[jrhines]

I have a friend who claims that the Benelli SBE II will work flawlessly with most any load. 'Cept his tends to mal-function about every 30-50 rounds. Nothing serious, just enough of a hiccup to throw him off a round in clays. Hence, the gun is in my shop, and after a much needed detail strip and cleaning, I can find nothing wrong, the gun is very new. My inclination is to have him shoot it a few more times & let me know how it behaves, rather than me taking it to the range and throwing 50 to 100 rounds down range to try to make it fail. Any expirence and/or thoughts on how the SBE handles a varied diet?

[Skunkabilly]

Mine ate all the light target loads until I put the sidesaddle on it.

[HSMITH]

My SBE choked regularly. The SBE's belonging to hunters I take out choke regularly. It is one of the least reliable guns I see in the field. Mine did it more often with target loads, but still jammed even with 3.5" whompers. They are sensitive to the resistance your body provides, at some angles the gun pushes you around more than others and that changes the resistance you provide for the action to work against. Lower the resistance and it will jam more often. If your friend is shooting sporting with it he is going to be one frustrated hombre. Shoot it from the hip with a light grip, with target loads I couldn't get 3 rounds off in a row without a jam.

My M1S90 was more reliable, but still not the equal of a good gas gun. The Benelli action is simple, robust, and neat but it just doesn't work as well as some of the other guns out there.

Advise your friend to dump the SBE, and buy a SuperX2 or an Xtrema. Then he will have a gun he can count on.

[WhiteKnight]

My inclination is to have him shoot it a few more times & let me know how it behaves, rather than me taking it to the range and throwing 50 to 100 rounds down range to try to make it fail.

Oh, but that's no fun for you! :p

[45crittergitter]

My SBE gave almost the opposite experience of HSMITH's. SBE's are not supposed to function with loads less than about 1-1/8 oz. Mine works great even with 1 oz loads if I don't hold it too tightly . The Benelli recoil system REQUIRES the gun to move rearward in recoil a certain amount in order for bolt to function properly. Too light a load and/or too much resistance to gun movement, and it will not cycle. Mine never "jams," with extra light loads - it just stops picking up a new round. With any load that kicks, assuming that I'm not backed up against a tree or something, it ALWAYS works. If it's choking on clays, I suspect he is shooting light target loads, something the SBE is not built for. Heavier payload should help, or alternatively, a lighter spring, which I would not recommend for the heavy loads.

[TrapperReady]

I don't have a SBE, but I've got a couple other Benellis which have been totally reliable. That being said... I've seen a couple SBEs choke on sporting clay courses when using loads of 1 1/8oz or less at sub 1200 fps velocities.

AFAIK, the SBE was designed primarily for hunting, and should be more reliable with the heavier loads. According to Benelli's website the minimum recommended load for any of their 12ga shotguns is 3-dram 1 1/8oz. For the SBE, I'd probably consider that a bare minimum... even though my Montefeltro will cycle lightly loaded 7/8oz loads without difficulty. Also, if his gun is very new, it may get better with a lot more shooting.