scott5028

Thanks for the heads up. There's nothing more frustrating than fighting with a shotgun while the birds fly by. I'll bring a spare.

I called Benelli. They say it is operating correctly and this is a safety feature. When you load the shells in the tube, the flap/elevator should stay up. If you try to cycle the pump without first firing the gun, the shell will eject from the bottom. However, the flap should go down and the shells should cycle to the chamber if the gun has been fired. I won't be able to test in advance. So, we'll take an extra shotgun along. Thanks all for your assistance.

Thanks all for the replies. There seems to be an issue with the flap/elevator sticking when I load shells in the tube. When I cycle the pump, the flap comes back down. But, it's not fast enough to prevent the first shell in the tube from ejecting out the bottom. I'll call Benelli today and post the final resolution when I have one. thanks!

I bought a new Benelli Nova last Christmas for my son. It's fired about 3 boxes over the last year. This has almost exclusively been single round shooting at clay targets with shells loaded through the ejection port. So, we really haven't exercised the feeding mechanism. We're going Pheasant hunting next weekend and I was checking him out to make sure he could operate the gun when we discovered what appears to be a problem with me or the gun. When I insert one or two shells in the bottom, they hold in the tube just fine. But, when I go to chamber the first round, the first shell springs out the bottom of the magazine. I can override this behavior by depressing the button on the bottom of the forend as I pump it the first time. But, this is awkward and doesn't seem like the intended operation. It's way more complex than the Model 12 Winchesters I've used for 40+ years. Has anybody else had this problem or issue with the Nova? Or, what procedure do you follow to load 2 shells + 1 in the chamber without throwing live rounds in the dirt? thanks in advance - richard