gunner76

I haven't noticed any major handling difference between the M1&M2, other than I think the M2 comfortech stock with the airtouch dimple checkering gives a more positive grip than the non comfortech stocks. The only complaint I had about my M2 when I first got it was that I found that the angle of the pistol grip was more curved than on the M1 and was akward and uncomfortable for my small hands. After I shot the gun a little I got used to it and actually prefer it now over the oldstyle because the M2's grip keeps your hand in place better during recoil.

I wish Benelli would offer one in every gauge. I know there isn't enough demand to make the less popular sizes, but it would be nice if they would make a special limited edition run of the other guages. Even with the higher price they would demand I think there would be enough people that would want to buy them so they could have a complete set.

I think most of the low recoil slugs are designed for hunting so they will expand more, and I don't know much about buckshot. If the ammo is strictly for home defense what's wrong with the full power ammo? A few rounds of full power ammo shot during practice shouldn't cause much recoil problems, and in the unfortunate event that you have to defend yourself, recoil will be the last thing on your mind.

they are already out but I think they are in short supply. A local dealer had one but it didn't last long. I had a chance to look at it before they sold it, it was pretty much a scaled down version of the M2 12ga, but the 20 had the Grip Tight finish on the stock and forearm.

Federal makes very good slugs for smoothbores, the standard classic has been a standby for years, and their new Tru Ball is supposed to be the best smoothbore slug advance in years.

I think the older non crio barrels have threads the same as the Berettas, but I'm not positive. Before buying the barrel extension I would check to see if putting the barrel extension on an inertia recoil operated gun would cause cycling problems because of the added weight to the gun.

there are usually some for sale on ebay too.

What type of stock and gun do you have now?the wood stocks on the M2 and SBEII have snap on recoil pads like the comfortech. I took the gel pad off my comfortech and tried it on my M2 wood and it fit, but it seemed to look like putting the gel pad on the wood stock made the LOP longer than it was with the gel pad on the comfortech stock. Brownells sells the gel pads but they are close to $90.

I've been shooting Benelli's since '97 and have had one jam only 1 time during hunting, and the shells I was using at the time were fairly old. I'vehad mine out in down pours, sleet, snow, and dirt and the gun always works. One time I belly crawled 1/4 mile down a plowed field, in strong winds to sneak up on some geese, and by the time I got within range. me and my gun were covered in dirt and my M1 had so much dirt inside the action that when I unloaded the gun back at the truck it sounded and felt like I was rubbing course sandpaper over the gun, but the gun worked without a hitch when I shot at the geese. I couldn't say the same for my buddy's Browning Gold though, it was so gummed up that he ended up with a high priced single shot, he could barely cycle the bolt manually and the shells didn't want to pop out of the magazine. There has only been one time where a foreign object jammed up one of my Benelli's, I had a reload with a bad crimp and some of the bb's ran out into the action and got lodged in a groove under the carrier and prevented it from dropping back down all the way so shells could pop out of the magazine, so I manually cycled the bolt back and forth a few times until the carrier sheared off the shot and I shot the gun the rest of the day and took it apart that night and dug the rest of the shot out of the action. If you look at what kind of guns serious waterfowl guides and the big dove and duck lodges down in Mexico use, most of them are Benelli's, so that is a pretty good testiment to the ruggedness of the guns.

I've talked to a gun dealer that shot the CT105 and he said that it shot ok except that he thought that the bolt was way too hard to cycle manually, this guy also admitted that he doesn't like Remington, so he probably isn't the best person to get an opinion from. From my personal opinion I don't think I would waste $1300 on a Remington auto when there are better guns out there for less money. I've shot 1100's,1187's,SX2's, Browning gold's,Extrema 1's, and Benelli's and I think the SX2 was the softest shooting gun of them all, but the Benelli's are the most durable and reliable of them all so I can live with a little more recoil.I haven't shot an Extrema 2 so I don't know if they are improved over the first model. As to the ad that Beretta has,I don't know why a company would bash a product they partially own, I think they are just jealous that the inertia operated gun's that they used to make didn't sell that well, and now that Benelli is as popular as they are, Beretta couldn't really design a new inertia gun and hope to compete against or draw people away from Benelli, so they do the next best thing: bash Benelli's design. I would never own a Berreta auto because I've seen too many jam in the field and I think the Extrema/Extrema2 just have a cheap feel to them.

I broke both my M2's in with target loads and never had any trouble, but what Tucker said to do will break the gun in quicker. From what I read in the manual the break in period is recomended so the gun will function reliably with lighter target loads, but if your going to use it for hunting right away I would just run a few rounds of hunting loads through it to get used to how the gun operates and to make sure there isn't anything wrong with the gun. I think you will be very happy with your M2, I currently own an M1 20ga, 2 M2's, and I used to own an M1 12ga, and a SBE1, and my fiance owns an M2 and with the exception of the SBE1 being finicky with target loads, all my Benelli's have been excellent guns right out of the box.

Since you don't need to buy an extra slug forearm then I would probably buy the gun with the bird barrel so I could get all the chokes and then purchase the slug barrel separtely. Buying a complete set of Crio chokes won't be cheap.

to unload shells from the magazine you need to press the silver button above the right side of the trigger guard to release a shell from the magazine, then you need to cycle the action to reset the button to release the next round. A few times I've had the bolt not move forward after pushing the bolt release button, but It will usually release if I pull back on the bolt then let it go. It might have done it because the gun is new and the parts aren't broken in yet. If it doesn't do it anymore I wouldn't worry about it.

