StrangerDanger

Agreed. My dad had one. It was my first Benelli to learn on.

The Agency Arms rail is a pain in the dick to remove for servicing the ARGO system. If I recall it was like 12 torx screws had to be removed to get the bastard off. So if you do a Loctite regiment every time you back the screws out, you're really going to be hating life. The worst part is it doesn't really offer you a decent weapon light mounting position.

500 rounds really isn't even much of a test. The half assed installation of the aftermarket components likely caused all of their grief. Unless you're really chasing weight savings, get a Carriercomp magazine tube over the Briley. Briley dicked around when they made their tubes so that each end of the tube is seated into a stainless end which has the threaded ends. The trouble is, the transition from stainless to carbon fiber tube is not the best. Inserting rounds, the follower can hit the transition and stick even with their aftermarket follower that is designed to work around that exact issue. That's exactly the issue they were having where they were struggling to load rounds and having to hold your mouth just right to get it to pass over the transition. You can play warranty games with Briley, but it's going to take a bit to fix everything right. You don't have any of those issues with a single piece titanium or steel tube. Whatever you get, put some thread locker on it. Strike Industries is synonymous with crap. Set screws to keep the rail from rocking back and forth that press against your handguard retainer and barrel casting is a piss poor design. All that movement can lead to a piston striking the rail. That Speed Bar wasn't going to last long with those Mongo's beating on it like that. That's a light duty part at best. Even a GG&G would probably end up breaking from that kind of abuse. We've all seen the size of the screw that holds that pad in place. I think they alluded to replacing the receiver extension? That's the area I'd be concerned with.

Shit, that's terrible to hear. Earl was a good guy and a gifted designer. Him and I would email back and forth from time to time on the Benelli components.

It will function with a broken piston. I have had it happen on my first M4. I only noticed it was broken because a portion of the piston entered into the action and caused a stoppage. It snapped near the shoulder that impacts the barrel assembly. The breakage was similiar to this one, but it broke on the opposite piston position. You could experiment with removing one or both pistons to see what happens.

I know the collapsible stocks that came with the original 2500 special edition M1014's all had the philips head screws. I'm not sure at what point after that they transitioned to the allen heads.

All normal. Plating and paint hate 90 degree corners. So they're prone to wearing thru. Add a relatively loose fit of an action and an action being run with buffering media and carbon inside it and you'll start to see wear on those corners.

Nice work. I wish I had that skillset. The only real issue I see with it is clamping to the magazine tube and barrel impede field stripping. This is why the mounts from IWC and Ava Tactical mounted to the barrel ring so the mount would stay attached to the barrel assembly. Building a handguard with an integrated pressure switch for the light might be fire. Particularly something like the Unity Tactical HotButton.

A&S Engineering will give you the trigger frame (014J), the safety retainer pin (012J) and the rear trigger pin (010J). The Briley trigger packs will give you the trigger (009J), hammer (002J) and disconnector (005B). I'm not sure about the disconnector spring (277J), disconnector plunger 045J, disconnector pin (023J) and trigger spring (011J). You could put your OEM Carrier (017J) back in the polymer frame if you wanted. You'd need a bunch of other parts like a trigger pin (010J), safety(013J), safety plunger (008J), safety spring (007J), shell release lever (076J), trigger bushing (016J), trigger guard pin spring (018J), breech bolt latch (019J), breech bolt latch pin (020J), carrier spring plunger (022J), carrier spring (021J), hammer spring (004J), hammer spring cap (003J), shell release lever spring (077J). It's going to nickel and dime you to death. You can probably buy a complete pack for about what you'd spend on all of the individual small parts. You can look at pricing for the components here: https://www.midwestgunworks.com/benelli-m4/parts.html

Looks pretty cool. I'd love to see the inside of the handguards. It doesn't appear to have a buttpad or a traditional sling swivel setup. I'd guess it has a hole in the bottom of the stock that screws into the receiver extension kind of like how the Mesa Tactical Urbino stock attaches.

