Gunsmith advice on my Benelli M1 - is it true?

Mark W

Mark W

Well-known member
I've had this gun for many years and have only had some trouble with it once a 3 years back or so that was solved by replacing the recoil spring in the stock. I've started having troubles with it again and talked to a local smith who provided some suggestions that he says fixes this problem all the time. I can't believe it to be true so I thought I would ask here.

I've been having trouble with the gun where the gun ejects the shells but doesn't get the new one in all the way so that the second shot turns out to be nothing. The chamber doesn't close all the way. I've also had some stovepiping this year though not much. I once again replaced the recoild spring in the stock and while it made some difference, it did not fix the problem ciompletely. I've also noticed that it is much worse when cold and that the whole action closes real slow when pulled back and released. Almost slow motion like.

I am dilligent in cleaning the gun and break it down almost after everyother hunt and after every hunt when it gets wet. Clean the barrell with a wire brush and some rags with nitro on them and then I wipe down every metal piece with light oil to coat to prevent corrosion. I clean all the excess powder out of the trigger mechanism with a toothbrush and then put back together. I had always thought I was being thorough.

The smith said that most people do not clean the gun as good as they think. No slam on the individual, it is just that the Benelli tpye of guns tend build up gunk where people don't clean. He uses some weird brush that I've not seen (sort of like a spiral brinze brush, not like the one I use) to clean the barrell and specifically the chamber area where he says most people don't get cleaned real well. He also has some special tool that cleans the "slide" part of the gun (the rails that the action slides back on) He then takes the trigger mechanism and puts it in a parts washer and gets it good and cleaned. He claims this solves almost all of the complaints against the Benelli's that he has come across. He also said that you would not believe the amount of gunk he gets out of guns that people clean religiously.

So, does this have some merit? I can see where I probably don't get the chamber area clean and the slide rails while I run some ragrs with nitro over then, I've never really cleaned I guess. Charges to have the smith do this is $60. Not much but a waste if there is something else wrong with the gun. I really don't want the same stuff happen next year taht happened this year. I lost out on many opportuntites from the gun not functioning properly.

Mark W
 
I would say he has a point. When my SBE starts to do that I know it needs a real scrubbing. I use carb cleaner and really douch the action down. You don't need the $5 can of gun scrubber, a $.99 can of carb cleaner from WalMart will do just fine. Use whatever tools you can get your hands on to get into the nooks and crannys. Just squirting carb cleaner isn't good enough in some areas, you have to scrub it.

I have had this gun since the mid 90's and about 6-7 years ago replaced the stock spring and that helped alot the next year I replaced the magazine spring and that also helped.
 
My father and I have the exact same gun, his is 15+ years old, and mine is 4 years old. Exact same problems with both. His was broken down and the spring in the stock was cleaned about 3 years ago, and it never solved the problem, so he took it to a different gunsmith over this past summer. This guy broke it down again, but did some real gunsmithing too... a little filing here and there, and the gun was flawless this entire last season. Needless to say, mine will be going to him soon for the same treatment. I can get you the name of the guy if you'd like, he's down in Rochester, and if I remember right, he only charged around $75 for the entire job.
 
Could be, but I wouldn't pay someone to work on it before trying a few things and I sure wouldn't pay some a gunsmith to file parts on mine. If I thought there was a real problem, I'd send it to benelli. It sounds like your recoil spring or the tube is gummed up.

I've owned my SBE for 10 years and it is still on the origional recoil spring. I have never had a string of problems. A jam here and there, but never more than 1 or 2 a season. I have pulled the recoil spring apart a few times to get it fully clean. When cleaning the gun, I always clean the recoil spring and keep it lubed with breakfree. Something I learned from Sutton is to use a tico tool to clean the recoil spring whenever doing routine cleaning. I depress it 2" or so and spray a small shot of breakfree in there, then work it with the tico tool.

I use parts cleaner on it, but I don't much anymore because I wash it in water several times a year to get the saltwater off and only use breakfree or triflow. If using a parts cleaner, I do exactally as Pete says. I spray everything with Brakefree and wipe down. I never have cleaned the barrel other than to run the tico tool in it.
 
I had a Beretta Pintail based off the same design that acted up like that. I went out the door, sold. Maybe I should have took it in.
 
It sounds like the gun is really giving you problems only when it is cold? correct? If it has been working fine in the past and is just now acting up it sure sounds like it needs a thorough cleaning. On the M1/SBE you don't need a gunsmith to clean it, just some basic tools like Q-tips, old tooth brush, can of gun scrubber (or non chlorinated brake parts cleaner) and probably the most important is a QUALITY oil like FP-10 or Militec 1 to put lightly on the moving parts afterwards. You will see where the oil needs to go from the wear points, especially on the bolt.

