Benelli SBE only firing once

[THE NATURAL]

I have a Benelli super black eagle that has around 14,000 rounds fired through it ( I am a waterfowl guide).


The gun started misfiring ( only shooting once) about 2 weeks ago. I broke the gun down and found a broken firing pin spring ( which I have ordered). The firing pin spring only had about 6 coils of the spring off of one end, so i simply stretched the existing one to make do.

Everyone in my blind shoots a Benelli and after further comparison of my gun to theirs I found that my extractor pin had cut a groove in my barrell where the extractor pin rotates with the bolt.

I also noticed when I tried to slide the bolt back with my hand to eject a shell a "hang up" spot in this same area. I used a Dremel tool to file around this area and shot my gun and it fired 3 times....great. The next volley it misifred again ( only firing once). I looked at the bolt and it had not fully rotated ( which renders the gun useless).

Me and a friend inspected it again, and we slid the bolt all the way back and let it slam forward. He commented on how "slowly" the bolt slammed forward.

Any suggestions...i need to get this fixed.

 

[ArmedBear]

I have no idea. I just wanted to keep your post up high where someone might see it.

BTW did you know that you're challenging some people's whole worldviews with your post?

 

[THE NATURAL]

Challenging people's whole world views?

 

[Rock_Steady]

Of course - Benellis are perfect, didn't you know that? They never misfire and never jam. You must have a Charles Daly instead.

 

[kirbythegunsmith]

Some details

Your gun has a series of problems that have developed due to exposure to many shells and cycling with parts in damaged/worn conditions, as well as normal wear expectations.

The action spring is due for a change, and may have some rust and funk in the tube from the moisture and weather/firing & natural dirt.

There is something to be said for the stainless system that is available, but some shooters think that stainless steel can't develop problems when exposed to the same dirt and moisture conditions that are the hallmark of waterfowling.

Some of my specialty gunsmithing involves the reworking and smoothing of the dings, burrs, and wear spots that have been left during manufacturing (incidentally, not nearly so prevalent normally in the Benelli, as a rule) or from extended shooting. I started with the smoothing and wear reduction/reliability enhancement work on shotguns and rifles over 20 years ago on 1100's and others. I even perform such work on brand new quality O/U shotguns for extending the wear life, and have had Citori shotguns feel much easier to open, but still be very tight, and Mossberg owners don't believe that I am giving them back the same gun.

Your gun could be a candidate for smoothing, but I don't believe in the "polishing" that I have seen others claim to do. Polishing is an indiscriminate method of removing and smoothing metal along an entire surface. I only want to remove minimal metal (the sharp stuff and burr edges) and leave the maximum base for wear life. Get the most for the least, as it were.

Your situation will probably entail waiting for the end of hunting season for any maintenance except that necessary to make the gun functional for more than a magazine load.

2 points-
The extractor pin should not be protruding away from the body line of the bolt head, so dremel that sucker down to a low enough level to clear the barrel.

No shotgun should have the bolt slammed home on an empty chamber, as a rule, but some will barely notice, and some are extremely sensitive, much like dry-firing of guns. Some can't take one time without it being a possibility of trouble, and some are able to take a licking and keep...

Picture one is of a barrel being subjected to numerous bolt slams on an empty chamber, and the impact mark is obvious at the 5 o'clock position.

Picture two shows a muck load of rust and crud on some parts that needed extra effort and penetrant to remove.

Check my other posts at the SBE-II vs. the Extrema2, or look at my posts overall to see the points that I emphasize for shooters.

[email protected]

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

send it back to benelli

 

[THE NATURAL]

I have considered sending it back to Benelli. Consider me old fashioned, but I feel they should fix it for free. I paid alot of $$ for this gun, and feel like this problem could easily be fixed by an in house gunsmith in no time.


Kirbythegunsmith- do you sell the firing pin springs? I would like to purchase one. I have a friend whose firing pin spring is broken too, and he just stretched his much like I did mine.

One thing that really irritates me about Benelli is that I called 24 gun dealers in the area and NONE of them had a firing pin spring in stock.