The sling attachment position is personal preference. You could pick any of the MLOK's to attach it. When I hike, I find it more stable to be connected farther forward. I use a BlueForceGear sling so when I'm hiking, I cinch it tight against my back. Then if I need it, I let the slack out and can shoulder it while slung. I don't think there will be any damage since the rail is connected at the front hanguard hanger retainer as well as in the back. While my visible light Modlite head is installed, I also have a IR850 head for use with my helmet mounted PVS14 monocular. The barrel shadowing issue is a lot more extreme in IR. You don't really want anything blooming off your weapon back into your night vision device. The choke is a titanium Briley choke. It's like 0.3 ounces lighter than the OEM steel one. I was trimming as much weight as possible from the build. I dislike that it extends out so far. When I initially bought it, I thought it was some kind of compensator. The titanium is nice since it can't rust like the OEM steel ones tend to do. I'm hopeful for better products to come out that will get the light into the proper mounting position, but having the benefits of the OEM handguards again.

This is the traditional right handed user setup for the Modlites. The body bolts directly to the IWC Benelli M4 weapon light mount. I machined the tailcaps down to remove the shroud so there is less to jam my thumb on under recoil. I just haven't bothered to paint them yet. This is an experimental setup I started trying earlier this year to address several areas I didn't like when using the IWC mount. Mainly getting the light closer to the muzzle to eliminate barrel shadowing and to address jamming my thumb during momentary operations. Recoil is brutal on a 12 gauge when your thumb is riding the momentary button. I almost never use a constant on click of the light. The negatives: So I've been experimenting with the 15" Mesa Tactical Truckee rail. Overall, I hate the rail's attachment system to the barrel assembly. The fact that you have to remove your MLOK mounted items in order to get the rail off of the barrel assembly to access your ARGO system is retarded. So if you're going thru the process of applying thread locker to your attached items, you're going to have to redo that every single time you want to clean the gas system. Dumb. The texture of the rail is way too smooth. Adding rail covers adds to your pain in the ass of taking the thing off of the barrel assembly. So if you plan to use any, you'll want some kind that just pops on like BCM covers. The ergonomics are crap compared to the OEM handguard, particularly a stippled set. The positives: When the weapon light is attached with an offset Arisaka mount, it puts the weapon light in the perfect position. It's held tight to the rail and fills the space between the barrel and the magazine tube nicely so the light isn't hanging off the side of the weapon like a wall wart that tends to catch on everything. I did have to modify the rail to permit the Arisaka mount to fit the rail's profile. In the top down shot, you can see how I cut the rail away as compared to the opposite side. I hate tape switches and generally refuse to use them. I hate that they tend to snag on gear and the wire is easily damaged. I hate the tactile feel of a standard pressure pad where the light activation isn't always 100%. Then I bought the Unity Tactical HotButton. These eliminate the terrible feeling of the activation pad. This feels more like the button of a tailcap. Not only do you have momentary, but you can click it to lock the light on if needed. With the HotButton, you can orientate the switch with the button facing forward or rearward. I found facing the button forward was a significant improvement in ergonomics. No longer is your thumb in danger of getting racked during recoil. It's also much easier to pull your thumb rearward to activate the button than to reach forward to hit the button. I routed the wire thru the rail so that the wire has almost no exposure. This only works on a Benelli since it doesn't get hot enough inside there to damage the wire. You could never do this on say an AR15. I bored a hole thru the MLOK attachment points so that I could slip the 1/2" plug thru the rail. The HotButton has a cool feature where you can route the wire downward so the wire isn't exposed at all. So the wire actually goes thru the MLOK that the button is mounted to. Only a minimal amount exposes from the rail connecting to the weapon light. While the ergonomics of the rail kind of suck, the 15" long rail does have a positive aspect. You aren't limited to the short handguard of the OEM rail. I prefer to hold the shotgun a little farther forward than the OEM handguards permit. I do like the option of using a MLOK QD sling mount and pushing it all the way forward. In my case I'm using a Railscales MLOK QD socket.

I'm not sure. I guess I'd assess to see what was interfering with the fit. If the attachment is the same as the polymer stocks with the rear sling plate assembly being what holds the attaching screw that interfaces with the bottom of the receiver extension. I'd probably be all in if someone made a dark walnut stock set for the M4.

I like the KeepPower batteries Modlite sells better than the Surefire ones. I stopped buying the Surefire M600DF lights and went with Modlite. I like their light bodies better and the lamps have a hot spot that significantly out performs the Surefire DF heads. You can pick between the various models they have to suit your needs.

Nice work on that countersunk threaded body. I've done a few of those and it can be a bitch working around the ARGO housing. The polymer isn't real thick right there, so its hard to countersink and still have enough material for the screw.

You might be able to get one from GG&G. I'm not sure if the spring weight is different than the OEM one. You could reinstall your OEM one in the mean time to see if any issues arise. If I had to guess, I'd assume they were the same. Anywhere else you'll be buying an OEM spring anyway from places like Brownels, MGW, or Numrich.

