Not trying to start a long drawn out thread here but you know how I feel about these so-called shotguns.

Well, I just got back from a four day SD pheasant hunt; great time and lots of birds. Three of the guys were shooting these things. Know what, two of them failed to shoot at least once, another three times.

Over priced and Over Hyped!!!

Remington 1100 was a much better Auto.
Remington 1187 still a better Auto.

Although not perfect, a nice OU is hard to beat for reliability and looks. Lou

Here in Louisiana where shotguns get heavy use under dirty conditions the Benellis are King. I have shot every brand and no longer use anything but a Benelli MI Super 90 (3"). The Super Black Eagles which are designed to shoot 3.5" shells will occasionally fail to cycle lighter loads. My Benellis have been to Argentina, Uruguay, Honduras, Saskatchewan and hundreds of Louisiana duck and dove hunts and never fail to function. I have seen every brand break in Argentina and Uruguay. IMO they have no equal in the autoloading catagory.

Forgot to mention that in Argentina the lodges only keep Berettas and Benellis as rental guns and they will tell you the Benelli is the most durable and dependable. I personally have seen the Berettas break, but have never witnessed a Benelli break. Of course any shotgun can malfunction eventually if you don't clean it.

I have seen Benellis break! Mostly mine! Super Black waste of money.

JTEX

The early Black Eagles did have a part that would break under the pounding of 3.5" shells.
My gunsmith said that has been fixed and his personal choice is the Benelli. However, my personal experience is limited to the Super 90 which is only available in 3". Sorry for your bad experience.

Jim. I certainly respect your views. Not trying to defend or detract. I simply don't have the same experience. I've been around the Benelli auto loader design, begining with the Super 90, professionally, for over 20 years. I used them and watched them used in all types of environments, including the surf line. The ONLY malfunctions I've ever seen where operator error induced. I have, and would again stake my life on the design. Regards.....TWL

jtex wanna sell it

I really hate to drag this thing out but I must be a Jonah with these things. I just got off the phone with another not-so-proud Bennelli owner. He said he was in SD pheasant hunting last weekend and his gun fell apart! He even had 4 live rounds stuck in the magazine and a handfull of parts and wanted to know if I would look at it.

they just don't have enough barrels. jim - by the way we were there the week before, hope we left you enough birds to shoot at

If memory serves me correctly, this is about the fourth time you have run this thread on at least a couple of other headings. I have stated before and will state again, I like my SBE - it has worked always, one exception: I tried to load it 'gently' and it did not go into battery. sort of my fault, no way I could blame the gun.
If you want a reliable gun, get a Remington 870. I have heard folks tell how the Mod 12 Windchanger was the best gun ever built, 'will last a lifetime or three.' Well, it won't if you shoot it every day, cases of 3" shells, hunting along the Mississippi river in blowing sand. My father wore out a couple or three - even had one he sent back to Winchester and they returned it with a letter stating it was too worn out to repair. Wish I still had that letter.
So, if you don't like the Benelli's, so be it. I personally can not shoot any SXS i have ever had in my hands but I don't knock anyone that uses one - wish I had a dozen of them!
And BTW, if anyone wants to really unload a SBE - the older model, not the SBE II please post me - I have a friend that is looking for another one to carry to South America.
Just my two cents worth - look for me in the Triton duck boat - I'll be the big guy with the white beard and shooting a Benelli.

Sounds like the typical Benelli hater thing to me. I've been around a bunch of them, and for the folks that know their guns and don't expect an autoloader to perform miracles, like shooting perfectly when they were never cleaned, they worked flawlessly. One friend has a M90 that's about 10 years old and has around 60K rounds through it. 2 weeks ago he had to replace a $8 pin in the trigger group that was broken. The only other issue was a factory recall to replace the ejector. That was done and the gun returned to him in 2 weeks time at no cost other than shipping to Benelli.

In my opinion, the Benelli M90 or SBE is the only autoloader to have. If I was gonna own a gas auto, my first choice would be a Beretta 391/Extrema and the ONLY other choice is the Win. Super X2. I've owned/experienced both of those and they're hell for reliable. I wouldn't give a nickle for a truckload of 1187's, especially the supermag. The 1100 was a good gun as long it was maintained properly, but I wouldn't want one of those built in the last 15 years.

Just an opinion. Clean your Benelli now and then (and properly) and shoot proper shells and she'll outshoot the rest.

