StrangerDanger

Those paddle bits are going to try to walk on you in a hand drill. The Forester bit will do the same, but not as bad. You might have better luck with the hole saw bit since it drills the center hole out first to hold the bit centered. Even putting grease on the end of the receiver extension should transfer to the buttpad fairly well. I find the Sharpie to be the easiest though. Seems you got the philips bit sorted. You definitely don’t want to use a magnabit type driver. It’ll get stuck in the rubber hole.

199 is what they've always charged for the compete 3 position extension. Thankfully they didn't jack the price up. Generally they're cheaper at Midwest, but they are rarely in stock.

I agree. Didn’t make much sense to me either. Definitely not worth the cost to me. Then again I took my iron sights off!

https://www.benelliparts.net/store/p21/Benelli_M4_M1014_3_Position_Recoil_%2F_Adjustment_Tube.html

Good write up. Cutting weight is by far the most important aspect of running any gun. The carriercomp tube will save you a lot. A Modlite 18650 replacement light body will save you a bit. Removing iron sights can save quite a bit.

I listed it as ‘bolt head’. It’s worth doing. It’ll rotate in the carrier smoother and be permanently lubricated for engaging the lugs on the barrel.

Ouch. I wonder if they’re getting swamped with work too? I’ve got a couple projects going there soon, hopefully this isn’t a five month cluster F.

There are options where you can have the visible portions of the carrier Cerakoted black for cosmetics. The only areas on the bolt carrier that benefit from the NP3 are the rails, bottom surface that the hammer rides against, and inside the channel for the bolt. The Benelli is mostly a steel gun except for the receiver. Having the inside of the receiver done is a huge benefit since that’s where the bolt carrier rides. The more NP3 to NP3 surfaces that move you have together the smoother the action will be. A secondary benefit is the parts are nearly impervious to corrosion, so doing small steel parts throughout the gun would be a smart choice. Like the three piece handguard retainers are the front of the forearm hanger on the barrel assembly. You’ll never see them unless disassembled. For performance, I’ll roughly list parts from most important to least important from a performance perspective. Receiver Extension, receiver extension plunger, bolt carrier, receiver, hammer, magazine cap, breech latch, bolt cam, bolt carrier link, bolt carrier link pin, trigger group bushing, hammer spring cap, trigger frame, Shell stop, bolt head, trigger, Firing pin, disconnector, disconnector pin, barrel assembly (the channels the pistons ride in benefit), pistons, Argo gas cups, extractor claw, shell drop lever, carrier, trigger pins, Safety button detent, safety button, Argo plug bodies, Argo plug stand off and pins, Trigger group pin, trigger group spacer, trigger group snap ring, firing pin retainer, trigger bushing snap ring. While you’re sending small parts, I’d send the internals of the collapsible stock, knock out and send the screws to your buttpad, the stock retaining screw and snap ring to the receiver extension, small pins in the trigger pack except the disconnector pin (It’s too small), front handguard retainers clips as mentioned, magazine spring retainer, extractor claw pin. I like to send the internal parts of pistol and field stocks as well. Getting them apart isn’t the easiest, but there are benefits to having the sling stay bolt and associated internal parts all plated. Mark and bag your small springs. Telling the difference between a pile of small springs can be a nightmare if you don’t have one to compare against. Some of them are really hard to determine 3-4 months after you took it apart.

I don’t think I’ve ever handled a set of the oem night sights. I’d bet they are rebranded Meprolights. I sent a set to Tooltech a few weeks ago to have Trijicon lamps installed for a client. They indicate it’ll take 10-12 weeks. The sucky part is you have to send the whole rear sight assembly along with the front post. Removing the rear sight assembly will likely damage the two screws that hold it to the receiver. The rear aperture is replaced by then. The front post is drilled for the lamp. The job isn’t cheap either. 250 bucks plus shipping both ways.

