Duggan

...continued If you want to shoot slugs through your m4 (a smoothbore 18.5 inch barrel), your best bet is a rifled slug. Rifled slugs literally have rifling on the outside of the slug, so that as it is traveling down the barrel, the rifling on the slug causes it to spin, stabilizing the slug, increasing accuracy in theory, terminal ballistics etc. It's open to debate how much stabilization the rifling on the rifled slug actually provides, however even if it only provides a modest amount of stabilization, that is better than the 0 stabilization you are going to get when using a sabot. Here are some pictures of 2 rifled slugs, so you can see the rifling on the outside of the slug: That's a remington slugger, one of the more popular rifled slugs among m4 users. In summary (copied from other post): Rifled Barrel + Smooth Sabot Slug = Win, best performance at longer ranges, best terminal ballistics Rifled Barrel + Rifled slug = I'm not sure, I've never tried it ... can't imagine it would be great Smooth Barrel + Rifled Slug = Best option for smooth bore shotguns, as the rifling on the slug helps stabilize the slug Smooth Barrel + Smooth SABOT Slug = Fail. No real way to get the round spinning, thus no real way to retain accuracy at any type of distance at all. You're spending 3x the price of rifled slugs for no improvement or a detrimental change in accuracy, not to mention less terminal ballistics due to little spin. As always, take all advise on accuracy, knockdown power etc with a grain of salt. Your best bet is ALWAYS to do your own testing, see what ammo your gun likes, and see what patterns well for you. Basic slug sighting in info, also copied from previously linked post: "To find your perfect slug, do the following: 1) - buy 2 boxes (10 rounds) of every type of rifled slug you can find. 2) - set up a large target at 40,50 yards, whatever you want to sight in for. 3) - Shoot 3 shot groups, changing the target every 3 rounds and labeling each target as you take it down. DO NOT ADJUST YOUR OPTIC YET. So long as you are on paper, it doesn't matter where they hit, only how tight the group is. 4) - After you've shot all your ammo, you should have 3 targets per brand times however many brands you bought. Find the labeled target with the tightest pattern, and buy some more of that ammo. 5) - If you have a few brands that are close, buy some of both and duke it out between them with the same method. 6) - When you've settled on a slug that performs well, you then sight in your optic for that specific slug. If you're switching your optic after every shot or between every brand, you're wasting time and money." Hopes this helps. Merry Christmas. -Duggan

I refer you to this thread where I typed pages on this subject, battling another forum member rather unnecessarily over this issue. http://www.benelliusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16666&highlight=m4+slug To address the points brought up in this thread: 1) - Your M4 does NOT have a rifled barrel. If you have a rifled barrel, something is seriously wrong. 2) - Sabot slugs are meant for rifled barrels "only". Refer to pictures below to see why. 3) - Smooth bore shotguns should use rifled slugs 4) - Rifled chokes, from everything that I've read, provide very little stabilization ... way less than a full length rifled barrel, and less than a rifled slug in a smooth bore barrel. 5) - You can shoot a slug through ANY choke. You can shoot slugs through an extra full choke without damaging your weapon. However, for BEST ACCURACY, use a looser choke, such as a modified. In more detail, here ... this a sabot slug. As you can see, it has no rifling on the actual slug, and is meant to be stabilized by the rifling in a rifled slug barrel. This rifling stabilizes (spins) the slug, giving it superior accuracy at longer ranges, and increases terminal ballistics due to this spin. While sabot slugs CAN be shot through your m4, there is no reason to do so. Sabot slugs in general cost 2-3x as much as rifled slugs, and they NEED a rifled slug barrel in order to take advantage of their design. If you shoot sabot slugs through your M4, you are basically turning your m4 into a musket. The sabot will have nothing to make it spin, so it will exit the barrel with negligible spin and go who knows where. You are completely negating the superior accuracy potential of the sabot, and the terminal ballistics as well. In short, sabot slugs NEED a rifled barrel in order to be worth a damn. If you don't have a rifled barrel, skip the sabot slugs and use a rifled slug, as seen on my next post ...

Oh? What ammo are you shooting? I almost never have any "gum" on my gas pistons. Even after 500 round sessions, my gas pistons are normally just slightly dirty. And great report/gun Subsolar!

It doesn't like a few brands of low recoil (forget what) and anything that says WILL NOT WORK IN SEMI AUTOS ... you should probably avoid.

They used to come with 3. Apparently, in the past year, people have been saying they only come with one. Perhaps a call to CS would get you the other 2.

Whatever is cheapest ... normally for me it's 100 packs of federal of fiocchi #8 or #9 shot birdshot from walmart or someplace. If you're just looking to practice manipulating the gun and rounds, this is your best bet. No reason to have extra recoil and pay more when you're just blasting away to get the feel of the gun and it's function. For cheap practice buckshot for "realistic" training, just look around for deals on wolf, S&B, nobel ... It's all gonna be close to the same price for decent buckshot. Best bet is always to buy lots of different stuff, see what you and your gun like, see what patterns well and feeds well, and then go and buy more of that stuff. This is worth more than any guy on the internet telling you what to get.

