Benelli Vinci???

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dward

Active member
I am sure a few of you have had some experience with this gun by now.
I am considering one for my next purchase but won't buy one unless it has been sucessfully proven in the field.
What are your opinions?
Thanks,
 
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Very nice. I love mine. It is sweet to shoot and very easy to clean. I have the college shooting teams over every weekend and they all want to shoot it. I used it all season in SD and on the salt water and it worked great. Stopped using my 686 because I think this points better. The other plus is that my 11 year old Skeeter is shooting it because I got a shorter pad for it and he shoots it like a house of fire. He shot 6 bird limit two days in a row in Ohio and loves shooting it. Hank
 
Hank, I didn't even pick yours up to see how it felt - dumb of me.

You going to take the Vinci pike shooting?
 
I like the Vinci a lot better I think it is better balanced gun. I don't shoot 3.5 shells so no need to go that route. I think the ability to take it down into three parts and clean is much easier than any gun I own. I like the fact that there is no spring in the stock like the SBE2. Less complicated and less moving parts. I have had one issue with the safety and it was because of the crud from shells dropping into the trigger group. It was stuck one time. I pulled the frigger group out in 2 seconds sprayed some oil in there and it was fine. All in all I like it enough that I'm going to buy another one at some point when Skeeter is shooting all the time with me. Right now he can not hunt in Mass so we only use it in other states and so far he uses that and I hunt with the 686 but by next year I will have a second one. Good Luck. Hank
 
I caved in last summer and did some trading for a new Vinci. I find the engineering of the gun fascinating.

I'll share my experience.

Before season, I put ~300 rounds through it on the skeet field. I took it out for the first two weeks of dove season in KY. It had a couple problems with cycling, but I chalked that up to part of the "break in" period.

At the end of September, I took the gun to Manitoba and shot geese for 4 days. It functioned well, but still had a couple problems cycling. It would fire, but not feed the next shell into the chamber. I was shooting 3" shells on this trip, and did not feel that was acceptable. After the trip, I sent the gun back to Benelli. One of their gunsmiths test fired the gun with various types of ammo, and could not find a problem, and the gun was sent immediately back to me.

I used the gun for the start of our duck season in November and weather was mild. It functioned very well. In mid December, I used the gun on a day of below freezing temperatures, and not only would it not cycle, the bolt wouldn't close. By this time, I was pretty upset. I sent the gun back to Benelli, and sent several emails to customer service.

They sent the gun back to me in time for the last week of our duck season in January. I shot it in below freezing conditions again; got the gun covered in ice and snow and intentionally did not clean it. I then left it in the boat overnight in freezing temps. The gun performed flawlessly the rest of the week.

Now, here is the kicker... The stock is a separate piece (obviously). It is very easy to change the spring cap and remove the stock lock ring nut unit (if you look at a manual, you'll know what I'm talking about). I did so this past summer to change the drop of the stock for my taste. I tightened the bolt back on, but it worked its way loose throughout the hunting season as time wore on. That is what caused the problems with cycling. I take the blame for it, because it was eventually a problem of my "tampering". I do give Benelli a lot of credit for finding and fixing the problem and they sent me a letter explaining what had happened.

I have now sent the barrel/bolt module off to get treated with CeraKote because it did rust significantly after season was over. Again, I take blame for that because I intentionally did not clean it. The majority of my hunting at home is out of a layout boat, and I truthfully beat the shit out of my equipment.

My opinions on the gun:
I would give it a 9/10.
As mentioned above, it does point very nice and "feels" good.
It does cycle very fast.
Very easy to assemble/disassemble and very easy to clean.
Benelli's claim to "low recoil" is bullshit. It has considerably more felt recoil than my Xtrema.
Not a "pretty" gun, but form follows function in this case.

Would I recommend it to someone? YES. If you take care of it, I think it would serve as an excellent field gun.

I've read that they have considered making the gun in a 20 ga. I am a big fan of the 20 and do quite a bit of hunting with a Beretta 391 20 ga. I would definitely buy this gun in the 20 ga.

I've owned a SBE (and parted with), and I feel the engineering of the Vinci is better than the SBE for the fact that there is no longer a spring in the stock to get fouled up.

