[New Ethos FTF/FTE]

My new Ethos started to fail to load the second shell 20% of the time. Benelli was great and offered to repair it at their site. I wanted to skip that and get it running by understanding and repairing the problem myself if possible. After the first shot I would find shell #2 sitting on the carrier arm as in the earlier post's pictures. After much field testing and simulations I found what was happening is that shell #2 would fly out of the magazine tube, hit and bounce off of the stops on the trigger group casting and miss the step ground into the shell carrier latch. By miss I mean the shell and its rim will proceed back toward the magazine tube sliding past the shell carrier latch notch by 1/8-1/4". All of this activity is normal except if the shell's rim doesn't stop at the notch ground into the shell carrier latch the Ethos design will not allow the carrier to raise hanging up shell #2. (Oddly when I simulated the shell missing the latch notch on a SBE or M2 the carrier would still raise and load shell #2. The Ethos has a profile machined into the receiver that won't allow shell #2 to load unless its held by the notch. Why the difference I don't know. I do know my SBE and M2 has never behaved like my Ethos). I determined the shell carrier latch was not doing its job so I ordered a new one. It arrived and right away I noticed the notch ground into the arm was sharp and stepped nicely with a slight undercut. By appearance it was cut differently then the one in my Ethos. Installation was uneventful. The new carrier latch is in and I can say that after about 500+ shells fired as doubles on clays my Ethos has not missed a beat! If things change I will repost, otherwise if yours is acting like the others in these posts take a look at the shell carrier latch....

Update: Had exact same experience with identical behavior, received the modified back-ordered latch and after having it installed over 1000 rounds ago my Ethos has run perfectly. It has been easy to forget the earlier problem and I am VERY happy with it. The new latch appears to have been modified individually as you describe by a highly skilled technician---I will attach photos of the original latch with the new one to the right. BTW, no visible wear on the sharper edge of the new latch so far.

[New Ethos FTF/FTE]

Another Ethos FTF problem--Purchased at Bass Pro 07/02/15 and on 07/09/15 I called Technical to describe my problem. The Tech was very helpful and with my request he agreed to send me a replacement latch, spring and pin to save time rather than send the gun in for 6-8 week repair and return. I received an Ethos button and Vinci spring 07/23/15 with the latch back-ordered for 1 to 4 weeks. I wonder if or when a correction has been made in production? It would be interesting to compare serial numbers of the Ethos with and without the problems, specially the replacement guns without problems. Mine is #F340175H14....