Again, I feel like a the company should require that gun dealers carry a minimum amount of normal parts that are prone to breaking on Benellis...i.e. firing pins and springs, extractors, bolt handles, etc.

:banghead:

 

[The Deer Hunter]

They should fix it for free, since it was a mfg. fault, why should you pay for it?

 

[Kimber1911_06238]

if you are paying over a thousand dollars for a shotgun you should get some good customer service. If you call and explain the problem I am sure that they will either fix it for free or for a small charge...just make sure they tell you how much it is up front so you don't get blindsided by a $600 bill that would be better spent towards a new gun.

 

[kirbythegunsmith]

Some details

Certain manufacturers do not make being a dealer as easy as the local GM dealer, and they have very few distributors, period.

This makes getting accessories and parts a bit more of a challenge, which can (all by itself) discourage dealers from stocking spare parts for some or almost all guns, with some having no parts at all.

The other challenge is to stock a large value of parts in the hopes that you might actually break even by reaching the tipping point of being known as someone WITH parts. Until you reach that level, and for a modest profit level at best, the investment has a definite negative appeal.

For some shops that specialize in a few types or brands of guns, stocking parts is not a big deal, such as a Luger specialist or 1911 clonemaster. You don't have parts for every make of vehicle at the local parts store, but they say they can get a lot from the warehouse this afternoon, except for the things that they can't. Then you have the rapid-ship from the national warehouses or manufacturers.

Gun dealers have no such support, or local access to large inventories, or any of the other necessities that will keep anxious shooters happy. I do wish it were not so, so for your own peace of mind, don't give the local dealer a piece of yours.

That being said, the dealer that can put in a regular parts order for understanding customers will at least be able to break even for the time expended, and will hope that you might buy some of his other stuff to help keep the doors open.

I make my living fixing and improving all types of firearms, and don't expect to sell many of anything, but will help shooters that have difficulty finding something special or unusual. If a gunshop has something in stock, I may tell a shooter to buy what's in stock, if it seems at a fair price, and bring it to me when they want some modification or improvement done. If I don't have to worry about unloading something going stale on the shelf, I can be fully independent with my observations and recommendations.

I can get many current and obsolete parts, since I have contacts with several parts vendors besides the usual suspects.
The Benelli parts are ones that I have little stock of at most times, but can get rapid deliveries for the emergency, or pull parts from my used SBE sitting in the pile to get a shooter back in firing condition. There are more than a few older guns that have become "parts on the hoof" for scavenging, since little except used parts remains for those particular models.

When the parts supply goes dry, I do rebuild the parts or make new ones, such as for the older AH Fox doubles, for instance.

See my other posts for more enlightenment about gunsmithing details.

[email protected]

 

[Hoser]

I shoot 3-gun and SC with a Benelli. Over the past few years I figure I have shot maybe 10-15K rounds through my Benellis.

Best guess is that your recoil spring is getting tired and needs replacing. It just doesent have enough oomph to close the bolt *and* rotate it.

I see this happen a lot when people think putting in a Wolff reduced recoil spring in their IPSC guns will make them work with 2.75 dram ammo.

You can order factory Benelli parts from Brownells.

 

[Chuck R.]

THE NATURAL,

I agree with Hoser. You can get new springs from Brownell's (641)623-4000 in a couple days. Use the instructions I sent you and clean the recoil tube and replace the spring.

It sounds like you have two problems, a weak action spring, and an extractor pin that has backed out. The first should be an easy 15 minute fix, the second I'd call Benelli about it. The number is listed on the sheet I sent you (410) 957-4500. I've only had one experience with Benelli CS and they took care of my problem promptly and without charge, and this was with a part that I broke dorking around with it.

I clean my recoil tube annually after the snow goose season and I'm always amazed at the crap that gets in there.

Chuck

 

[Owen]

You do need to replace your firing pin spring. Spring stretching is a temporary fix at best. By changing the changing the helix angle on the spring, you are increasing the stress each time the spring is compressed. It will either go back to it's origianl configuration, or break in short order.