-Make sure the bolt comes out and is totally broken down.
-Remove recoil spring and tube, clean and degrease then lightly oil with your quality oil (not wd-40 etc) I have run a Sure Cycle in mine for a long time and only spray it out at the end of the season with brake parts cleaner, and run it dry.
-Make sure the area where the bolt head locks into place is clean (toothbrush) this can be a big trouble spot for the Benellis as when this gets dirty the bolt won't go into battery and you get the "Benelli Click"
-Remove the magazine spring, degrease and lightly oil. You will be amazed at how little water can lead to rust and in turn feeding issues from the magazine.
-Remove trigger group, hose out with brake parts cleaner, run dry.
-Clean out rails on inside of the receiver with Q-tips, bend the head over to easily get in to the rails. Clean until .....well clean

Many people spend WAY to much time cleaning out the barrel, brushing and patching. I run a "light saber" down it a couple times a year and that is it. This was all I would ever do to my Perazzi trap gun and it shot just the same the first round to the 100,000th round.

This may sound like alot of work, but the whole thing takes less than 15 minutes and only needs to be done a few times a season....or when wet. I usually just clean the bolt/re oil it a couple times a week during the season.
 
Mark
I can't give you any advice on your Benelli for I have a Beretta but I am curious how you made out in court and did you get another job? None of my business but you did share some of that with us and we all are concerned.
wis boz
 
Mark,
I shoot a SBE and almost have never had a misfire. I think the m1 is similar in design and operation. I do a couple of major cleaning a year or when need on my SBE. I take it apart as far as it will go (with exception to the trigger group) hose it down with carb cleaner then I clean all the parts with a toothbrush. I remove the recoil spring and clean the tube with a 28-gauge brush the push a couple of patched through the last on with break free or fp10. I also hose off the spring and wipe that down with lube. I modified the nut with the stud on the rear of the recoil spring tube so I could take it apart with out heat or a vise. What I did was take it apart the first time-required heat. I believe Benelli uses some type of lock tight. I threaded the nut back on as tight as I could with my fingers and gave it a quarter more with a wrench then I drilled a hole though the tube and the nut and inserted a roll pin. This way I can take it apart and clean it really easily anywhere I am without a lot of tools. The reasons for roll pin is the stud will stay put when I tighten the stock nut, which need to be pretty tight to keep the stock from wiggling.
Once you have the parts off the receiver you can hose down the whole unit with carb cleaner and get to work with a tooth brush and compressed air if need be. I always run a 12 gauge tico mop through the magazize tube then push a path through soaked in lubricant then a clean patch. I clean rails inside the receiver that the bolt rides in with a toothbrush and the light coat of lube applied with a Q-tip.
The bolt, firing pin and ejector comes apart pretty easily with the use of properly sized pin punches. I hose these with carb cleaner run a brush thru the middle if the bolt and a pipe cleaner the firing pin hole and wipe down all the parts with a lubricant before reassembling.
I am afraid to take apart the trigger group. Typically I hose it down with carb cleaner and then blow it out with compressed air and put a drop of lube on all the moving parts hoping that lube find the contact points and does its job.
You can purchase a special bore brush from shooters choice. The brush is bronze bristled and a over sized cone shape I have one but mostly use a 10 gauge brush with fine steel wool wrapped in the bristles. If the barrel is really grimy, I will take the handle off the cleaning rod and chuck it up in a hand drill and run that back and forth through the bore and that chamber with a healthy dose of solvent. Sometimes if I want to concentrate on the chamber and the forcing cones I just use on section of the cleaning rod in the drill with a brush this makes it a little easier to handle. I always run clean patches thru the bore with a jag until they come out clean. I shoot a lot of sporting clays and skeet and am always amazed at how much burnt plastic come out of the barrel after a couple hundred rounds. Which reminds me of another trick is to insert a plastic bottle over the muzzle while you are doing all this cleaning to catch all the grim, dirt, patches and solvent.
When I assemble the rest of the part I wipe a couple of drops of lube on the contact point of the bolt and put it all back together.
I personal like fp10 lubricant the best but have had good results from mil tech and break free.
 
No luck on a job and I am down to my last 16 days or so. Tough market to find a job within the company right now. Recently learned that 3 of the VP's are getting a $2,000,000 bonus and that we are purchasing 3 new $50,000,000 plus airplanes. Makes you wonder how much they really care about the worker bees.

With court, the county moved my date to sometime later in January. Got my stuff together for this one.

Thanks for asking.

Mark W
 
Last edited:
Jim,

Google has a bunch of sites to look but basically it's a $20 oily rag.
Click to expand...