I am in no way a benelli hater. It just is NOT the be all end all of auto loaders. I have two SBE versions both were gifts. I would not spend the kind of money that they ask for them. I think for that type of money you should get a little more. But hey that's just my opinion. Why do they sell all the stainless upgrades? For the price of the gun they should be included, kinda like they are on the 1187. Maybe if I had dropped $1,200.00 bucks on one I would be a little ashamed to admit they are not quite as "incredible" as claimed.

Everybody has different experiences and preferences, none right none wrong just different. I was trying to share mine.

I have 2 Benelli's and I couldn't be happier with them. I have never had any jams or any other problems of any sort. Rock solid reliable.

I am glad you are happy, the guy that brought me a handfull of parts would probably disagree with you.

I hunted Argentina the first week of Oct 2007 and I had my two Benelli 20's. I am a died in the wool Benelli fan ( I have a Benelli 12 ga. Super 90 also) however both of my 20's went down and more than once tho they both fired many, many shells before doing so. The rental guns were Berettas and of the five there were only two that were reliable during the three days of shooting 8,800 twenty ga. shotshells. I too like Beretta. Among my other semi autos are a Rem. 1100 Lt 20 and a Smith and Wesson (Howa) 12 ga. I have seen every one of them go down too.
In Argentina I think the ammo is to blame for much of the problems as a buddy of mine had a 20 ga. chamber brush and once we scrubbed out all the damn melted plastic in the chamber and forcing cone the guns would run like crazy again.
I don't think you can bet on any of the semi auto to never fail and I don't care what brand they are unless you are shooting top brand ammo.
For many years I sold guns for a living and I have seen them all go south for some reason or another like O rings, clogged gas ports, shell latches etc. etc. etc.
I would still bet a Benelli or a Beretta will run longer than any others under bum conditions.
If I couldn't shoot them then I guess I would just have to fall back on my old Rem. 870 pumps or which I have three of for sure. I have a 16 ga. in it that has run a many a round including my poor reloads without very many hic ups.
I have never shoot any over under or side by side that many times to make a judgement on them but I have fixed about every brand there is at one time or another. Parts break and poor maintenance is one of the biggest offenders of all types.

I have shot a fair amount of shells through 12ga Benelli's. Most of these have been in SGN schools shooting slugs and buckshot, or in 3 gun matches.
I have shot around 500 rounds in a day, several days in a row with no trouble, but I did clean them each day, as I would any gun durring a school/match.
Never broke a part, but I did have a malfunction in very sandy conditions durring a match once.

Also they do not like very light loads.

I know a lot of people that do high volume bird hunts in South America, and they swear by them.

Especially in 20ga.

I have goose hunted with my 12 ga in really bad weather with no problems.

One of the keys to keep your Benelli running is to break it in properly by firing heavy loads for the first 50-75 shots.

i have a sbe and have run at least a thousand 3.5's and probably 500 3"ers thru it w nary an issue. it's been encased in mud and ice a few times and is covered in salt water everytime i've used it and cleaned thoroughly as well. two hunts ago it wouldn't fire any of the Remington hevi shot i fed it. it fired win supreme 3.5 bb, rem nitro steel 3.5 bb and federal black cloud 3' bb just fine. what we noticed was that the primer was not nearly as deeply struck on any of the rounds as were the rounds fired by the other guns in the boat(benelli nova and a mossberg ulti-mag). the offending rounds fired perfectly in the mossberg. while cleaning i stripped the action down completely and cleaned everything twice i did not observe and damage or wear or corrosion to the firing pun or firing pin spring and took it out 3 days later only to experience the exact same issue. this time i ran the struck but not fired rounds thru my bps and they fired as they should. what do i do now? replace the screw, or the pin or both? btw, this is the first left handed shotgun i've owned (been thru an 870, benelli nova, rem 1100 all righty) and it fits me better than any shotgun i've ever fired. it always shoots true and has taken tons of birds. i DO NOT want to get rid of it but my confidence in it is more than a bit shaken. any thoughts

I have some experience with auto shotguns ,i rent berettas a390 almost exclusively ,some browing and some remington and Bredas but here berettas a390 are the king ,not the a391,i used benellis and they are good but i believe they dont work perfectly with ligth dove shots .Wen hunting pheasants or partriges i always use my remington ou ,i dont like to hunt upland game with autos.Juan

I just bought both a Benelli SBE II and a Browning Citori Satin Lightning both chambered in 12 gauge 3.5 inch. Last weekend 5 of us went rabbit/grouse hunting about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, Alaska. Weather was -17 to -32 depending on the time of day and location as we drove from hunting spot to hunting spot before bustin brush. Three of us had O/Us and the other two had a Mossberg 500 and a Browning Gold. Both the Mossberg and Browning Gold froze up and wouldn't fire when the trigger was pulled. The three O/Us worked fine. All things mechanical will malfunction at one point or another...it's just a matter of time.

