The unusual Benelli B76: initial thoughts and observations

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Dragonfly

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I started shooting in the mid-1980s, and while I could only afford a CZ75 back then as my 9mm pistol, I always thought that the 1970s and 1980s had so many unique and innovative pistol designs, like the Steyr GB, or the H&K P7, P9S and VP70. I’ve been lucky enough to pick up most those examples from back then and this one might be the one to complete my collection (and not a moment too soon, unfortunately).

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The Benelli B76 certainly doesn’t get the attention of some of its counterparts like the H&K P7, and I must admit that other than it’s striking look I didn’t know that much about it. They were made from 1976 to 1990, and the models I was most familiar with was the standard model with fixed sights and a matte finish, and the Sport model, which had a blue finish, adjustable sights and an extended barrel with barrel weight. I didn’t even know this version—the B76 Target—was available. It’s the same size as the standard model but has the polished blued finish and adjustable sights of the Sport model.

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The top of the slide is flat and is grooved. I think this is probably the most “stylish” handgun I own!

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The controls are fairly standard with a couple of quirks—the magazine release is in the usual location, but is pushed forward instead in inwards. The safety is also in the usual place, but operates vertically instead of through an arc. Oddly, there is no decocker—this usually doesn’t bother me since this is a range-only gun of course but there’s another oddity I’ll mention a bit further along that presents a bit of an issue.

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The single-stack grip is grooved on both the front and the back.

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And speaking of grooves, the full trigger guard has an internal groove. Some H&K pistols have a similar (though smaller) groover, and I’ve read it’s to prevent a glove finger from being caught under the bottom of the trigger. On H&K pistols I found that the groove “bit” my trigger finger on recoil—we’ll see how this one fares.

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The trigger is grooved has has the trigger bar attached to the left side. At the rear of the trigger guard area you can see an overtravel adjustment screw. I’ve grown to appreciate how much more pleasant a trigger can feel with low overtravel—it was one of my favourite features of the Gray Guns trigger I installed in my P226—so I was keen to learn of this feature on my new pistol. But, I’ve read that it’s possible to over-adjust the screw out too far to the point where the hammer won’t drop, and with no decocker there’s not way to lower the hammer and re-adjust the screw. I might just leave this one well enough alone. The double-action pull is very stout—maybe 15 lbs?—but the single action pull is a wonderfully light and crisp 3.5 lbs. (with a bit of the aforementioned overtravel).

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The front sight is a very large blade with a large white stripe. It’s similar to the front sight on my P9S Target.

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The rear sight has two smaller vertical white lines. It makes for a pretty good sight picture. It also provides a longer sight radius than the fixed sights of the standard model.


OK, so far there’s nothing really unusual about the pistol….maybe a few quirks but nothing to groundbreaking. Once the pistol is disassembled, though, things take a bit of an unusual turn. The pistol uses what Benelli called “Inertia Lock”; I’m not aware of any other pistols that use it.

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You first start by removing the locking block (you can see it in the rear sight picture above) by flipping the little “wings” and removing it. The slide then slides off the front, revealing this unusual-looking arrangement.

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You’ll see the fixed barrel, and, remarkably, a removable bolt, or breechblock.

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The front of the bolt shows the extractor at the 12 o’clock position with the red “loaded chamber” indicator (although it’d be hard to see without getting awfully close to the muzzle).

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The rear of the bolt reveals the secret to the pistol’s unique mode of operation. The two key parts are the black circular protrusion on the top of the bolt, and the keyhole-shaped lever at the rear. When the slide is fully forward, the locking block pushes this lever upwards, which cams the bolt down into the locking recess in the frame.

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Here’s the locking recess—it’s the angled crosswise part of the frame between the ejector and the hammer (it’s shaded dark due to it’s angle). You can see the corresponding mating portion on the bolt in the picture of the bolt above—it’s the darker area at the bottom below the firing pin. When the bolt is cammed in place it’s locked.

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Here’s a picture of the underside of the slide (one thing that’s unusual is that it’s pretty empty—this also makes it lighter than expected). At the moment the pistol is fired, the frame will start recoiling, but the inertia of the slide’s mass (its resistance to moving…think Newton’s first law) means that it takes a tiny bit longer to start moving, during which chamber pressure can drop to a safer level for ejection. Once the slide moves back the groove that runs side-to-side across the slide will engage the top of the bolt lever and pull the bolt upwards out of its locked position allowing it to move freely. The left-to-right grove with the semi-circular portion on the left end then engages the circular protrusion in the bolt and pull it rearwards to eject the case and pick up a fresh round. Wow! That was a mouthful!

Unusual operating mode aside, this is a very pleasant pistol to hold. The “Glock-like” gip angle feels very natural to me, and the single-stack grip is pleasingly slim. The target sights are easy for my post-cataract eyes to pick up, too. I’m hoping that the combination of the weight of the all-steel pistol (exactly 1000g , or 35.3 oz., according to my kitchen scale) combined with a low bore axis and lighter slide will make for low muzzle flip, too. I’m looking forward to taking it out!
 

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Those are wonderful picture, Dragonfly! I wish I could do that. And your gun is very minty, with a beautiful finish.

The Benelli is often called a "delayed blowback" pistol. The reason for that is that it has a fixed barrel, which is not locked to the breech in the way that a 1911, Walther P-38, or Luger barrel is - that is why those barrels move when the gun is fired. The Remington Model 51 was similar to the Benelli in that respect. Both of them have a mechanism that is meant to slow down the opening of the breech without movement of the barrel, by requiring a part of the breech to complete a movement before the whole breech can open.