I don't know what you are talking about Pete, but a Tico tool is not a rag and it doesn't have oil on it?!?! As I said in my response to Jim it is one of those fuzzy lpink or yellow light sabers you see.

If you mean in terms of function it is like an oily rag, I'd like to see you jam an oily rag down your recoil spring tube.

http://www.outers-guncare.com/...ries/tico_tools.aspx
 
Last edited:
I got mine in August from Hank Yorke and it was in fantastic condition. Clean as a whistle and VERY pleased. It's an older HK. The week that the tropical storm and huricane came along in September I filled it with mud and dirt and grime. I gave it the "870 style" cleaning and it was never the same. To say I over oiled it is a profound understatement. Those actions work much better with a very light oiling. The return spring issue is my biggest complaint with the M1/SBE as its just too prone to collecting water and gunk. I agree that it should be run nearly dry. In addition, I think the Wolf 25% increase spring would be an excellent way to increase the rate of bolt return. The spring is under $15! When I took the studded/threaded cap off with a 17mm wrench I gouged it up pretty bad. I noticed they are.....$15 bucks so I plan on ordering another one and skipping the loctite.

After doing all the things I shoulda done the damn thing was still stove piping about every 3rd cycle. I was on St Clair a few weeks ago and my engineer buddy stared at it over countless beers and college stories as we watched the ships running up and down the South Channel outside the front window of his cabin. He just kept cycling it and ejecting empties out of it. He has one of the oldest SBE's I know of and knows the action well and just kept telling me that it was something very simple.

After a few hours he says, "Hey, I just figured it out!" As it turned out the ejector had this tiny burr on the face of the hooked end so it wasn't seating itself properly on the rim of the shell base. About midway through a cycle it would slip over the rim and stovepipe. This was especially true with Kents and Xperts which I use for my first shot sometimes. I pulled my trusty Leatherman out and he used the diamond hone to file it ever so lightly and knock on wood, it hasn't stove piped in 3 or 4 boxes of shells. I plan on ordering another ejector after the season which is also, you guessed it......$15.

So, last week I was walking out the door and my gun case slipped off my shoulder as I reached for the door knob and hit the hardwood floor. I didn't think much of it. As we were loading up for the morning duck shoot I immediately felt that the grip on the buttstock was splintered. I figured it would hold up and frankly I didn't care if it didn't because nobody had a back-up gun including me. Eventhough it was kicked off to the right badly I still managed to shoot a limit of ducks which was miraculous. What an odd feeling shouldering and then readjusting. I ended up glueing it with Loctite brand automotive super glue and then taped it with tight electrical tape. It's fine now but I plan on ordering one after the season. I found the satin one for $55 from some outfit out east. If I didn't shoot this gun so well I'd probably go back to my 870 but I've never shot anything this well....it's like it was made for me.
 
Last edited:
OK tell me how much it differs from a cleaning rod and jag with a chunk of oily rag on the end that you push and pull through every bore from a .22 to a 10 ga. And, when your done with the chunk of oily rag you don't have to wash it, just toss it and rip another chunk off an old T-shirt.
 
Well, I can honestly say that the Tico tool does a better/easier job of cleaning the spring. More surface area and more abrasive in my opinion.
 
a jag is metal wood or plastic that is matched to the caliber to take up space a patch fits around that way you don't have to build up patches o get a tight fit. A mop is also matched to the caliber but you dont have to use patches by the way there is a mop included with a tico tool/ rod it is located in the handle it attaches on the end of the tico rod with and eye hook after I think the idea is to soak it in oil then pull it thru the bore on the last stroke thus coating the bore with a lite coat of oil and preventing rust
How about a bore snake one of the greatest inventions for gun cleaning yet-
 
Mark,after cleaning,consider using a dry lubricant,like motor Mica on the tube,gas ring,etc.Since the begining of autoloading shotguns,dry is much better ,especially in cold conditions.Oil slows down the action.Don't think you need to remove the mag tube for cleaning,but haven't looked at your gun.
 
OK tell me how much it differs from a cleaning rod and jag with a chunk of oily rag on the end that you push and pull through every bore from a .22 to a 10 ga. And, when your done with the chunk of oily rag you don't have to wash it, just toss it and rip another chunk off an old T-shirt.
Click to expand...


On teh tico tool, I do use it for the bore, but it is at its best cleaning the recoil spring tube. I never advocated the tico tool as a wonder tool for bore cleaning, but for the recoil tube it works great. I doubt a conventional patch would do a very good job in there since the neck is constricted and the proper sized jag for the tube wouldn't fit. The tico tool works well, it takes about 10 seconds to clean the recoil tube, mag tube and barrel.

You seem a little crabby, post season blues setting in already?

T
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top