Brownells offers a light load recoil spring for the SBE that should solve the jamming problems with target loads, but you have to put the original spring back in before you shoot heavy loads or else you could damage the gun.

If your talking about the screws on top of the receiver, you just take them out with a small screw driver. Heavy shot is more like lead than steelshot, so it is safe to use in most guns, but it patterns really tight so I would use a more open choke than what you would use with lead. I've used it a few times for ducks and geese and have found that for duck out to around 40 yards an Improved Cylinder choke seems to work best in my gun and for geese I use a modified so I can put more of the pellets on the bird. I don't know what kind of hunting you do,but for waterfowl Heavyshot is the best stuff I've ever used, when you hit the bird it puts them down. It's pretty expensive, but the way I look at it is that I go through fewer shells to fill a limit with heavyshot and cripple fewer birds so it's worth the added cost. Also, turkey hunters that I've talked to say it's extremely deadly, and with the tighter chokes designed for Heavy shot they were getting clean kills out to 70 yards. The best thing to do is pattern some heavy shot through the different chokes and see which one is best for the type of hunting you'll be doing.

The main difference is that the SBEII is chambered for the 3.5'' shell and the M2 is chambered for the 3'' only. Also the SBEII has a two piece reciever: the lower half is aluminum and the upper half is steel and is one piece with the barrel; the M2 has a one piece aluminum reciever. I've had both and they are both excellent guns, but I prefer the M2 because I do alot of clay shooting and the M2 is more reliable with light target loads.

I would step back to 30 yards and pattern it again; 10 yards is too close to give the pattern time to open up. Also, I would try some different types of ammo to see if it patterns the same with everything and if it does I would experiment with changing the shims in the stock to change the point of impact.

The problem isn't so much compromising the integrity of the stock but having enough room to snap the recoil pad back on. The new benelli's use a recoil pad that snaps on the stock instead of using screws. I took the recoil pad off my M2 and there are two sets of ribs that the recoil pad snaps into and they are about an 1'' apart, but if you cut the stock down an 1'' I don't think there will be enough clearance in between the pad and the components inside the stock to snap the pad back on all the way. I would check with a dealer or customer service and see what they say. Also, I saw an adapter on the Brownells website that would convert the new style recoil pad attachment to on that uses screws but it was kind of expensive, about $70 if I remember right.

buy a bunch of different types and get what shoots best. I've had the best luck with Winchester BRI sabots in 12ga, 2.75'' 1oz.

ThanksRayzo, but someone already bought it, I was on ebay last night and didn't see it and I double checked it this morning after seeing your post, these things sure don't last long. There is a Supersport carbon fiber stock for sale until Sep 1 so I'll have to see if my fiancee is interested in that one, right now it's at $25. [ 08-29-2006, 08:28 AM: Message edited by: gunner76 ]

where'd you get the comfortech stock? I was under the impression that Benelli won't sell them seperatly.

Rayzo, thanks for the info, but I didn't get on ebay before it was sold. Usually I check ebay about every day to see if there are any listed but I forgot to check this morning and I logged off this site before you posted the message and just now got back on at 10pm. Better luck next time.

as far as I know the Super Black Eagle and the Nova pump are the only Benelli's that handles the 3.5'' shell. The M1's have been replaced with the M2, but you can still find some new M1's on the shelves. [ 08-25-2006, 10:00 PM: Message edited by: gunner76 ]

I'm left handed but have shot right handed guns all my life and have never had any problems with the bolt release being on the right side. I have both an M2 wood and Comfortech and have noticed a slight difference in the amount of muzzle jump with the Comfortech; it seems like the comfortech has a little less recoil, but that could be because the gun doesn't jump up as much as the wood. I noticed that you metioned shooting 1oz trap loads, if you do alot of trap shooting you might want to stay away from the SBE II because light trap loads can cause some jamming problems. I used to have an SBE I and it was fine with factory 1 1/8 oz loads but jammed once in awhile with my lighter 1 1/8 oz reloads and it rarely worked with anything less than 1 1/8, whereas the Extrema is a little more versatle because it is gas operated. if you mainly just want to use the gun for hunting then I would definantly get the SBE II, I think its a much more durable gun than the Extrema .If you really would have the Extrema 2 I think the safety can be reversed from right to left handed. Also, I would advise against trying to make a left handed person shoot right handed or vice versa because it will cause a cross dominance problem with their eyes and really screw up their shooting. But, if the person's dominant eye is opposite of the side that they favor to use then I would teach them to shoot on the side that has the dominant eye. [ 08-25-2006, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: gunner76 ]

I never had good luck with the Hornady slugs, I would try some Federal Premiums with the Barnes Expander, Remington Coppersolids, or Winchester BRI Sabots. In my last two slug guns the Winchester BRI sabots in the 2.75'' 1oz load shot the best out of anything I tried. Also, in a fully rifled barrel you only want to use a sabot slug, or a another type designed for use in a rifled barrel. I would stay away from "foster" style slugs that are designed for smoothbore barrels because they generally won't group through a rifled barrell. Also, I would stay away from magnum slugs of ones with a high velocity because they generally won't shoot as accuratly and they beat you up worse too. I've shot lots of deer out to 100yds with 1oz slugs and have been pleased with the results. I agree with garren, get a scope designed for a shotgun and don't go overboard with manification, a 1.5-4x would cover all your slug shooting.