Yesterday, I took my SBE II to the range on a military base where I work. I brought 4 boxes of 2 3/4 and 3 inch ammo, (everything from 7 1/2 shot to T shot) handed the Benelli to three active duty troops and said, have fun, try and make it malfunction. The Benelli functioned fine. Does that mean it will never malfunction for as long as I own the gun? Of course not, but I'm lookin forward to hunting with it this fall for cranes and geese.

For the money, you can't beat a Benelli. If you want to go with an O/U that's fine but good luck goose hunting.

I have a Browning and beretta o/u and an older Beretta A-301 semi.
This year I bought a Benelli Ultralight. It is the only gun I shot all fall. They can't be beat in my opinion
regards
Gordy

I have both an Benelli SBE I & SBE II. They are tops in my book! I have put several thousand rounds through both of them and have only had 2 issues that were not operator generated. Those were both cosmetic (pistol grip cap popped out of the SBE I and Cheek piece popped out of the SBE II). Both were recoil generated. 1 1/2 loads at 1475 fps in a 7.3 lb gun generates about 50 ft-lbs of recoil. From the way I read the tables thats like a 458 lott in an 11 lb gun.

The price is high but I think worth it.

I have two main stay 12 ga. One is a Rem. 870 Super Mag and the other is a Benelli Super 90. I pretty much just use the Benelli now because it's lighter. Both have withstood a lot of hard use. I bought the Benelli back in 1995 I think and it has never failed, no matter if I was shooting the lightest trap load to 3" mags. Have no idea how many shells I have cycled through it but I'd venture several thousand. I heard some of the early Black Eagles had problems with the firing pin breaking, but thats the only complaint I have ever heard about one. Best autoloader out there if you ask me.

No high priced gun should break into a handfull of parts.

As to faiures to function I believe the Benellis are recoil operated and failure to anchor the gun firmly on the shoulder can cause a malfunction in any inertia or recoil operated gun. I've had it happen in other makes of recoil operated guns.

I have two black eagles and one 20 ga montefeltro. Liked the high rib on the new ones and needed one for my son as it was his favorite. Need to disassemble stock and clean spring once a year or you will on ocassion have problems. For the shooting games like sporting clays ect. the over and under is supreme. For hunting ducks and geese the black eagle with factory shells hits as hard as the SP-10 and is a whole lot easier to carry!

quote:

Originally posted by Murf:
As to faiures to function I believe the Benellis are recoil operated and failure to anchor the gun firmly on the shoulder can cause a malfunction in any inertia or recoil operated gun. I've had it happen in other makes of recoil operated guns.

Same thing can happen with gas. FN's were bad for that.

I have a benelli supernova which is a 12g pump, ive thrashed it out a bit for the last 2 years and never had a problem with it.

but, what about the mossberg 500 for a pump action? best for the price id say!

I replaced an 1187SP with a leftie SBE2 and could not be happier. Nothing wrong with the 1187, but no probs whatsoever with the SBE2 (only one bbl available tho')

As for reliability the USMC picked the Benelli



(I have one too)
I personally do not need any other endorsement.

I did not realize this thread was still going strong. As an ongoing thing, a good friend called the other day saying he was going to bring his Benelli over because it was not ejecting. I kept trying to tell him to sell it if he could. He had talked to the guide over at the game farm and had told him about the jamming, the guide came back and told him that "the bennellis always jam".

'nuf said, I think.

Well, end of thread, Jim knows a guy that knows a guy that said "Bennelli's (sic) always jam"

Mine will be in the trash at the end of the driveway if anyone wants them for scrap steel. Convincing the Marines may be tougher

Have you tried getting rid of the extra "N"? Mine only has one and doesn't have any problems

i have to think that there is a good reason that most rental shotguns in Argentina are Benelli's and it isn't the price. Reliability in a high volume commercial operation must be a primary consideration.