Some Benellis were made for what would normally be blowback pistol cartridges, like a very early production run in 32 Automatic, and also some in 9mm Police / Ultra, a cartridge that came out in Europe in the 1970's but did not become a big deal. Still, the most heavily used Benellis I have seen for sale were in 9mm Ultra, so somebody issued them. There are also 30 Luger Benellis, although that is usually a locked breech round.

The reason for the groove in the trigger guard is because, as I understand it, the whole frame is made of folded heavy gauge sheet steel, and the groove is just the result of the folding. Other pistols with folded sheet steel frames, like the Ruger Standard Model and the Radom P-83, avoided the trouble of making the trigger guard via folding by making it a separate piece from the frame.

The trigger guard seems to have been an issue for Benelli, because the ones on the early guns, including all the 32 Automatics, look like this: https://live.amoskeagauction.com/m/lot-details/index/catalog/18/lot/7058

I suspect the later design was easier to make as well as better looking. The later one also seems sturdier to me.

Besides the fixed sight models and the Sport version that Dragonfly has, Benelli also made match target versions in 9mmm, 30 Luger, and 32 S&W Long. (The 32 Long version takes it own special magazine.) I have no idea if they made any in 38 Special wadcutter. There is a picture of a 32 Long Benelli in post #29 of this thread: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/shot-wadcutters-wow-i’ve-been-missing-out.908599/ .

They are very nice guns, if a bit finicky about ammo (at least mine is). They have a surprising number of variations; Benelli seems to have changed the recoil spring several times, for instance, as well as all the different calibers. The early 9mm's, with the early trigger guard, also have magazines that are flat on the back; later magazines have a groove down the back.

PS - back in the 1970's, when the term "Wondernine" was born, it meant double action 9mm pistols that were also high-capacity, like the CZ-75 and the S&W Model 59. People have speculated that the single-stack B-76 did not sell in large numbers in the US because it was not a Wondernine (or "crunchenticker", if you were Jeff Cooper). But our language is always changing and I don't mean to nitpick about it.

PPS - the red paint on the extractor shown clearly in Dragonfly's 15th photo serves as a loaded chamber indicator.
 
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I’ve had several and still have the rare target variants, like the MP3S.

The smaller caliber models are straight blowbacks, such as the B77. What the 9mm models can be classified as is debatable. To me it’s a delayed blowback. It’s definitely not a locked breech pistol. Locked breech pistols have the slide and barrel locked together whether the gun is fired or not. Pull back the slide on a locked breech and the barrel is together with it briefly before breaking away by one means or another. The B76 does none of that. It’s definitely a blowback initially.
 
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Dragonfly

As usual a First Rate write-up along with your always sharp and precise photos!

I had a B76 many eons ago. I have always had a certain affinity for some of the more "off the beaten path" type guns and felt that way about the Benelli. The angle of the grip frame to me was like that of a Luger and the whole gun overall had a certain style and flair to it that just grabbed your attention!

I kept it around for a few years then a friend of mine, who was also fascinated by the design, just had to have it! He made me a decent offer for it and since there were other guns I was interested in at the time, I was ready to move on so I sold it to him.
 
I recall there being three out of the ordinary guns being available here at the same time; a Benelli, a H&K P7, and a Colt .38 Super Commander. Funds for one; I bought the HK.

I also remember Sile eventually blowing out the Benellis for $250 which was a bargain even at the time. Single stack capacity and reluctance to handle hollow points pretty much killed off the model.
 
That pretty much says it all. I had one in the 80s and the blasted thing would not feed anything but hardball rounds. And it jammed a lot. I got rid of it.

Yeah, mine is finicky about ammuntion too. I have read that that is a function of the Luger-angle grip, so take that for what it's worth. Mine was good with 124 grain FMJ and with a Fiocchi truncated-cone FMJ round I think they stopped making a long time ago. It would feed Remington Golden Sabre 124 grain hollow points, but for some reason I could only get 7 of them in the magazine. The Benelli was a very elegant gun, but the CZ-75 (which I have never owned) was probably a better weapon. So was the Third Generation version of the Model S&W Model 59, I bet, whatever number S&W gave it.
 
tark
That pretty much says it all. I had one in the 80s and the blasted thing would not feed anything but hardball rounds. And it jammed a lot. I got rid of it.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Benelli B76 was only designed to handle FMJ ammo in the hope of securing some military/law enforcement contracts. When those contracts never materialized (supposedly because the B76 didn't have a decocker or an automatic firing pin safety), that they then started to offer it in different chamberings to sell to the civilian market. I never tried any JHPs in my Benelli so I can't say for sure if it was a problem or not.
 
I had one years and years ago, sold it cheap, sigh.... :)

There was one in .32 ACP on GB recently, would have loved to have it, but folks bid it up pretty good.
 
I had one years and years ago, sold it cheap, sigh.... :)

There was one in .32 ACP on GB recently, would have loved to have it, but folks bid it up pretty good.
Those are straight blowbacks. Nothing to exciting or interesting. I had one myself.
 
Here's a super rare MP3S in 9mm, which is a SAO target variant of the B76. It also had target grips, adjustable sights, and a polish blued finish. Only a handful were made in 9mm. Most were 32 Wadcutter bullseye pistols. Only a few hundred were built, the vast majority in 32.

The 9mm model is extremely rare, especially in the states. Probably less than 10 in this country, if I were to bet.

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