Alaska_Bear

I hate to wiz on everyone’s spark plugs, but putting a full-lenght magazine tube on a non-NFA M4 that has a pistol grip is illegal—PERIOD! Buying one is OK, as is selling one, but put it on the gun, get caught, and your butt is hanging out there. If you look at the law you will see that because it is a foreign made semi-auto shotgun, and does not have the required number of U.S. made parts, it can only have one (1) of the following; magazine capacity over 5 shots, flash suppressor, bayonet lug, pistol grip, removable magazine, folding or collapsible stock. The reason Benelli stopped selling the M1014 stock to civilians is because it has both the pistol grip AND the collapsible stock which is in violation of federal firearms law. Don’t believe me—call ATF.. I have spoken with the ATF Technology Branch in West Virginia at great length about this and they assured me that this is absolutely the case and doing otherwise is a violation of the Gun Control Act. The fact that some of the mag tubes are a U.S. made part means NOTHING. It is a felony which carries stiff fines and jail time. It would also preclude one from owning ANY firearms and/or working for the federal government. As has been outlined on this site before by another member, the ONLY way around this is to re-classify the gun as an NFA Class III weapon. The way you would do this is to call it a “short-barreled shotgun”. You don’t actually have to make the barrel short as some people assume; you just have to re-class the receiver. This is done with ATF Form 1— Application to Make and Register a Firearm. It costs $200 and requires being signed off by the chief law enforcement officer in your area. If you are a Law Enforcement officer, same-same—without having to pay the $200, but it still needs to have the change registered with ATF. The ATF guy went on to tell me that the main way they catch people who do stuff like this is when they go on the web and blab. I have to assume that all of the people who have posted photos of their modified M4s along with the description of what they did, have already received their Class III stamp.

My M4 came with just a modified choke. I sent one email to Benelli and immediately received a reply that explained this was a problem they were aware of with some of the M4s that had been shipped. Both a cylinder and an improved choke (black) showed up in my mailbox (free of charge) a week later.

There is no issue with the gun shooting this slug, but unless you have a rifled barrel, a sabot slug like the Winchester Supreme Partition Gold will not be very accurate. I would recommend one of the Brenneke slugs, which have rifling on the slug and are very accurate out to 75 yards and should shoot sub-3" groups at 100 yards. If you take a look at their website, they have a "Which Slug for Which Barrel" link that you will probably find helpful in making your choice. These slugs cost a little more than some others, but are well worth the extra couple of bucks. good luck!

Topcover-- The specialty rounds we use are Birdfrite Scare Cartridges, or Lightfield Extended Range Rubber Slugs. Our normal set-up is to have the gun loaded with the Brenneke Black Magic Shells for immediate lethal defense. There are also times when we may have an unwanted bear who we can scare off with the Birdfrite shells. These shells are essentially a big firecracker that you shoot from a 12 gauge. You just load them like a regular shell and shoot them in the direction of what you want to scare. They explode and flash a 200'. As the name implies, they where designed to scare birds. They are used around airports and farms. Always use a cylinder choke with the Birdfrites, or your gun could damage the projectile as it leaves the gun. I have never experienced this, but my guess is it would be a bad thing. The Birdfrite shells are generally more expensive ($60 per 25 shells) than some other cracker shells on the market, but way more reliable with super consistent fuses. The Lightfield Extended Range Rubber Slugs are a good intermediate solution to bears. Sometimes we have a bear that is too close for the Birdfrite shells, or just doesn't care. When you smack a bear in the ass with the rubber slugs, they are pretty much on their way. Even though we sometimes need to use more than one of these specialty shells, our policy is to never load more that one in the gun. In this, the next round is always a hard lead slug-- just in case the aversion therapy does not work and the situation turns bad. The cracker shells and rubber slugs have been used successfully for quite a while in Glacier National Park, Montana. The final "Specialty" round I carry are 12 GA. flares. These really don't have anything to do with bears, but they are handy if needed in an emergency. As you said, using your head is by far the best bear protection. This said, two of the biologist I work with at the Dept of Fish & Game were attacked by a big brown bear two summers ago. The first guy was carrying a rifle that he jammed. The second guy shot the bear twice, stopping it a mere 8 feet from the first guy. Both of these guys were super-competent outdoorsmen who had hundreds of bear encounters that were solved with hand clapping, warning shots and whistles. Sometimes you just have to fall back on the firearms. Hope this was helpful

Have you looked at the products being offered by Mesa Tactical? Their products are really well made and they are super-good people to work with. I know they have a new shell holder in the works for the Super Nova.

Brenneke Black Magic is not a sabot slug, and has no cover that peels away. It is just a really good rifled slug. Brenneke does make one sabot slug called the SuperSabot. It is also a great slug, but like the others have said, it would be a waste to fire it from anything but a rifled barrel. This said, the Brenneke Black Magic is a super accurate and hard hitting round. My m1014 is used for bear protection, and with the exception of some specialty rounds used to scare bears off, I load them exclusively in my gun.

Check out Militech-1 on their site. This stuff is the best lube I have ever used. You need to clean the metal parts, then you apply the Militech and heat it up to 140 degrees--then wipe it dry. It is totally dry and does not pick up any grit. I was skeptical at first when a buddy told me about it, but it was pretty inexpensive so I gave it a try. Unlike graphite or other lubes, you won't have to worry about getting it on your clothing.