I am planning an Argentina trip next year and plan on taking a 20ga. Montefeltro and possibly a 12ga. M1 Super 90. Will I need to take replacement parts for these guns? They are well maintained and I have had no problems with them.

Same question for the 391 my wife will take.

Thanks for any advice.

James

From what I've heard on this forum and others - the two most common guns for rental in South America are the Benelli and Beretta autos !! They also say 500-1000 rounds per day !! Enjoy and give us a report .

Mostly Benelli's and Barettas for rent down there. We went for doves in '04. I couldn't believe the shooting. Expect to shoot 20-30 boxes in an average sitting. If you are a real masochist like one dude in our group, you can top 50 boxes in a sitting. For me 20-30 waS plenty plenty. There were twelve of us and we shot over 25,000 birds in three days. All guns will have a few wrinkles at that volume of shooting but the two best are the ones you have, Benelli and Baretta. I just got two SBE II'S. One in LH one in RH for my son and myself. We are heading for Argentina for ducks, doves and perdize. Good hunting and give us a report when you get back.

I have hunted with John Airala 2 times in Argentina.In January of 2005 & Febuary of 2006 for doves. In 2006 in 3 1/2 days I shot 229 boxes of 12ga & could have shot more if I wanted to . I am going back in August of this year for 8 days of pigeon shooting with him. Good time good food & more birds than you can imagine !!!!!!!! See you soon John !

NEVER hunted with my Benelli(unless you count people.)
BUT
as a competition shooter for many years I used a Benelli M1 Super 90 for my slug and buck events. When I started I bought a twin to have for parts or replacement when I wore the first one out.
OVER 40,000 rounds of 00buck and slug later, after I quit competition, I sold the second one in NEW UNFIRED condition. I never had to replace ANYTHING on the shooter.
It never stopped running. It got so hot I would have to hose it down with brake cleaner so I could hang onto it but it never stopped running even with over 500 rounds between anything remotely called cleaning. Sometimes I would run 500 rounds in 4-5 hours through it in hot sandy conditions. It didn't matter.

I spent over 5 years on a large narcotics task force and I used it for entry and other arrest work, never thought anything about it. I knew it would work and it was better than a subgun for close room clearing work, contrary to what you may see on TeeVee.

Know lots of Benelli shooters through competition and they all had pretty much the same experiences.

When I worked all of the LE I worked with were issued Rem 870's.I have a 12g Rem 870 Wingmaster with trap,skeet & field barrels & I bought used 36 yrs ago thats had thousands of rounds put thru it w/o replacing any parts, used it for hunting ,pot shoots and trap 3 days a week for years.

There is no better firearm to take, or use, in Mexico or Argentina for bird hunting. I have used the same Benelli Super 90 for the past 10 years in Mexico and have never had a problem with it. I have an extended magazine tube on it which allows I 7 in the mag and one in the hole. Just wear gloves to load it because the latch on the loading port is known for grabbing fingers...not painful just a bit annoying until you figure it out. I have seen more Remington 1100's come back in paper bags because of a melted O ring in the action. The Benelli's are worth every penny.

The best are Benellis,Browning,Berettas a303,390 or a391, and i personally like Remingtons too ,Juan

I'll always opt for gas guns-- cumulative recoil and high volume shooting don't mix.

Browing B-80's, A303's, and 390's are the ones that get to go.

Excellent website randy and im very intersted in the cz 16 ringneck .Juan

I sell guns for a living and use them. On a high vol. shoot like Argentina ( I just came back from there) you best use the Benelli if you are shooting an auto stuffer. It is the only one that does not quit. Leave your Remington auto home. Beretta is second choice but clear choice is one or two 20 Benelli's.
I just took one this time but from now on I will always take two as I did in Paraguay in '99. That way your bird boy is loading while you are shooting.
I shot 85 (20 box) cases in 4 days in Argentina this time. What a hoot!!

Your question was not which guns to take but rather should you take extra parts. So in keeping with a response to your question, YES. Parts for shotgun repair at most of the South American bird shooting estancias is quite limited. You may get lucky and they just may have something that you can back in action with, but my answer is to take your favorite Benelli or Beretta and have the hosts clean your gun after each shoot. You should shoot near 500 rounds in 3-4 hours two times each day. Benelli and Beretta guns will get you through. Most other shotguns will fail regularly. Most lodges will have rental guns so you can continue to burn shells while the birds are flying. Those spare parts, if you can find them for Benelli and the parts for any other shotgun you may take are valuable items to your hosts should you decide to leave (for credit) any parts that you do not need when your hunt is over. So take good auto's and keep 'em clean, wear good gloves and take some athletic tape to better protect you fingers etc. and have a ball!

I went this spring with a 391 20ga for the wife and sold my M1 and took a new SBEII with me. Bought a spare firing pin, firing pin spring and one extra of the little pin that holds the bolt together. Never even had a need to clean the gun after 2500 rounds. Had one day where I had a bad case of shells. I shoot 1040fps 1oz loads regularly and don't have problems so this bad case had to be a lot lighter than that yet. Set the case aside and kept rolling.

Wife's 391 20ga ran flawlessly also with probably around 1500 rounds through it.

A big thing that I did that I thought helped was to install an after market bolt release on the 391. I bought the one made by Briley, but there are a bunch of different makers. Nothing similar can be found for a Benelli except for a cheap plasic one, so I had my smith fashion one out of aluminum, tap the bolt release and locktite it down. They sure beat the hell out of pushing a bolt release button over and over and over. Slight amount of pressure on the bolt release lever and she shuts

On the M1, I would run it on the dry side also. They really don't need that much lubricatioon and to much oil makes it slightly more tempermental about light loads and also gives the powder residue something to stick too. I put a very light coat of oil on the SBEII before I left and wiped it off so there was a bare minimum on it and after the first 2000 rounds or so it was still spotless.