I have owned 3 of these over the years. They are definitely Old School in todays market. Wood butt stock, wood fore end. Under barrel magazine same length as 21" barrel. Black steel round receiver married to the black anodized lower in aluminum. These guns operate by inertia recoil. The early guns did not have a rotating bolt face, but later designs did. The action was super smooth and known to be the fastest cycling shotgun action of the day. I think the Benelli line carried that reputation for quite a few years. They were marketed by HK as part of their Military and Police selections. They are still damn fine shotguns. But there are so many other combat style shotties on the market and unless you grew up in the 70's and eighties, the younger set has no idea about this early shotgun of Benellis. Then came the M2's and M4's.
They had a chrome chamber, chrome bore with fixed choke. The action required the gun to actually fire and many people would express consternation over loading the magazine tube and then NOT being able to get a round to pop out of the mag, and into the carrier for loading. That's how it works on ALMOST EVERY OTHER SHOTGUN IN EXISTENCE! What you did was load the magazine full, pull back the operating handle, drop your eight or was it ninth round into the open ejection port and onto the lifter, then fed into the chamber upon letting the bolt run home and close the action. Once you fired, the magazine did the rest of the loading. A bit weird, but I liked it because I could leave a fully loaded magazine shotgun in the corner and almost nobody could figure out how to charge the damn thing. I would rubber band a double ought buck round to the forward portion of the barrel/magazine tubes and that was my "slip in" round to get things rolling. Also made it a safer choice with young kids in the house. I had no fear they would ever get the loading sequence and they had strict orders, you can only touch Dad's guns if you ask me to show them to you. They were both great kids and we had no issues.
The gun did like hot loads. Even after pretty extensive break ins, I still found the gun to be unreliable with low brass field load type rounds. Others have reported different experiences. The gun was only designed for 2 3/4" shells. The later Benellis could take 3" magnums, but not the 121 M1. Recoil was fine, but there was a hard plastic butt pad and it did nothing to mitigate recoil. That came from the inertia system. Otherwise, it would bruise me up after running two boxes of fairly stout ammo thru the thing. I tended to run buckshot.
The sights were unique. A bit European. The closest pistol sight that comes to mind are the Steyr M9 sights. But not the exact same. The Benelli had a tall, wide, white post up front. The rear sight was rifle type but had a half curve set of wings that formed a semi circle that the front post came into view quickly. You basically centered and top the front post with the open gap of the rounded bridge. That description may not make sense just reading it, but it would it I could get a picture. I may have one?
The gun is of EXCELLENT build quality, as I believe almost all Benelli products are. Gotta love Italian guns, even though some of them can be quirky. Ever own a Benelli B76 pistol? Great build quality and unique design, but just sort of weird.
Here is a very short YouTube vid of a guy running one about as fast and one can.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...FCB57B9E5534306294C2FCB57B9E5534&&FORM=VDRVRV
My pictures attached if I can...doesn't look like I can. I don't really host images, except on my hard drive.
They had a chrome chamber, chrome bore with fixed choke. The action required the gun to actually fire and many people would express consternation over loading the magazine tube and then NOT being able to get a round to pop out of the mag, and into the carrier for loading. That's how it works on ALMOST EVERY OTHER SHOTGUN IN EXISTENCE! What you did was load the magazine full, pull back the operating handle, drop your eight or was it ninth round into the open ejection port and onto the lifter, then fed into the chamber upon letting the bolt run home and close the action. Once you fired, the magazine did the rest of the loading. A bit weird, but I liked it because I could leave a fully loaded magazine shotgun in the corner and almost nobody could figure out how to charge the damn thing. I would rubber band a double ought buck round to the forward portion of the barrel/magazine tubes and that was my "slip in" round to get things rolling. Also made it a safer choice with young kids in the house. I had no fear they would ever get the loading sequence and they had strict orders, you can only touch Dad's guns if you ask me to show them to you. They were both great kids and we had no issues.
The gun did like hot loads. Even after pretty extensive break ins, I still found the gun to be unreliable with low brass field load type rounds. Others have reported different experiences. The gun was only designed for 2 3/4" shells. The later Benellis could take 3" magnums, but not the 121 M1. Recoil was fine, but there was a hard plastic butt pad and it did nothing to mitigate recoil. That came from the inertia system. Otherwise, it would bruise me up after running two boxes of fairly stout ammo thru the thing. I tended to run buckshot.
The sights were unique. A bit European. The closest pistol sight that comes to mind are the Steyr M9 sights. But not the exact same. The Benelli had a tall, wide, white post up front. The rear sight was rifle type but had a half curve set of wings that formed a semi circle that the front post came into view quickly. You basically centered and top the front post with the open gap of the rounded bridge. That description may not make sense just reading it, but it would it I could get a picture. I may have one?
The gun is of EXCELLENT build quality, as I believe almost all Benelli products are. Gotta love Italian guns, even though some of them can be quirky. Ever own a Benelli B76 pistol? Great build quality and unique design, but just sort of weird.
Here is a very short YouTube vid of a guy running one about as fast and one can.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...FCB57B9E5534306294C2FCB57B9E5534&&FORM=VDRVRV
My pictures attached if I can...doesn't look like I can. I don't really host images, except on my hard drive.
