Point is, while the potential is there for it to loosen and rotate, in years of heavy use, I've never had it happen.

Every gun is different. Is your gun new? Has it been fired a lot? New guns tend not to like lighter loads until it has been shot a couple of hundred rounds with heavier loads. First, make sure the gun has been "broken in". Shoot a few boxes of heavy field loads or even full power pheasant or goose loads. Then try out different brands and different loads of the lighter field stuff and use the one that works most consistently.

Supernova worth the xtra $$? That would be your call after comparing the two. What do you mean by "all purpose shotgun"? That covers an awful lot of ground. You talking wing shooting, i.e., quail/pheasants/turkey/geese/ducks/etc? Deer/other furry creatures? Games, i.e., skeet/trap/sporting clays/three-gun/other? Add in home defense? If you end up getting an all purpose gun, it may not meet your needs for many of those things. I would narrow down your uses or determine its primary use first, then narrow down the gun choices. If you take out home defense, any of those barrel lengths would work since you can easily change chokes to suit the intended target/target distance. Contrary to what a lot of folks think, barrel length is more a function of weapon handling over other considerations. Some like the longer barrels for the extra sight radius. Others like shorter barrels for quicker handling. A super long barrel might not be appropriate in a close-quarters duck blind but might be just the thing for an open-field goose hunt. Lots of considerations there.

Not sure I understand why that's on the Ti pattern either since that's the modification that would ordinarily be made when you send it off.

Salient Arms does M4's. Be prepared to second-mortgage the house. Their website isn't up but their facebook page is. Lots of purty pitchers. https://www.facebook.com/SalientArmsInternational?fref=ts

Assuming by "dealers" you refer to retailers, I would imagine the big box stores, Cabelas, Bass Pro, etc., are the "largest". They probably sell the most as well. I doubt any large retailer specializes in the M4. I don't know about Benelli but I imagine they're like any other manufacturer by requiring a minimum purchase of guns over specified time periods in order to be a manufacturer supported dealer. I wouldn't think they're many out there who would only buy lots of M4's exclusively. I've been to Benelli retailers who were mostly "tactical" guys that also had field M2's, SBE's, etc., in their shelves.