Olga
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Posts posted by Olga
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Still around, it's still winter up here in the great land. I did get a chance to get out and shoot my R-1 some, having a hard time getting it to group. I have fired over 2000 rounds with it and I'm afraid that the barrel may be starting to feel it. I scoped it and saw that the rifling is burnt away opposite of the gas port opening, it also has some throat erosion. May have to look for a new barrel for it. Going after bears next year is some big bear country, might have to consider a little more firepower. I have a lot of time in the field and history with my R-1, but all relationships was ups and downs. Still have a few more months to think about it.
Good Luck All
Steve
Interesting, thanks for sharing this information!
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I never could get my R1 to group (2 1/2") at it's very best. Most of the time 4 1/2".
Same here, so far anyways. Have you tried to feed it one round at a time so that the magazine is empty? My R1 tightens up big time when magazine is not involved.
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OLGA,
After reading both your posts I realized two things”
1. The nice clover shaped groups at 50 yards were fired single shot with an empty mag.
Right, that explains it, you shot a single shot rifle
Try to feed manually with empty mag or without mag and then try to feed a full mag and compare the results. Also when you shoot from the mag mark your shots in the order they were shot from the mag and then compare several groups to see if there is a pattern in how the sequence works. Do it at least at 100 yards.
2” seemed quite acceptable for a semiauto.
Yes, I believe R1 can be handloaded to be a reasonably consistent 2" gun. Have not done it myself yet though.
Regarding the piston disintegrating, you have brought a big concern to my mind. For the moment the only thing I can say is that it seems quite obvious that this is not a self cleaning gas system and although it was not hard to clean I wonder what would happen if I fire 50 round in one session which is what I usually fire when experimenting with handloads. I guess we’ll have to try and see.
Nothing will go wrong after 50 rounds or 200 rounds in one session. The issue is corrosion. And corrosion takes time. If you fire and clean your bore for a few sessions but do not take apart the piston assembly (my manual says the piston assembly does not need any cleaning) and then leave it for a while it will start to disintegrate. Eventually pieces of the piston will brake off and the rifle will no longer cycle. If you take apart the piston assembly after every session and clean it you'll be fine (other than the time wasted on babying your piston).
My next trip to the range I will try again grouping with and without rounds in the mag and will post the results. I will also keep an eye on the gas piston and inform if there are any developments.
So far so good and I cross my fingers and touch on wood.
Let’s keep in touch regarding this.
Sure, let us know what your R1 can do.
By the way, other than these two problems (excessive cleaning requirements and lack of accuracy) R1 is an amazing rifle and fun to shoot. Adjustable stock is very nice, and the whole thing looks cool. Five year warranty is good too. Trigger could be better, but semiauto trigger should not be compared to a bolt or single shot trigger.
If Benelli came out with a piston made of corrosion-resistant material and replaced all pistons out there it would fix the biggest problem of all. Or at least if they made cheap replacement pistons available so that we could buy a few spares and treat them as consumables.
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OLGA . .You mention you called the (Benelli) guys in Canada. I too am a Canadian and tried to find a rep. in Canada. I was directed to Stoeger in Ontario by the Benelli armi web site Italy. I have not contacted them yet and wonder if this is the reps. you refered to or is there a better option? I know some of these web sites have not been upgraded in some time. Would apreciate some feed back thanks.
Yes, Stoeger.
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Finally at the end of the day the R1 was on the bench and ready to be shot. The target was set to 50 yards where I boresigthed it with one of those NC Star Laser boresighter that looks like a round of 300 WM. Sure enough the first shot was in the target. This was the fouling shot so I was surprised to see the second shot go into the same hole as the first. So did the third. I then adjusted the sights and fired three more. Again they went into the same hole in a nice clover shape. Made the final adjustments and again one hole group.
It is hard to describe how I felt at this moment. With all the negative anticipation my happiness was so that I can only described as being that of a dog that had two tails.
I then went to the 100 yard range and fired the rest of the box (by the way, this was the cheapest ammo that I could find, Remington Corelokt 150gr). All the groups where between 1,1/4" and 2".
I am having trouble comprehending what you written here. Help me out:
You shot three groups at 50 and they were consistent one hole groups. Clover shape with 300 WM means at most .308" group size, right? That's a very consistent result to have three groups like that and no groups that are not like that.
Then the same shooter fired at least three other groups with the same ammo at 100 and your groups opened up between 4 and 6.5 times.
Why did your groups opened up so much when moving from 50 to 100?
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Finally, I think that this rifle has an outstanding potential. With better ammo and or with reloads I have the feeling I will turn this into a 1/2" tack driver which is uncommon in a semi auto.
I don't believe you will get a consistent 1/2" out of R1 fed from the magazine.
For all of those who have had problems with this rifle I would suggest that you hammer Benelli for a solution. This is an expensive, high end rifle and it is advertised as such.
Hammer Benelli? How exactly? There are two problems:
1. if you don't clean the piston after every session it falls apart. Literally. Benelli will replace disintegrated piston under warranty. But first you have to keep shooting and not cleaning like a maniac knowing that your rifle will malfunction soon and you don't know exactly when. That may be ok for a range only rifle, but not something you take out to the bush.
