dagrizz

I have shot several hundred rounds of 16 yard trap with my M2 and did not notice any unusual wear from being sinlge shot. So keep plugging away at those little clay pigeons. Mike

If you don't need to use 3.5 inch shells another alternative would be the M2 in Walnut. Nice gun, I've had mine for a couple of years now and it is a great shooting gun. I have the factory recoil pad on it as well and have gone through several flats of shells ith no problems. Mike

No my M2 is a right handed field model. This was my first Benelli. It has never missed a chance to go bang. In 2.5 years it has only had 2 misfires and those were both bad shells. Each one had a good dimple in the primer but did not go bang. As of now we have 3 Benelli's in ouur house. My M2 my wifes Montefeltro and a Nova that I just won at a DU shoot the first of July. All of these guns have been relaible to date. The jury is still out on the Nova as I have only put 1 box of shells through it so far. It will be my beater gun for hunting. Mike

That is interesting. Which Estate shells are you using. I have run probably 20 or 30 flats through my M2 with out a hitch. They were all the Super Sporting Competition target Loads in 3 dram 1.125 ounce #8's and 2.75 dram eq 1 ounce #8's. Mike

Yeah I noticed the same thing this morning. At least now I know it is not my end taht is having th eproblems. Mike

I have an M2 Field with a wood stock that I was using for Sporting Clays. I talked to a couple of custom stock makers about getting a better stock for that endeavor. They all indicated that there would be the possibility that the gun would not reliably cycle due to the added weight of the target style stocks. If you notice the factory stocks, bothg wood and plastic, are heavily hollowed out. If you add to much weight to the gun it can not overcome it and therefore not cycle. That is the issue, not being to light. There have been other discussion about shooters adding weight to their guns to reduce recoil and then encountering cycling problems with them. Mike

A second for Tucker. That is what came with my M2 as well. As a side note, don't go tighter than Mod with stel shot. Mike

Unfortunately I don't think so. The 2 stocks are definately different. The nice thing about the M2 shims are that you can adjust the cast for a left handed shooter along with the drop. So get an M2 and adjust the cast with the shioms and you will be good to go. Mike

Well that is ok, but I used my wood stocked M2 Field last year for Trap, 5-Stand and Sporting Clays along with its hunting duties. In trap I shoot about 80 to 85%. In 5-Stand and Sporting I shoot about 60%. The issue is not the gun, it is me. So far the M2 has bagged 14 pheasant, 3 Canada Geese, 2 mallards, 1 Pintail and 2 Chuckar in the 2 seasons that I have owned it. So either one would be good. The advantage of the M2 is that it might be a little heavier which is a good thing in the clays games. There you shoot many birds as opposed to hunting where you shoot a few then wait then maybe a few more. A typical day of clay shooting is upwards of 100 to 200 birds in a day a coule of days a week. Throw in a Sporting Clays tournament or 2 and that number can go up to 300 to 500 rounds in a weekend. Mike

I have an M2 Field that has been used for a lot of clay sports including trap, 5 stand and sporting clays. I had averaged about 3 flats a month of target loads through it with no problems. It has also been very good for the bird hunting as well. The take so far for 2 seasons that I have owned it: 14 Pheasant, 2 ducks, 3 Canada Geese, and 2 chuckars. Mike

My factory M2 chokes are not a good choice above Modified and Briley reccomends that you stay with mod or more open chokes for their Extended chokes that I have as well. #4 Hevishot worked great through my M2 last duck season. Also shot geese with #2 and #B with the extended MOD choke as reccomended by Briley. So the short answer is to stay with MOD. Mike

For the stocks, contact your local Benelli Dealer. They should be able to order them for ya. That is how I got my replacement wood stock for my M2. Just tell them what you want and be ready to pay through the nose. I have seen 2 Benellis that had the executive wood on them and the stocks were aproximatelt an additional $1000.00 for just the wood. But boy were they pretty. Mike

Those shells should not be a problem. I have shot about 15 flats of the Estate 3 Dram 1 Ounce #8's through my M2 with out a faillure to fire. I go through about 3 flats a month of those shells. I would definately look into cleaning the recoil spring in the stock and also, not sure if you do this or not, but also strip down the bolt and clean all of the parts in it as well. Go real light on the oil when you do this. I generally wipe it down to get all of the excess oil off. It does not tke much for this gun. If you have to much oil it will also cause problems with cycling. The oil that I use is Balistol. Hope this helps you out. Mike

I may have missed it in the prior post, but the BUT PLATE/Recoil pad on the M2's is a slip in. There are no screws that hold it in. Very similar to the SBE II. Mike

Thanks Mudhen. Good check and test report. I was considering getting one for my M2 but I think I will buy another flat of shells instead. Mike

I would have to agree with Tucker on this one. I have about 12K rounds through my M2 and never noticed that. I have shot trap and 5 stand in 15 to 20 degree weather with no problems. The Win AA's should not be a problem but I know that the AA's also come in a feather lite recoil that wont even cycle in my M2. The one thing is that my M2 wont cycle anything less than 2.75 Dram Eq and 1 Ounce loads. After about a years use I cleaned the recoil spring and noticed it was fairly dirty in there. But I still had no cycling issues. So give the recoil spring a good cleaning. Mike

1) No. Why do I need a slug barrel for a duck gun? I don't hunt anything that would require a slug. It is chambered for 3 inch shells though. 2) If needed it could be camoed. But why. I never hunted with a camoed gun in the past so why would I start now? 3) The safety is extremely quiet. I can also change to different choke first at the flip of another quiet switch. Can you?? An old navy joke that has to do with the Blue Angels goes something like this: As they aproached a 4 engine transport they decided to have some fun with the pilot of it. They did a whole bunch of aerobatic manuvers that the transport could not. At the end of each maneuver they would ask the pilot if he could do that. His response was alway a quiet no. When they were all done showing off, the transport pilot reached up to the console and shut down 2 of the 4 engines. Then the transport pilot asked the Blue Angels if they could do that. Only silence answered the trandport pilot. Thanks for all of the good information though and I will continue to look to ya for the "Correct" answers. have a good week. Mike