A joyous Kwanzaa to all.

My input, from having watched the benelli m4 market for a few years now, and having bought and sold quite a few Benelli parts myself ... I can't imagine you will have ANY problem selling them. I imagine you will sell thousands of these if they truly are at/above factory quality and at a $300 price point for a sufficiently high quantity. Even at an initial, "unproven" offering of $500 or so, plenty of people are still fighting on gunbroker and here for stock units at or above that price. If your unit is truly better, as you claim, you will have no problem selling these units. People that have bought the M4 are not your average "it's a shotgun, it's only worth $300 dollars" people. Many here have already shelled out over ~$2000 for their weapon and accessories. There are many in this crowd who consider $500 to be a relatively low price for a previously near unavailable accessory, and $300 would be a steal. I seriously expect you would be able to sell thousands at this price point. For an example of someone entering the M4 market, offering a quality product that was previously hard to find, and then making bank on tons of units sold, look no farther than SOCOMguy. http://www.benelliusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16367&highlight=socomguy His tubes are substanitally more expensive than other alternatives that have come around in recent times, and he has competition, and he still sells lots of tubes ... you will have no competition really, unless someone else starts making the stock (not likely). Overall, I'd suggest you look closely at this ... it's an unfilled, high end market niche that currently has no supplier offering anything to meet a pretty high demand level. My $.02

I nominate myself.

Very cool.

If you say so. It's your money. But please show me a report on this board where a benelli stock FOLLOWER has failed (not the spring, or problems going to a full tube, etc).

You're gonna miss it Bump

Last I looked, nobody, unless you modified one or made your own.

Is there something wrong with the stock follower? Or are you just not trusting of "plastic" parts ... even for extremely low impact jobs, like being a follower sealed inside of a metal magazine? If so, I point you to Glock, Magpul ... In short, I see 0 reason to replace the follower, as you're not going to get anything out of it. If you have problems with your follower somehow, or just want to burn money, then perhaps I can understand. There are many areas of the M4 where aftermarket parts enhance and upgrade the weapon ... replacing the follower is just treading water. My $.02

I far and away prefer the non rotating. The PMT one comes out just like the stock one, you twist it 60 degrees or so like you said and it pops out with ease. If you don't twist it, it is nearly impossible to pull out. I am yet to even remotely twist the bolt handle by accident, thus accidently popping out the bolt handle. With my GG&G, it would spin around all day, and it would pull out very easily at any time. It never became an issue, it's just clearly an inferior system from what I can see. As far as actually being used to charge the weapon, the non rotational style wins. It's easier to grab and pull something that doesnt spin, rather than one that wants to spin around and slip out of your finger.

I think I started a buying frenzy on this ammo.

Apparently they finished the system they have been working on for ages. http://www.sidearmor.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=46 I may just get one of these ... weighing my options and needs atm. If this has been posted before I apologize, but this is the first I have seen of a completed unit being available.

Cool. I assume you are talking about the daves metal works tube when you talk about your steel tube. Have you tried a socomguy tube? How does it compare? Either way, cool to have feedback.

Stinx, You can turn the front sling attachment point to the side, making it much more comfortable. It's just a circular ring of metal held in place by a snap ring ... take off the snap ring with snap ring pliers, take the sling ring off, turn it to desired position, put back on, put snap ring back on ... profit.

Nodakspud was the best. It seems they are now discontinued. Factory ones are rare, but are also of good quality. Tacstar is garbage last I looked. I've never seen a dave's metal works, but they look to be ok. I would just get a 7 round full size tube though, you'll just want one later if you don't get one now, why buy twice.

http://e-gunparts.com/DisplayAd.asp?chrProductSKU=980370&chrSuperSKU=&MC=

Get a nodakspud, they are just as good or better than factory. edit: turns out they discontinued them or are sold out. Damn.

The mount is the same on all classic eotechs (newer models have built in dual throw levers and are 1/4 higher), it's a thumbscrew type of 1913 mount. None of these will maintain a true zero if taken off and put back on. A larue mount will. For a shotgun it's not that important, but still helps. Honestly, you don't NEED a red dot on your shotgun. If you shoot it enough, you will just be able to aim and squeeze off. I generally dont even look through my sites half the time, I just know where the gun is pointed and look at my target while in the general area of the sites. If they line up, great, if not I still know what I'm hitting. This obviously is not a good idea for longer range shots, but for up to 40 yards you can pretty much tag whatever you want using this method, and it's a shotgun, not a .308. That being said, a red dot certainly helps in certain situations and certain types of shooting. I've never used night sights, but I've been told to only get the front sight if I was ever to get them, as the rear sight I guess can be too bright and destroy your night vision/perception, as it's this big green dot right in front of your eye that makes everything else look dark. Again, you'd have to test it out to see what works for you. IMO, you've already got the gun, full length tube and collapsible stock ... flashlights aren't gonna get banned and neither are optics. You can get both, it's just a matter of which you want first.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=712244 I dunno, I've never used them, just posting the link.