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My Benelli panic has been solved.
Last week I grabbed by M1S90 Tactical and drove off to the dump near here to give the big girl a workout. I think I've only got about 100 rounds at most through this gun in the two years I've had it. The only modifications from stock are a SureFire fore-end and a Tactical Solutions buttstock-strapped nylon shell carrier.
At the range, I loaded up some Winchester Super Handicap AA 2-3/4" shells and had no problems cycling the gun. I loaded up the tube with Winchester Super X 2-3/4" Magnum 00 buck and chambered a shell. Pulled the trigger and the round fired but with no ejection. The shell is half-extracted from the chamber and the bolt is frozen. Hmn. Consternation.
Dumped the shell and chambered a new round from the tube. Fired and got a stovepipe jam. Uh oh. Cleared it, rechambered, and the next round ejected but the bolt was hung up on the top of the round down in the elevator. Hoo boy, now I'm sad. Aren't Benellis handcrafted by magical little Italian elves living high up in the Italian Alps in a secluded forest glade protected by a beautiful Wizardess clothed in white samite who ensures that all Benellis cycle any shotgun load ever known to humankind?!
Well, crap. Maybe it was just this box of ammo. Yeah, that's it. I bet I left them in weather/humidity conditions that didn't meet or exceeded the recommended storage practice clearly marked on the box label. Let's try a new box that came straight from my sealed ammo can that I haven't opened in two years: BOOM! Stovepipe jam. BOOM! Bolt stuck back holding the spent shell. BOOM! Shell ejected, but next round sitting on the lowered elevator. Now I'm actually frightened. The box doesn't say 'Low Recoil', so what's going on?
I reload the rest of the AA skeet shells and they all fire without a hitch. I even rapid fire a tube off as fast as I can, and there's not a single failure. I examine the buckshot boxes, and they're from entirely different lots. I pack up and leave the dump with great worry about the reliability of my home defense artillery piece. Until I get to the local gunsmith, I keep it loaded with birdshot and pack up all the suspect bunkshot and set it aside.
Arriving at the gunsmith, I tell him my problems. Since they're a Benelli dealer, maybe they'll know what's the matter. He places his fists on his hips and says that he's the bonny Benelli prince of Reno and he'll know what the trouble is, rest assured. He's used his Benelli M1S90 in 3-gun matches since time immemorial. I hand the gun over to him and he gets down to inspecting it. He headspaces the action. He checks the mag tube spring tension. He cycles the action numerous times in various ways: short stroking it, ripping it back and letting it go, slowly riding the bolt back and forth feeling for hangups, locking it to the rear, cycling dummy rounds, and then has me feel what he's feeling with the action smoothness just before he proceeds to break the shotgun down. He looks at me with the universal 'I know EXACTLY what the problem is' look.
"Benellis need sloppy wet lubrication on all three surfaces of the bolt carrier group rails. This gun is nearly bone dry compared to how it should be lubricated."
He shows me how the Benelli's bolt carrier has three surfaces that ride the internal rail millings and that they need grease lubrication, not oil. I have Wilson Ultima-Lube at home, but I've never used it on my Benelli. He tells me that's the best stuff to line the rails in the receiver, then he applies a black graphite grease to the underside of the carrier, the side surfaces, and the top surface. The bolt is now gooey black like the bottom surface has been dunked in tar. He reassembles the gun, rechecks headspacing with the tension rings that come with the SureFire fore-end, and cycles the action a few dozen times.
"Now try it". What a difference. Now the action is smooth as butter. It's as if it's riding on the wings of an angel.
What I leaned from his advice is this:
1. Though the factory manual doesn't exactly say so, Benelli ARMA system shotguns like to be well-lubricated with a heavy grease along the carrier rails. You can add light oil, but light oil alone just doesn't cut it. Use a lithium-based graphite impregnated black grease. How much is enough? Until the rails are coated and they look like melted chocolate. Simply using BreakFree is unsatisfactory for a Benelli. When they say grease, they mean grease.
2. The rear of the bolt needs a glob of black grease where the hammer meets the firing pin. That's what was causing the occasional bolt hangups.
3. Someone recommended to try to switch the choke from ImpCyl to Open. The gunsmith said that it's neither here nor there as far as functional reliability. My problem was purely lubrication deficient in nature.
4. You've properly lubricated a Benelli when it lightly splatters you with fine dots of warm flying grease upon firing.
5. New Benelli auto-shotguns that have not been broken in can benefit well from shooting a few hundred 3" Magnum loads including 1oz slugs. Give your new Benelli a real workout with heavy loads. You really need to put the pedal to the metal to smooth out a Benelli. On his advice, I purchase several boxes of Federal Premium 3" Magnum 000 Buckshot and the proper grease. He reminds me to re-lubricate well with his recommended graphite grease as well as the Wilson grease I already have at home.
I thank him and he bids me to go forth and do no more evil. I get out to the dump just in time before shooting hours are over. Using the same problematic 00 buckshot, I load up and hope for the best. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! (*reload*) BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
No problems! The chamber smells like warm grease. I try a box of the 000 buck and it cycles without a hitch making big impressive fireballs like the battleship USS New Jersey's 16" guns.