Good job! Sorry I didn't diagnose the issue from the first message right. I didn't know you had added those trigger pack parts.

The yellow marked area, that way you aren't messing with the chrome plated finish. The only part of the hammer that you'll be kissing with the file is the tip marked by the top of your yellow line. You only end up having to remove a few thousandths of an inch. Its hard to see inside the polymer trigger frames, but you can see the hammer hook hanging on the front edge of the disconnector seer when the trigger is not being pressed. When the trigger pack is working correctly, the hammer hook will hang on the disconnector until you release the trigger. Once you release, you'll hear a click as the hammer slips from the disconnector and engages the trigger sear. From this point, the hammer will drop if the trigger is pressed again (when the safety is off.) So I decock the hammer, and have the trigger guard locked in a padded vice so my hands are free. I then run a small file along the mentioned area 10-15 times. Wipe it clean, and test kit again. You'll find you'll get it to a spot where it just barely slips by. I'd recommend removing a little more material so it doesn't hang during the recoil impulse. You don't have to press hard on the file. You want the surface to be as smooth and even as possible across the hammer sear engagement surface. Then once you have it where its functioning, I'd use a good grease on the sear contacts. I like the Brian Enos' Slide Glide standard weight, but any good grease will do fine.

I've had to fit many of those FFT trigger kits in recent years for hanging on the disconnector. I found the best option was to use a small file and to remove material from the hammer sear until the trigger disconnects properly. I like to do the work when the hammer is installed so I can quickly check my work. If you haven't done so already, set the spring retainer in the end of the magazine cap so it sticks out past the end of the magazine tube. As you install the magazine cap, you'll feel it press the retainer into the depth it needs. Setting the retainer in too deep can limit the room you have for shells. There are a lot of 2 3/4 shells that don't conform to the size standards. Stacking up 7 of them ends being slightly longer and prevents the 7th round from fitting.

The Dave's Metal Works oversized safety is the one I prefer the best. The TTI one is alright and feels similar. I didn't care for the Roth one at all. It was way too big. Keeping your finger off the trigger is certainly the most important thing. However, I use the safety when chambered and slung in the field. Murphy has a tendency to sneak up on you and cause some fluke thing to occur where a buckle for a pack gets into the trigger guard, leaning the rifle/shotgun against a tree/rocks and it dumps over and somehow something ends up pressing the trigger. Reaching for the gun in the dark and your fingers end up in the trigger guard is a huge issue. Add the adrenaline of a hunt or a bump in the night and peoples fine motor skills go to crap. Plenty of injured and dead hunters can attest to that happening. I guess the dead ones can't attest to much. Bumps in the night in the field are pretty common. In your mind its either a Skinwalker or a racoon. Even for a handgun, I'll keep the pistol in its holster to prevent any fumbled fingers getting into the trigger guard in the dark. Be it on my night stand or tent/pack/truck camping.

You don't need to press the shell drop lever. The shotgun will load from the magazine tube on its own.

Sucks to hear that. Benelli may play nice with you about it. They’re going to almost certainly want the whole gun back to check headspacing. I’m not sure what work you have done from Agency. You have some options available though. Take off 18.5” barrels sell for around 500-600 these days. You could also just ditch the front and rear iron sights entirely and run an optic clutter free. This is the route I’ve been going for the past 4 years or so.

I know of some M4 barrels that had the front sight tower brazed in the wrong spot. Benelli warrantied them.

I’ll see if I can help you out with this. You can PM me and I’ll give you my cell number to text/call if you like. Let’s focus first on why you can’t press the unlock button. This sounds like it may have a lock screw installed beneath the polymer cheek riser. This is common for M1014’s sold in California. Perhaps you got someone’s take off. Sometimes you can see the head of the screw from under the comb. You’ll need to remove the comb via the three Allen heads on top of the comb to access the area. They then drill and tap a hole into the stock that prevents the button from being pressed. Once this is sorted out and the stock is functioning, we can then offer the stock up to your receiver extension and you’ll see the orientation necessary to lock the extension into. You’ll find one groove is the install groove. The other three are the three lock positions. Read thru my disassembly/reassembly guide for installing the receiver extension. It has a lot of tips and best practices to get the stock orientated correctly.

Looks like you were trying to install one of the many aftermarket rails that love to scuff up the phosphate.