duckht183

We had an early large canada goose season that ran from October 2nd though October but other than that it has been a while since our last split season. We had a split season either 4 or 5 years ago and I loved it. It allowed the migrators to come in and get real comfortable, then we were back out hammering them again! I dont know about you guys down there in Texas but over here i've noticed alot more birds down here than in years past. The canvasback and redheads rolled in 2 weeks ago and we usually don't see them until mid to late December. I've killed more mallards this year than I have in two combined seasons too so hopefully it continues to pick up.

Those are some nice bucks you guys got into this year! Do you know what the B&C score was on them?

Nice! Does Texas normally run a split season?

Happy now...

So this means you're looking at a big ZERO then for the season....

December 1st: 2 sprig, 1 mallard, 1 gaddy, and 3 teal

Maybe I should hunt without a bolt handle more often...

Yepp I know exactly what you mean. I dont know how many times I felt like sinking the damn thing! A shotgun of that price should cycle every load, every single time no matter what conditions you hunt in. Take some steel wool to the bolt and the bolt head, the inside of the reciever, and to the barrel where the bolt locks into place. Let me know how it goes and hit me up if you have any questions.

I've had my bolt handles thrown 3 different times, the first time the bolt handle ended up at the bottom of my duck blind (thankfully), in December of '08 I had it thrown and sunk to the bottom of one of my duck ponds and Sunday is when the recent one has been thrown... It's tough to say whether it is my bolt or a malfuction of the actual design because I used to work over at BPS and every auto that Franchi and Stoeger that I have handled has had the same issue (I wanted to compare the way mine was compared to the others coming into the store that were brand new). Both bolt handles come out with ease so that makes me question the design. Benelli CS said if it happens again to send my gun back for a new bolt, but here's the issue that I have with that: I've done alot of work to this bolt like taking steel wool to almost every part of it to get any excess burrs off that were left behind. I started with a gun that would not cycle the 2nd or 3rd round, I sent it back to benelli and they sent me a new bolt; Then I had a gun that would cycle the 1st and maybe the 2nd shell but not the 3rd, sent it back again; After the 3rd bolt was doing the EXACT same thing as the previous two I decided to do work on the gun myself and finally after 2 years of hard duck hunting, I have that gun cycling all 3 shells every single time no matter where or what kind of crap that im hunting in! So im a little hesitant to trade out this bolt. I love my Franchi and i've killed alot of birds with it but damn I want these little defects to be fixed already! The Beretta Xtrema 2 uses a key bolt handle that can only be removed if the bolt head is 3/4 of the way engauged and it still requires some big biceps to pull it out... It can't be that hard to design something like that. I'd rather have a bolt handle thats a b**** to get out then one that just likes to dis-engauge on its own.

A company that sells guns and fried chicken.... I'd open up a place like that in Oakland for sure!

Now I just have to figure out why in the **** my bolt wants to throw that bold handle....

I figured i'd give Benelli CS one more call today and finally I got an answer! Benelli is sending me out a new bolt handle for my Franchi I-12 at no cost and it should be here in 7 days. Thanks Tucker for trying to help me out, I owe you one. I'll hit you up when my Cabela's promo card comes in the mail again;)

I appriciate it

I've been trying to call Benelli's customer support all morning and I have had no answer what so ever! I need some help here guys, how can I get in touch with these people besides emailing them.

Damn you know me too well

Thanks man, its wierd though because I know exactly what Scotty is talking about. Thats why I try not to mess with it too much. I'll let you know what happens, i'm expecting benelli to send me a new one at no cost because I don't feel that I should pay for a manufactorer's mistake.

I've had mine for 3 1/2 years, I lost the first one mid-December of the 08-09 season when I had 3 mallards lock up on me. Last season I ran an 870 Super Mag, which worked well, but this year I went back to the I-12 and this morning I lost that bolt handle again! Whenever I hunt with it I always check after I shoot but I didn't expect it to come out when I was shooting 1 oz #8's. I keep my I-12 pretty damn clean for a duck gun so a build-up of dirt or anything shouldn't be an issue... I dont really think a shotgun should be spotless in order for it to work properly but thats just me. I should be able to do anything to it and it should continue to work.

I was out training my dog this morning, and I was simulating a duck hunt by popping off a few 1 oz loads with my Franchi I-12 and having her retrieve some spoonies that I keep during the season... Things were going good and then all of a sudden I heard a ping noise after I shot. So I glanced down at my bolt (because i've heard this sound before) and my bolt handle was gone... again! So Benelli will be getting a phone call from me Monday morning

Killed 3 teal 2 spoonies 1 gaddy and 1 bufflehead this morning before work. With this rain/wind that we had this morning along the low temps we've been having these past few days it definately pushed new birds down

November 3rd: Somewhere up north in the rice....

October 23rd: Modesto Resevoir-3 mallards and 4 spoonies

October 2nd: 3 Honkers (only took a picture with these two)

Okay so tell me why I spent 20 minutes trying to find the thread yesterday and I thought my computer was doing something stupid... Can Benelli bring back the thread or what?

It just depends on your personal preferance, me personally im 6' 4" and I like a 28" barrel because I like the weight and the balance. I'd say the minimal barrel length for ducks and geese would be 24 inches because that is when the maximum velocity of the shell is reached. A longer barrel doesn't mean longer shots A 24" barrel with throw shot just as far as a 30" barrel does The best piece of advice I can give you is to find a gun/barrel length that you like, a good choke and a load that patterns well with you gun/choke and stick with it. Jump into the blind with some confidence and you're gonna kill some birds

The only way to de-cock the gun would be to either dry fire or use a snap cap then right?