Benelli jams

[351 WINCHESTER]

About 4 years my oldest son bought a Benelli 12 for duck hunting. He said it would fire any 2 3/4" or 3" shell and maybe a 3 1/2". Yesterday he was shooting it and it jammed several times. I thought that was strange because everyone says they don't jam. It was clean and lubed and the ammo appeared fine.

I know my .351's don't jam even fed with half decent ammo.

What gives?

 

[BridgeWalker]

What loads was he shooting? Inertial actions require a break-in period with heavy loads. Sinc eit's a hunting gun, I'm guessing that's not the problem, but it is the most reason for problems in Benelli semis.

 

[Pete409]

He was probably using under-powered target loads in a 3 1/2" magnum gun. Get some heavier 2 3/4" hunting loads or some 3" magnum loads and the gun should work well.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

There is really no way we can be sure without knowing what kind of loads, what kind of semi(gas vs inertia) it is. Ok, he probably didn't get a Benelli M4 for duck hunting but you never know.

Even with such information we still cant be 100% sure whats wrong with it.

 

[20nickels]

Pete 409 nailed it. I used to have a an SBE that did the same thing, but it makes sense. I traded that for an M1 and stupidly traded that off. :banghead:

 

[Tom Held]

Broken Ejector

I'll bet it's not the ammo. The Benelli 3 1/2 inch guns have a nasty habit of breaking the ejector. It's a known and common problem with waterfowl hunters. It will happen about once a year if you shoot it a lot. This was not a problem with the 3" guns. The ejector on the 3 1/2 is longer, about a half inch. It's a pain in the butt to replace. Look on the inside wall and I'll bet you'll see just about half of the ejector pin.

Tom

 

[jonboynumba1]

Everyone says they shoot any load and function flawlessly and that everything else is dog-meat because they just dropped over a grand on it and are still "drinking the kool-aid" from the brochures and magazine adds that sold them. They are fine guns...but most of the benelli shotguns I've seen and shot like 1 1/4oz loads or up and do NOT like anything light period...including LE reduced recoil/power buck and slugs. They are very well made shotguns but I doubt they are as reliable as any decent 1100 IMHO.

With high brass loads you generally don't see any problems...though I had a bud that got some fiochii(sp?) shells he read good things about and the Browning A5 and 1100 worked flawlessly that quail hunt...the Benelli jamed twice. (and they were high brass field loads to...go figure) The cheaper stoger clone I tested was a "jam-o-matic" with cheap walmart #8 shells and not much better with hotter federal 1 1/4oz loads bought specifically to "help it out" Everyone I've shot has patterened very well...I just have been unimpressed with reliabillity. I shoot a lot of cheaper shells though....guess that's why I'm an 870 man.

 

[627PCFan]

After reading for months on end of the complaints about Benellis and the break-in periods, I cleaned it from the box (SBEII), assembled and shot 5 boxes of turkey loads (gun unoiled, yes bone dry), the cleaned, oiled and havent looked back. Only misfires are bad primers.

 

[Tom Held]

Reliability

I've not noticed any problems with my Benelli (3 inch). I've shot everything from the Winchester AA low recoil, low noise loads which are slower than most Daisy BB guns on skeet to Winchester 1550 fps fast steel with no cycling problems. Now I didn't try to interchange the ammo but there's no need to either. Mine has been a very reliable auto. Right now it's full of corn husks, dirt and grime from 5 days of duck hunting and still cycles everything I put into it. I might even clean the gunk out before the season is over in 50 days.

I wouldn't even bother taking an 1100 into a duck blind or goose pit. I took this one to Argentina last year to shoot dove (yeah, I know a 12 ga is overkill there) and shot about 1000 rounds a day through it with their cheap ammo. I think I had maybe 2 hangups in 4 days.

One shooter had brought 3 1100s with him: 410, 28, 20. Each one lasted about three hours before they had to be completed disassembled and cleaned.

Just my experience. Tom

 

[robsc]

Is there any space between back end of the foregrip and the front of the receiver? If there is the foregrip is not completely seated correctly. The gun will reassemble and appear to function fine in this condition until you load a shell and try to work it through the action manualy or by shooting it.