Thoughts on the New Benelli M-2 G1

“I don’t need a new shotgun.” “I don’t need a new shotgun.” “I don’t need a new shotgun.”

That was my inner dialogue for three days as I was teaching and filming for “The Benelli Experience” at Range Ready a few weeks ago.

I should be perfectly content with my Beretta 1301, two Benelli M-1, three Remington 870, and Mossberg 590S shotguns. After shooting the new Benelli, I want to add it to the stable as well.

The Benelli Experience was a unique two day event at the Range Ready studio and range complex in Louisiana. The “experience” part made it a bit different compared to most shotgun classes. The course tuition also paid for each student to take home a new shotgun, complete with Blue Force Gear sling and a dump pouch for loading. Unlimited Fiocchi ammunition was also included in the course price.

The class was two days. I started with an introduction to the new shotgun and its features, followed by instruction on a complete field strip and lubrication process. With 20 students on the line shooting the new guns, I taught my basic shotgun class. After students gained proficiency with the guns, we ran them through three different multistage shooting contests with the guns.

The students and I were recorded by a professional film crew for future content on Range Ready’s free streaming TV channel.

The lead instructor at Range Ready is Chris Cerino. I’ve known Chris a long time. We were both cops in Ohio. We both taught at the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy. We were both fired from that organization by the same inept (some might say corrupt) managers looking to maintain their own political power and provide substandard training to the officers in Ohio. They didn’t want anyone competent teaching for them, because it highlighted other long-time staff members’ inadequacies.

Chris called me a few months ago about the class. While he is extremely knowledgeable about shotgun shooting and the Benelli system, he hadn’t taught a basic shotgun class in a while. He knew I teach quite a few defensive shotgun classes every year. I am also a three-time graduate of Benelli’s armorer school and carried the Benelli shotgun on duty for my cop job from 1997 until I retired in 2020. From 1999 to 2013, I was responsible for training the officers on the Benelli shotguns and maintaining the department’s shotgun armory.

I was a good fit for the class and agreed to teach.

Chris and I at the front of the class

Chris and I, along with a couple additional range instructors spent a whole day on the range with the new guns before the students arrived. We ran the shotguns hard and filmed content for the streaming video channel.

I really started to like the shotgun after shooting it the first day. I only had one possible concern. Some of the folks shooting the guns had a couple of strange feeding malfunctions. We didn’t figure out the cause until later. We were shooting on a range with no shade. The temperature and humidity were both in the high 90s. The shotgun shells we were using were sitting out in the hot sun. The heat caused the ammo to expand, which caused our feeding issues. Once we figured that out and moved the ammo to the shade, all of our feeding issues disappeared.

Between 20 students, Chris and I, and three assistant instructors, we fired over 9000 rounds in three days. I don’t know if there is anyone on the planet right now who has seen more rounds than that fired out of the new guns. While I don’t often do gun/gear reviews on this site, I realized I was in a very unique position to provide an evaluation of the gun based on firing and seeing others fire thousands of rounds through it.

The empty shotgun hulls after the training class.

Here’s what I noted:

The Good

– The gun is very reliable. On the first day we fired 3000+ rounds of Fiocchi 1 1/8 oz birdshot. After all of those rounds through the gun, we saw just ONE malfunction across all those rounds in 23 different guns. That’s amazing performance for shooting cheap birdshot out of brand new semi-auto shotguns without any break in period.

– Good ergonomics. The safety is located behind the trigger guard rather than in front of it, making it easier to operate for those with shorter fingers.

– Light Recoil when compared with inertia operated semi-autos or pumps.

– Moderate weight (lighter than the Benelli M-4, but heavier than 1301).

– 7+1 capacity and can be easily ghost loaded to 9 total rounds

– I really like the 5-position stock. It works so much better than the “adjustable” stock that comes on the Benelli M-4.

– Toe and heel of stock are rounded and made out of material that doesn’t catch on clothing when coming from either low or high ready. No need to put slippery black electrical tape on the recoil pad so it doesn’t snag on your coat or shirt when bringing the gun up to the firing position.

– Some Benelli shotguns (inertia style) will malfunction when extra weight is placed on or forward of the receiver. We ran a couple of the guns with side saddle shell cards and that did not seem to negatively affect reliability,

-The shell catch in the magazine tube is exceptionally easy to operate, making unloading the tube easier than any other shotgun I’ve ever handled.

– The bolt release lever is massive and easy to use.