Definitely. The whole action feels like it’s riding on ball bearings. Smoother recoil impulse. Less distinctive mechanical clunking as the bolt rotates, bolt carrier cocks the hammer, bolt carrier slams against the back of the receiver extension. Shell elevator articulates smoother.

Hope they’re not just waiting on reassembly. The M4 takes a solid 5-6 hours to put back together from its stripped condition. And that’s if you know what you’re doing. I have another one ready to go to Wright. Just waiting on a few small parts.

Agreed. It’s no worse than a black regular M4. What it comes down to is NP3 is a very expensive process that takes three months to have done. Where as Cerakote is probably 25% the cost and can be done by many different shops with minimal equipment. You could sell that extra receiver extension for a pretty penny right now.

I think around 2016 they stopped doing the NP3 models. About the time they introduce the Cerakote models of various colors.

Vertigofirearms is right. Cerakote model. Where the bolt handle inserts is the bolt carrier. On the real NP3 models, this is all NP3 plated along with the receiver extension. The part where your collapsible stock attaches. Example:

Yes, the Cerakote models will have the regular black bolt carrier and receiver extension.

You won’t like the price on a NP3 plated M4. I’d buy a black model and upgrade as you can. You can send it to Wright at some point and have it plated in NP3 if you want. It’ll be far cheaper than the premium they’re going for right now. The Cerakote H2O is a bit disingenuous in my opinion. Benelli bait and switched this one with a lot of customers. I’ve met countless buyers who assumed it was Np3 plated since it had the H2O moniker. With the Cerakote model, you’re buying the look, not the performance of the NP3 original model.

Clean build. I remember you doing this one years ago. Nice camera work too.

The Cerakote model has phosphate beneath the paint job. The naming of the finish leads a lot of people to believe it is some special finish. Titanium refers to the color of the Cerakote, not some kind of special blend of herbs and spices suspending titanium for some benefit. The shop doing the paint work for Benelli likely roughed up the phosphate on the steel parts with blast media before painting it and oven curing the parts. On the aluminum receiver, I have not seen signs of the anodizing being removed prior to painting. I’ve polished off areas of the Cerakote around the loading port when doing port jobs and haven’t seen signs of the blasting beneath it. If they are, it’s really soft soda blast to remove oils and that’s about it.

Awesome. Hopefully mine shows up soon too then!

Limbsaver install will give you the biggest benefit.

That’s what you have two shoulders for!

Ghost loading can be unreliable and you might make a game warden frown if he catches you doing that. Defense gun, I wouldn’t even consider it.

If you’re approaching a door where there might be an armed assailant, you’ll probably scrape the skin off your support hand finger knuckles if clearing to the right. (For a righty)

Ideally you should never run your shotgun out of ammunition, that way you’re only feeding from the bottom. The adage goes, “If you aren’t shooting, you should be reloading.” Try as you might, you’ll still get to the situation where the shotgun is now empty and the bolt is locked back. I throw a shell into the receiver and hit the bolt release. Then load the magazine tube. You don’t want to try to load the magazine first because the bolt will be locked back and the elevator won’t move to allow you to load shells. So you’d have more tasks involved to drop the bolt first. You are also at a disadvantage since the shotgun is unloaded at this point until you press the shell drop button, then rack the bolt to chamber the round. Now if you have dangerous game around, burglars, lispy antifa queens and so on, you can’t get back into the fight immediately without going thru the manual of arms of hitting the shell drop, then racking the bolt. Sometimes loading get interrupted, so you might not get a full tube filled before you need the weapon again. Figure if the magazine was empty already, there was a reason. Follow the adage from above. If you fire two rounds, load two rounds if you can. Like with a pistol, if you discharged 7 of you 15 rounds, you’d want to swap mags if possible if you have a moment.

I think you’ll be happy with that. If you want to shave some weight and have a better mounting foot, Modlite sells a replacement body, the 18650. With it, the light will only take rechargeable batteries.