Well folks I went and did it. As some of you might note I have been pretty good about using my M2 for clay shooting and have posted so. It has done me well for the past year and a half that I have owned it. It is an M2 Field with 28 inch barrel and a pretty nice looking wood stock. Well this last Friday I came across a beautifull used Beretta 682 Gold Sporting with 30 inch barrels. So that is what is now going to be my dedicated sporting clays gun. The gun has been ported and talking to Seminole Gun Works, it appears that they also lengthend the forcing cones and back bored the barrels. This gun shoots sweet. Of all of the O/U's that I have tried, this one kicks less than My M2. The only gun that kick less are the Beretta 390's and 391's which I have also tried. So my good buddy M2 is going to get a needed break untill the next hunting season. This gun has been going through about 3 flats a month plus registered birds with out a hick up. For hunting it has gotten me 14 pheasants, 3 Canadian Geese, 1 Pintail Drake, 1 Mallard Drake and now 2 Chuckar. So I have no complaints about it. It is a great gun. And no it wont be for sale. The only issue that I had was when I started looking into fitting and other stock options, most of the quality shops said that I would probably not be happy as all the added weight or extra work could cause it to not be as reliable for cycling. That is the only reason for the O/U. These same issues are probably true for the Sports and the Cordoba as well. To all of ya, especially Tucker and Mudhen, thanks for all of the great information. I will still be here but maybe not quite as much as before. Mike

I knew we could count on you to dispell that myth. Well put. Mike

From the sounds of it it is very similar to the one in my wifes Montefeltro. Try one of those to see if it would work. Mike

Here are my comments about the M2 that I own. I have an M2 field with a wood stock and 28 inch barrel. I use it for Trap, 5-Stand, Sproting Clays and hunting. I have compared the recoil of this configuration against the comfortech stocks using the same loads through a round of 5-stand (25 Birds) and cannot tell the difference in recoil. I did notice slightly less recoil with the Beretta 390's though. But not enough difference to offset all of the jamming issues that I have seen with them at the range and sporting clays courses. I average about 3 flats a month for the clay sports with out any gun related failures to fire. THis is over a 2.5 year period that I have had this gun. I use 2.75" 2.75Dram Eq., 1 ounce #8s for my clays shooting. In the hunting department I bagged 14 pheasant 2 seasons ago, but so far none this last season. This last season I went on a goose hunt where I used 3" #2 and #B heavy shot. I could not tell the difference in recoil between these shells and the 1 ounce target loaads that I use. This is after going through 2 boxes of each. I was able to get 3 nice canadians. Part of this trip was also a duck hunt and it performed great there as well. This time I was using 2.75" #4 heavy shot with out any noticeable differences in recoil. I was only able to get 2 ducks though. One was a nice mallard drake and the other was a pintail drake. Since the linmit here includes only 1 pintail, and most all of the ducks that were cooperating were pintails that limited my bag. So far this year I have gotten 2 Chuckar. So I think that you can say the M2 and the real inertia system are a pretty darn reliable combination. Mike

I had similar questions when I ordered a set of X2 extended chokes for my M2. I ordered them so that I could easier change chokes at sporting clays shoots. What I did was call them and talk to a real person who could answer your questions then place your order witht that person. Had my chokes a couple of days later. They were also offering buy 5 and get one free. I don't know if they pattern any better than the factory chokes, I never patterned either set. Just bought them for the convenience. Mike

That is about $200 less than I paid for mine, wood stock version, about 2 years ago. So that is not to bad a deal. Mike

I'll second what Mudhen has to say. But then I will also add in my own extra comments. The choices should come down to what are you going to do with this gun. If you are just going upland bird and occasionally ducks/geese then I would choose the M2. I bagged 3 Canadians, 1 Pintail drake and a mallard drake with my M2 this last season. THe year before it bagged 14 pheasant. So if you match the loads with what your intended target is then you probably don't need the 3.5 inch capablity. I also use my M2 for Sporting Clays and 5-Stand. In this application it cycles 2.75 dram 1 Ounce #8's all day. The SBE might not, then again the M2 might not but has a better chance of doing that for all day shooting. You would need to work down to those loads to see if your gun reliably cycles them. The chouice ulimately comes down to your intended use. Either one is an exceptional gun. Mike

Can't let you have all that much fun alone Tucker. I bought my M2 in August 2004. Since that time I have averaged a little over 3 flats a month at the gun club where I shoot 5-Stand mostly and some 16 yard trap. I also go to alt least 8 or 10 sporting clays shoots a year with it. So there are another 6 to 8 flats a year. Right out of the box it has cycled 2.75 dram 1.125 ounce loads flawlesly. I now just shoot 1 ounce loads for targets. To date, I am not the serious hunter that you and others are but between this last season and last year I have gotten 14 pheasants, 2 Lesser Canadians, 1 Greater Canadan, 2 Pintails and a Mallard Drake. I have hunted and shot in rain so heavy I have had black mudd running out of my action after shooting when the bolt stayed open after the last round. But the only failure that I have had is that the dagg nabbed thing doesn't break every clay pigieon or bird I shoot at. Guess I better send it back in for repair huh? Every time I have set up on a target or bird and pull the triggger it has gone BANG. All I ever do when I get it home is lovingly take it down and clean er up real good and get er ready for the next time. I just had to throw my 2 cents worth into the hat. Mike