– Lots of M-lock slots and sling attachment points

–Rear ghost ring sights are very robust and seem more durable than other Benelli products or the 1301.

The Less Good

I titled this section the “less good” because I didn’t see anything really bad about the guns. There are just a couple things to be aware of before you spend a lot of money on one of these weapons.

-The new gas system’s dual pistons are placed under the hand guard near where the barrel meets the action. That spot gets REALLY hot. You won’t be able to violin-load this shotgun with your weak hand thumb over the barrel after you’ve fired any more than about 10 rounds without wearing gloves.

– Like a lot of semi-automatic shotguns, this one is a little bit sensitive and won’t reliably feed everything. We spent most of the time shooting the Fiocchi 11/8 oz birdshot loads. They ran great. We tried to use a bunch of even lighter 1 oz target loads. They mostly fed well, but the shooter had to hold the shotgun super tightly to avoid an occasional malfunction.

We tried to run some drills with Fiocchi low recoil 00 Buck. Every single gun had at least one malfunction per magazine. The gun definitely doesn’t like that load.

It fed Fiocchi low recoil slugs with boring regularity. I only shot about 15 rounds of Federal Flight Control low recoil buckshot out of it. Zero malfunctions. The same was true with the 10 rounds of TruBall slugs I fired. It loved Hornady TAP semi auto 00 Buck and the OD green hulled military-style 00 buck loads.

It seems that if you load it with at least 1 1/8 oz birdshot or shoot buckshot/slugs running greater than about 1250 feet per second, the guns function well.

– The large paddle used to close the bolt will also eject a shell from the magazine if you push the front part of the button hard against the frame or pry the rear of the paddle away from the receiver. That’s useful for folks who don’t want to blindly unload the gun by feeling for the shell stop inside the receiver.

We did, however, notice a problem with this method of removing shells from the mag tube. If you don’t catch one shell at a time while using this technique, two shells can get simultaneously dropped onto the shell carrier at the same time. That’s an ugly malfunction that requires a knife or screwdriver to fix in most cases.

– Two more issue with the bolt release paddle. One one my AIs (a thinner guy who runs his slings very tight) said he could feel the adjustment button (on left side of stock) irritating his chest when the gun was slung.

Unfortunately when the gun is unloaded with the bolt locked to the rear and the gun is on sling, sometimes the huge paddle is easy to hit, causing the bolt to inadvertently close. That freaked me out more than once when I was running two relays on the firing line. While teaching, I’d occasionally hear a bolt slam home behind the firing line. I kept thinking people were chambering rounds with me and another relay of students downrange. The button is so easy to hit, sometimes people would hit it unintentionally while their weapon was slung.

– The height of the receiver seems shorter than the 1301. Shell cards or side saddles may interfere with loading the tube magazine quickly depending on how the spare cartridges are oriented.

– Some students didn’t like how small and stiff the crossbolt safety was. It is not reversible for lefties. I didn’t have any problems with the safety, but this may be a good opportunity for a larger aftermarket alternative.

– No owner’s manual. The gun is so new that the owner’s manual hasn’t been translated from Italian yet.

– Modified Choke. Strangely enough, this one comes default with a modified choke tube. Most tactical shotguns now come with a cylinder bore or improved cylinder choke. The modified choke certainly tightens patterns with cheap buckshot, but it actually makes Federal Flight Control patterns open up considerably wider than other shotguns.

With buckshot, this gun has a maximum effective range of 15-20 yards with cheap buckshot. Some guns will keep all of the Federal Flight Control buckshot in the chest of a silhouette to about 25 yards. With that said, my 1301 with an improved cylinder choke allows me to shoot FFC buck out to about 35 yards.

With cheap nine-pellet buck, the 9th round flyer was very obvious. At 25 yards, eight of the nine pellets would be on the torso of the target. The ninth pellet was regularly completely off the silhouette.

For a deeper dive on reliability and patterning, check out my friend Sherman House’s article and photographs covering his experiences. Sherman has fired more than 1000 rounds out of his new M-2. We were comparing notes via text messages as both of us ran our guns through their paces.

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– Loose stocks. A couple of the students’ guns had the stock loosening up on them after the extensive firing. The stock is tightened by using a pin punch to tighten down a nut near where the stock meets the receiver.

Running Chris Cerino through some drills. the students had already practiced the techniques dry with dummy rounds before we hit the range.

Overall, I was really impressed by the new Benelli shotgun as well as the training facilities at Range Ready. I highly recommend both!

The Good

The Less Good

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