A little off topic but........
Are you hitting the coyotes at 400 with your 204 and dropping them reliably?
If so that might have to be my next rifle.
What glass are you using?
I'm a 3 gun guy so I'm an M1, M2 field gun guy. I do have an M4 but it sucks for 3 gun. My M1 shoots light field loads to stupid 3" too heavy loads for me to want to shoot.
The biggest problem for my application with the M4 is mag extension sticking out past the barrel and the lame Ghost Ring sites.
www.brianenos.com/forum is the place to learn about 3 gun how to improve your shooting skills, match skills, and match locations and clubs.
If you want to improve your Benelli they have all the answers.
Or you could contact www.davesmetalworks.com www.triangleshootingsports.com There's a guy in the SFV in So Cal but I don't have his contact info.
I don't know what's going on with you but this is something that has been done a 1000 times.
Look closer you should be able to do this. At least my M2 and M1's haven't had a problem and neither have any of my friends that run these guns that's a lot of people.
Is every round hard to load? Do you have an extension tube on the gun? How many rounds does it hold?
There's a few things you can try but...... you might just order a new catch from Brownells, some of the M1's had problems the new catch fixed.
As far as I know any LAPD officer that carries a Benelli M4 paid for it themselves.
There could be some "teams" that have issued guns, but the rank and file laid down their own cash.