2. Accuracy is absent. Keeping all 4 factory rounds fired from the magazine on the same sheet of paper at 100m is not a given. Benelli USA said since you are from Canada call the guys in Canada. The guys in Canada said "sure, send it to us we will shoot it". When I described the alternating pattern from the magazine both reps said they never heard of it. I know of at least two other 30-06 R1s that have the same behavior. So what do you suggest I do- send it to them so they can shoot it?
If by chance some might have gotten a lemon you should not get stuck with it. You should get a rifle that lives up to the expectations that Benelli has created for itself.
They all are lemons by design. Even if you get a magical R1 that shoots all rounds into one hole you still have the piston problem. And that affects each and every R1. The alloy it is made of seems to be applied there to reduce recoiling mass. But it does not hold up without excessive cleaning.
So congratulations, you've got a lemon.
The one solution I know of for the piston problem is to ignore the cleaning after each session, buy a few spare pistons and just replace them once in a while- like once or twice a year to be sure they won't fall apart. The problem is that you can buy another rifle for the price of a couple or three pistons. That crappy alloy is either overpriced or expensive.
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I've never shot my rifle at the bench single loading - always use the magazine, no problems. I've only tried two types of aamunition: cheapo Winchester PP to sight in the the Hornady SST's. I've had very good performance on game w/ the SST's, when they proved accurate in my rifles I didn't try anything else. The PP's will shoot about 1.5 MOA.
David
That is encouraging to hear. I have tried several types of Winchester, several types of Federal, several types of Hornady, Remington and Fusion so far. Shooting from the magazine I cannot always keep all 4 shots on a sheet of paper! If I feed the chamber groups tighten up by about 3".
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Did anybody test their R1s to compare accuracy with empty magazine vs shooting a loaded magazine to the last round?
Here is what I have observed with 30-06 R1 at 100 yards:
- keep magazine empty and load directly to the chamber: results are ok, can sometimes fire 5 shots into 2" square.
- load four rounds into the magazine: first round shoots way left of target, second round shoots about 4" right of the first shot, third round goes left again not far from the first shot, fourth shot goes to the right close to the second shot. I have seen this happen consistently, including one group that measured way over 4" horizontally but under 1" vertically.
It looks like based on the left or right position of the round in the magazine it alternates shooting to the left or right edge of the group.
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I wouldn't get to excited over the negative comments. Benelli seems to have worked most of the issues out. I have two (yes two, one for me and one for my son) in 30.06, 20" barrel wood stock. Both are MOA rifles, both have pretty good triggers (esp. my son's) and nice wood. Both return to zero after cleaning each and every time. Between the two, about 400 rounds fired, zero failures.
David
David, two questions:
- do your R1s shoot MOA with any ammo other than Hornady 150 grn SST's?
- did you try shooting at targets while feeding from the magazine? Do you still get MOA? My 30-06 R1 behaves VERY differently when fed into chamber with empty magazine vs when fed from the magazine with more rounds in the magazine.
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Took the rifle apart, wiped the parts, used the Italian perfume MF-82 on it, put it back together and it chambers properly now...
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You will need to break the rifle down, make sure to read back and know how to remove and clean the gas piston, making sure to remove and clean behind the rings as well. After I've cleaned the barrel, I clean the inside of the gas piston port on the barrel. I break mine down after each trip to the field and after firing. I never store it dirty, because I have had the piston get stuck inside the gas port. I also prefer to clean the barrel from the breach using a bore guide to save damage to the chamber. This also prevents cleaning fluids from being pushed down the barrel and into the action and helps prevent damaging the crown with the cleaning rod.
Steve, thanks for making the effort to share these pictures! I have the same green RCBS handle but I don't have the brush you have on it. What kind of brush is it? Do you use solvent on it to clear the cylinder?
I only had 80 rounds through mine R1 (all recent, within one weekend) yet it took me about an hour to scrub under the rings and especially the pin that goes inside of the piston. Do you clean that pin as well? I had to completely remove it from the receiver to clean it all up.
Regarding bore guide- I bought the same one you have but never used it because it is not tight enough to align the rod properly. I am getting a custom bore guide made that will keep the rod straight.
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Has anyone tried 30-06 "light magnum" rounds? Just wondering if these rounds are safe to use in R1...
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Do you clean the rings only or do you also somehow clean the cylinder? As the cylinder is attached on the barrel I am not sure how to clean it...
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Zeiss Conquest, especially in low light (that's the model that I have and I looked side by side at Leupold VXIII before buying this). But both Conquest and Leupold are not great compared to the high end Zeiss scopes like the 1.5-6 version they have.
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Mine measured at 4.5lb and there is a bit of creep in the second stage. I would prefer to bring it down to 3lb and eliminate creep.
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Thank you Steve! This R1 forum would have very little positive information without this thread
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Please keep the photos!
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I tried couple times to load 30/06 R1 by starting with an empty chamber and closed action, then inserting loaded magazine with four rounds, pulling bolt all the way back and letting it go. Both times the bolt got stuck in the middle with the top round moved forward but still in the magazine. When I do the same with action open and release the bolt it feeds fine.
Is this supposed to work like this? Why does it get stuck?
R1 Recoil Pad
in R1 Rifle
Posted
The stock pad on the plastic stock is more than adequate I think. The whole stock is fine, this is one of the stronger sides of R1.