I drive home satisfied with a new-found respect for the fact that some guns require entirely different lubrication conditions than others need. I had been lubricating my Benelli like it's an assault rifle, and that just will not suffice. Now I keep my Benelli lubed up like a greased pig at the county fair. Maybe you other Benelli owners knew this, but I sure didn't.
At the range, I loaded up some Winchester Super Handicap AA 2-3/4" shells and had no problems cycling the gun. I loaded up the tube with Winchester Super X 2-3/4" Magnum 00 buck and chambered a shell. Pulled the trigger and the round fired but with no ejection. The shell is half-extracted from the chamber and the bolt is frozen. Hmn. Consternation.
Dumped the shell and chambered a new round from the tube. Fired and got a stovepipe jam. Uh oh. Cleared it, rechambered, and the next round ejected but the bolt was hung up on the top of the round down in the elevator. Hoo boy, now I'm sad. Aren't Benellis handcrafted by magical little Italian elves living high up in the Italian Alps in a secluded forest glade protected by a beautiful Wizardess clothed in white samite who ensures that all Benellis cycle any shotgun load ever known to humankind?!
Well, crap. Maybe it was just this box of ammo. Yeah, that's it. I bet I left them in weather/humidity conditions that didn't meet or exceeded the recommended storage practice clearly marked on the box label. Let's try a new box that came straight from my sealed ammo can that I haven't opened in two years: BOOM! Stovepipe jam. BOOM! Bolt stuck back holding the spent shell. BOOM! Shell ejected, but next round sitting on the lowered elevator. Now I'm actually frightened. The box doesn't say 'Low Recoil', so what's going on?
I reload the rest of the AA skeet shells and they all fire without a hitch. I even rapid fire a tube off as fast as I can, and there's not a single failure. I examine the buckshot boxes, and they're from entirely different lots. I pack up and leave the dump with great worry about the reliability of my home defense artillery piece. Until I get to the local gunsmith, I keep it loaded with birdshot and pack up all the suspect bunkshot and set it aside.
Arriving at the gunsmith, I tell him my problems. Since they're a Benelli dealer, maybe they'll know what's the matter. He places his fists on his hips and says that he's the bonny Benelli prince of Reno and he'll know what the trouble is, rest assured. He's used his Benelli M1S90 in 3-gun matches since time immemorial. I hand the gun over to him and he gets down to inspecting it. He headspaces the action. He checks the mag tube spring tension. He cycles the action numerous times in various ways: short stroking it, ripping it back and letting it go, slowly riding the bolt back and forth feeling for hangups, locking it to the rear, cycling dummy rounds, and then has me feel what he's feeling with the action smoothness just before he proceeds to break the shotgun down. He looks at me with the universal 'I know EXACTLY what the problem is' look.
"Benellis need sloppy wet lubrication on all three surfaces of the bolt carrier group rails. This gun is nearly bone dry compared to how it should be lubricated."
He shows me how the Benelli's bolt carrier has three surfaces that ride the internal rail millings and that they need grease lubrication, not oil. I have Wilson Ultima-Lube at home, but I've never used it on my Benelli. He tells me that's the best stuff to line the rails in the receiver, then he applies a black graphite grease to the underside of the carrier, the side surfaces, and the top surface. The bolt is now gooey black like the bottom surface has been dunked in tar. He reassembles the gun, rechecks headspacing with the tension rings that come with the SureFire fore-end, and cycles the action a few dozen times.
"Now try it". What a difference. Now the action is smooth as butter. It's as if it's riding on the wings of an angel.
What I leaned from his advice is this:
1. Though the factory manual doesn't exactly say so, Benelli ARMA system shotguns like to be well-lubricated with a heavy grease along the carrier rails. You can add light oil, but light oil alone just doesn't cut it. Use a lithium-based graphite impregnated black grease. How much is enough? Until the rails are coated and they look like melted chocolate. Simply using BreakFree is unsatisfactory for a Benelli. When they say grease, they mean grease.
2. The rear of the bolt needs a glob of black grease where the hammer meets the firing pin. That's what was causing the occasional bolt hangups.
3. Someone recommended to try to switch the choke from ImpCyl to Open. The gunsmith said that it's neither here nor there as far as functional reliability. My problem was purely lubrication deficient in nature.
4. You've properly lubricated a Benelli when it lightly splatters you with fine dots of warm flying grease upon firing.
5. New Benelli auto-shotguns that have not been broken in can benefit well from shooting a few hundred 3" Magnum loads including 1oz slugs. Give your new Benelli a real workout with heavy loads. You really need to put the pedal to the metal to smooth out a Benelli. On his advice, I purchase several boxes of Federal Premium 3" Magnum 000 Buckshot and the proper grease. He reminds me to re-lubricate well with his recommended graphite grease as well as the Wilson grease I already have at home.
I thank him and he bids me to go forth and do no more evil. I get out to the dump just in time before shooting hours are over. Using the same problematic 00 buckshot, I load up and hope for the best. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! (*reload*) BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
No problems! The chamber smells like warm grease. I try a box of the 000 buck and it cycles without a hitch making big impressive fireballs like the battleship USS New Jersey's 16" guns.
I drive home satisfied with a new-found respect for the fact that some guns require entirely different lubrication conditions than others need. I had been lubricating my Benelli like it's an assault rifle, and that just will not suffice. Now I keep my Benelli lubed up like a greased pig at the county fair. Maybe you other Benelli owners knew this, but I sure didn't.
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