Hope this helps,
Steve

P.S. If I may muddy the water a bit, keep your eye on the Beretta A400 Xplor Unico.... (I'm a Beretta fan)
http://www.americanhunter.org/ArticlePage.aspx?id=2067&cid=54
 
Dave - Thanks for starting this post, I've had my eye on the Vinci as well. After some surgery last year I've been wanting to find a softer recoil gun. The Citori I've been using for the last 4 seasons packs a punch. I wanted to wait a while on the Vinci to hear some of the feedback before I went down that road. I'm glad Doc has responded with his first-hand experience because the main reason I would want to go the route of the Vinci is less recoil.

Ryan
 
For those of you that shoot the Benellis with the return spring in the stock....pick up a Wolff extra heavy spring, they're like $15. You'll be amazed at how the bolt issues disappear. Just don't get your finger stuck in the action friendo!
 
No I haven't Pete. I figured this gun would never go dove hunting again and I didn't really care because I rarely shoot a 12 for anything but waterfowl and if I shoot clays which is rare I can use something else...prolly borrow something. Then one day I went to swat some wounded geese on the water and instinctively pulled out the Xpert 1oz 6's I like to swat with and rattled 3 off and it cycled perfectly. I stood there and stared at the gun and my buddies were saying,"What's wrong man?" They didn't understand that it wasn't supposed to do that. So, I haven't taken trap loads and tried but I know that I have yet to hang or stovepipe a low xpert in it when I'm swatting. If you tune it up and clean the tube, put a very thin film of synthetic on the receiver rails it's like an MP 5 HK machine gun when you shoot it...not that you'd ever need that but to me if it cycles at a rapid rate like that then it's going to cycle well at normal speeds. I can't recommend that spring enough.
 
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I'm with you Jay, I rarely shoot a 12 ga for much of anything anymore. The most I shoot my 12 is during one particular league and that is only due to the competition with my buddies. I might have to get one of those springs though just to pick up the cycling rate.
 
Hey Steve good feedback. One thing that I did when I broke my Vinci in was I shot some heavy loads out of it for the first 100 rounds. Like old #5's that I had to burn up. I think that helped with the breaking. I have shot heavy stuff and light 1oz #8 on the range and no problem with it cycling now. I have to say that the recoil I don't think is really that bad but I have been shooting a 686 for a long time so any auto should be less anyway. I do know that Litte Hank shot a 391 20ga for a long time and then went to the Vinci this fall and never commented on the recoil. I would agree that if you compare the Vinci to a gas gun like a 391 the 391 is softer shooting for sure. HHG
 
Dave - Thanks for starting this post, I've had my eye on the Vinci as well. After some surgery last year I've been wanting to find a softer recoil gun. The Citori I've been using for the last 4 seasons packs a punch. I wanted to wait a while on the Vinci to hear some of the feedback before I went down that road. I'm glad Doc has responded with his first-hand experience because the main reason I would want to go the route of the Vinci is less recoil.

Ryan
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Ryan,

One thing you may want to consider after having shoulder surgery is dropping down to a 20 ga. I have shot a 20 for ducks for two years now, and I can honestly say that it is every bit as lethal as a 12. The 20 is an underated gauge. As waterfowlers, we have 12 ga ingrained in our brains. I believe a lot of it is psycological (and marketing)... Again all of this is my opinion. A little bit of time on the skeet or sporting clays range in the summer will definitely make a difference in your shooting percentage.

May I suggest looking at a Beretta 391 or Remington 1100 20 ga, get the barrell ported, and a Limbsaver pad. I did this to my Beretta 20, and it is about on the level of a 28 ga as far as recoil. My hunting partner, who has had previous cervical spine surgery, also did it to his 12 ga.

My next step in both my 20 and 12 ga Xtrema is to add an Edwards Recoil Reducer. I spoke to the owner of the company, and it is a very interesting product that can greatly help people that are recoil sensitive. I sent the stock of my Vinci to him, but he was unable to add the piston. However, in any wood stock or most other synthetics it can be added.

http://www.edwardsrecoilreducer.com/

Hope this helps,
Steve
 
Thank you all for your comments and input,it's been helpful.
I am going to buy a Vinci.
I have decided to sell a couple of my Browning's to pay for the benelli.
Coming soon a Light 12 Belgium 12/28'' bore and a Citori Duck Blind 28'' barrel's also/12.
Thanks,
 
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