Jim1776

I wrote some time back about a 20 gauge Benelli Cordoba that was having jamming problems. I had tried everything from cleaning to different lubricants and different ammo. It still had a jamming rate of about 1 to 2%. This was unacceptable to me so I sent it back to Benelli. I got the gun back with form letter saying that the gun was repaired and cleaned. I took it out to the skeet range for three rounds of skeet. Same old thing. It jammed again. I was disgusted and threw the thing in the trunk of my car and left. Nothing was fixed at all, just a lot of time wasted. Yes, I heard all the arguments about using the right lubricant, the right ammunition, and the one I love, shouldering the gun tightly! I love that one. It comes from gun writers reading each other and repeating the same thing. I have seen guys in Argentina shoot the old Benellis one handed like a pistol and no jams. This is with Argentinean ammunition, the worst I have ever used. Not properly shouldered, yeah right! The ammunition thing gets me too. The gun was supposedly designed to use in Argentina where you shoot a 1,000 or more rounds a day without cleaning the gun. The ammunition, like I said, is crap, well unless you want to pay a lot more for imported ammunition. My Cordoba would jam on AA, Federal, Remington, everything. It would be a joke with Argentinean ammo. A real damn joke. This gun can't fun 50 rounds without jamming with American ammunition. Anyway I happen to own part of a metal shop so I took it there and had them weld up the rear most notch and mill it down even. Now it looks and works like the old Benellis. Yes, it will float a fourth shell on the carrier now but what is important it hasn't jammed once after 400 rounds. I am not going to say it is cured until it goes a thousand rounds without a jam or cleaning but this is the best run it has ever had. For those that don't know this change in the gun happened a few years back when USFW threaten to ban the importation of Benellis if the company did not change the design so it could not float a fourth round. Benelli at the time explained that this was not meant to be a cheat feature but rather an anti-jam feature. They were correct. The guns are no longer as reliable as they were. It can be easily fixed though as I did. As far as being able to float a fourth round goes, well if someone wants to load more than 3 rounds it is damn easy to do without floating a cartridge on the carrier. Simply unscrew the forearm cap and remove the plug. It can be done in less than 20 seconds and then you can load 5 rounds without floating one on the carrier. I have no idea why USFW got so bent out of shape about the floating fourth round. If people are going to cheat, they are going to cheat. If the change I made in the gun is illegal well USFW can kiss my a--. I bought the gun to use in Argentina where there are no shell limits and the USFW has no jurisdiction. Really they can go to **** for screwing up a good gun with their petty rules and fear of someone cheating. Oh, Benelli found it in its interest to get rid of my post. I hope some people will see it before they decide to delete it again.

My Cordoba is a 20 gauge. A 1 1/8 ounce load would be one hot load for it. The gun was made to shot low powered dove loads. Got that? The ability to float an extra cartridge had nothing to do with some military design but was an anti-jam feature as Benelli itself said. What is with some of you people? Really do you work for Benelli? Or is it you're so enthralled with the gun that you can't believe it has flaws?

Yes, I hope they do fix the gun because I do like the way it handles and the new stock is really nice. As to the guy that said it is a single case, read my most again. Two of us bought Cordobas and they both jam. My friend's is worse than mine. Mine jams at a rate of about 1%. I would say his is at least double that rate. As far as my one case tarnishing Benelli's reputation goes, I suggest you Google "Benelli jamming". There are many, many cases of this. Mine usually jams with the bolt open and the shell stuck in the carrier. Factory rounds and all types. A jam is a jam. A new, clean gun shouldn't jam at all no matter what type it is. As to operator error, well what can that be? If you say the gun needs to be shouldered tightly, well it was. I have been shooting shotguns for 45 years and know how to shoot them. Besides I have seen a guy in Argentina run through several unplugged magazines shooting at doves one handed. Yes, one handed. No shoulder at all. The gun did not jam once. This was the old Benelli, the one with the anti-jamming feature that floated a fourth shell. As far as the gun being able to float a shell having nothing to do with the gun jamming, well I don't believe it. Benelli at the time of the controversy said that is exactly what the feature was for, to keep the gun from jamming. I wouldn't doubt that would deny that now since the new design is a fait accompli and they have to sell it. The bottom line is that the old guns were dependable, the new ones are not. Shooting four or five hundred rounds a season doesn't prove the gun dependable. If it shoots two or three thousand a day of low powered loads it is dependable. That is what the Cordoba was supposedly designed to do and with cheap ammunition. Two out of two I have seen can't get through 500 rounds without jamming several times. That's a fact. Sure, everything mechanical can break or have faults. However there are just too many of these problems reported for me to believe it just happens to be the two guns we bought. I'll see how the gun works when it gets back from Benelli. If it can go through a thousand rounds without jamming I will call it cured.

Benelli had a reputation as the most dependable autoloading shotgun in world. Not any longer. A friend of mine and I just returned brand new Cordoba shotguns to Benelli. They jam and jam and jam. They jam with all sorts of ammo despite being thoroughly cleaned. They jammed right out of the box. They jammed after being completely stripped and cleaned. They jam with all sorts of different lubricants. They just jam. I have had Benellis before and never had this problem. I used an older Benelli last month in Argentina with horrible CAZA ammo and it worked. That ammo is the worst I have ever used. I have used better African ammo. I get tired of people saying that I should try this or that ammo. The gun was designed for high volume dove shooting in Argentina. That means low powered horrible, cheap loads. The old guns work and will shoot two or three thousand rounds a day without cleaning. This is common in Argentina and the Benelli is the only autoloader most of the estancias will use. However they have the older guns. So what gives? There is a difference between the old and new guns. Maybe some of you remember how the old guns could 'float' a fourth round on the carrier. This became very controversial. From what I understand USFW made Benelli correct this if they were going to continue to import the guns into the US. At the time a Benelli spokesman said that the feature was not meant to cheat on the three shell maximum but rather it was an anti-jamming feature. I think he was exactly right. The old ones rarely jammed. The new ones are the worse autoloader I have ever owned as far as jamming goes. I will see how my gun comes back from Benelli. If it still jams I am going to make it like the old ones. The only difference is that they have made a small notch in the rear of the bolt carrier. Any good machinist/welder can fill this in minutes and then the gun will float a shell in the carrier as it was designed to do. I really don't give a damn if it is legal or not because I bought the gun to shoot in Argentina where there are no shell limits. The name of the gun is Cordoba for Christ's sake! Benelli should get a clue and make a gun that can actually shoot 3,000 rounds a day without jamming if they are going to name it after an Argentinian dove hunting area. No, we just didn't get two bad guns. Google 'Benelli jamming' and you will see all sorts of people complaining. Benelli's reputation is going to go the way of Toyota's if they don't correct this.