StrangerDanger

If you push the follower in with your pointer finger, are you feeling anything other than the steady spring resistance?

It’s definitely not an exact fit. The QD socket from IWC wasn’t made for the Benelli, it was just found to work on it. So on one side you’ll have their spacer that acts as a washer on the opposite side of the QD socket. The QD socket will then snug up into the sling loop and be held tight against the stock.

Definitely interested to see what you come out with.

Hard to tell from the photo. What I would do is take it to the range a fire it. Inspect the primer hits to be sure they’re solid hits. You could swap handguards back to oem if you want a direct comparison of the primer hits.

The Midwest ones are also stripped. Which generally is no big deal, but recovering the flexible ring from your existing receiver extension is a pain in the ass. You have to cut a notch into the race channel with a rotary tool so that you can slide a punch/pick beneath one end of it in order to dislodge it. Or buy the flexible ring elsewhere.

It looks too long to be an entry model. I don't think they make that model yet.

Bet they sent you one for a different model.

Post pictures when you get it done. Not too many people have gone that route, but it was the base for the M4A1 concept that Benelli was floating for a while. This tutorial guide will make your life a lot easier.

Yes. You’ll see what they call the 5 position receiver extensions listed for sale.

Sounds like you have a good base going. The M2 certainly has more perceived recoil than a M4 due to its lighter weight and action differences. What you can try is the push/pull technique Rob Haught taught. With this, you push forward with your support arm and pull inward with your trigger hand. The overall goal is to keep the buttpad seated in the pocket of your shoulder firmly. You don’t want to be too far over onto the chest either. Make sure the buttpad is fully seated against the pocket. If you have the top or bottom edge of the pad hanging in the air, you’re going to be sending more recoil into a smaller area and more importantly, it allows the firearm to want to rock during recoil. You have to play with the balance, 65% pull/35% push works for me. Your support arm ends up acting like a shock absorber. You’ll find that you’ll return to your sight picture faster between shots in the event your target needs a follow up kiss.

A lot of the time it comes down to shooting technique. No one wants to hear they’re doing something wrong. Guys sometimes get all butt hurt when I’m instructing and trying to correct a bad habit they have. I have plenty of bad habits myself. Especially when we can’t shoot as much as we should. It’s not so much a matter of strength. I see it a lot of the time on the range. People allow the shotgun to push their shoulder around. When you’re braced up on the shotgun, you want to provide a solid base for it to recoil against. Not only will the firearm cycle better, but you’ll return to target and regain your sight picture faster. When you have a weak shoulder, your body robs the firearm of the inertia energy it needs to cycle the action. I catch myself standing improperly all the time or realize I’m not bracing like I should. I can hear the Benelli action cycle differently when I’m not doing my job. Mix in weaker ammo and you have the recipe for cycle failure. The closer a gun operates to the bleeding edge of function, the easier it is to cause a failure. Examples of this would be AR15’s that people have adjustable gas blocks on. Many set it to where the action just has enough energy to cycle the bolt. Then real life happens and it gets dirty or they’re not holding it firmly and these events rob the energy from the action and cause a failure or the bolt doesn’t lock back on the last round fired. Another example would be putting more powerful main springs in pistols to reduce perceived recoil. You’re just tightening the envelope on function and it will bite you eventually. On the Benelli, you should be listening to the action. Note the difference in how it sounds with full house loads vs Walmart value pack loads. If you can hear the bolt hit the rear and then hear it back in battery, things are operating slow and at the edge of reliability. Another cool technique for diagnosing problems is to have a buddy film the action in slow motion. Most modern phones have this capability. Often times this will point you in the right direction as to where the problems lie.

I used their supplied spring. I don't know if it is a different weight. Like maybe they calculated the weight of the pad into the spring rate? I'd guess either would work fine once set correctly.

There is a good thread about the clones over at arfcom. Most of them seem pretty solid.

Chances are you didn’t get the spring seated properly in its little notch. The latch pivots on the pin so it isn’t a straight in and out sweep when the latch is moving around. This picture might help you see where the spring should be set:

5/40 tap and a #38 drill bit. I put one on once, wasn’t a fan of it. It sticks out pretty far off the receiver.

I think they both are bearing parts. Once you let off the button, the post engages one of the notches on the extension.

The adjustment button on the collapsible stock is one of the most hardened pieces of steel I have ever encountered. It wasn’t done like that on accident.

The heads remind me of a story from my youth. When I was around 14, in the early 1990's, I was out camping in the Mohave Desert at an abandoned mining camp out near where Manson was hiding out. Rumor has it that they had stayed at this particular cabin. We were camping on the tailings of one of the mines about a half mile from the actual camp which had a cabin and a small bunk house. The bunk house was a wooden structure with several bunk beds and old mattresses in it. The windows had this semi transparent greenish plastic covering them so they didn't let much light in. You'd never want to stay in it since mice had torn up all the bedding. So I was out screwing alone and walked up to the building with my Chinese SKS in hand and opened the door the old wooden door. As soon as I opened the door, I saw like a dozen heads laying on the beds and floor. All had that Jewish internment camp shaved haircut. I dropped an "Oh F***!" while backing away from the door as the light kept into this dark hovel. Several of the heads had bullet holes in them. It took a couple of seconds for me to realize that they were mannequin heads. I guess they were heads that people practice haircutting on? Here's an old photo of the building I have pinned on my wall in my shop.

GrandThumb recently posted a video having fun with several firearms to test on synthetic skulls to see what would happen with various calibers. The Benelli M4 nicely outfitted comes out near the end to see what a slug will do. Don’t visit if you hate fun and humor.

Not really certain which one Benelli uses unfortunately.

Sir, thank you for your service. You sure know when to get out! If you need a hand chasing down trigger pack parts or whatever, hit me up and I'll do my best to find the parts you need.

I honestly don't think you'd get any grief about swapping the magazine tube for a full length one piece tube. With these law enforcement M4's out in public hands, it's practically impossible to determine what model a M4 is without the box. There is zero markings on it to indicate how it came originally. Chances are you're going to end up replacing enough parts to be 922 compliant anyway and hit 922 compliance without even trying these days.

Fitting the FFT hammer is pretty easy to do. I wouldn’t let that be a deal breaker for going that route.

You can certainly buy a SBS 14” M4, just expect to wait for a long time before it gets out of NFA jail. I think there are some on gunbroker currently. Building a second trigger pack is doable, but some of the oem parts may be difficult to locate currently. Most never use the oem pack again once they’ve added all the parts they want. Always load a bunch of photos if selling on an auction site. The more you have, the more comfortable people are with committing.

Big dog covered most of it. There is an instant gratification route, but it is initially costly. You’d have to buy two M4’s, a M1014 and an 11707 or similar variant. You’d swap stocks from the M1014 onto the 11707 variant and install a full length magazine tube. You could then sell the M1014 with the fixed pistol grip stock. General consensus for 922 compliance is you need at least four US made parts. A US made full length magazine tube and follower count for two of those parts. You then have options for the other two, A&S engineering trigger frame, Briley/FFT/Benelli parts trigger/disconnector/hammer kits (counts for 3 parts), handguard or rail systems from various makers. Other options is a slower route. Waiting around for a 3 position receiver extension and having it installed to make the collapsible stock is certainly an option. The m1014’s barrel isn’t really heavier, it just wasn’t threaded for a choke. Briley will thread the barrel for you for around 160.00 if you want that option.