What about a Benelli pump, like the Super Nova? Have you ran those on your range?

Welcome to the club!

Biggest accessory suggestions as an 8-year owner of the M4:

1. If you get an accessory mount, get the AVA Mod 1. Durable, good placement for a light and/or laser as well as a QD sling mount, and unlike other solutions still retains the M4's ability to be stripped without tools. If you're concerned about the finish, 3M helicopter tape on the mounting surfaces prevents marring and has no problems with the heat of extended shooting. Unlike the Mod 0, the Mod 1 also does NOT contact the barrel directly. It floats just slightly off of it.
2. Optics like the RMR work great without adding weight or bulk, and with a very low profile mount can still cowitness with the ghost rings
3. If your factory spring ever wears out, or won't reliably feed from a full length tube when upgrading from a 5-shot configuration, CarrierComp's Wolff mag tube spring works great as a replacement.
4. If you have the collapsible stock with the sling slot, the IWC Mount-N-Slot for Benelli is the perfect complement to the AVA Mod 1's QD sling mount, and gets your M4 ready for any modern QD sling.

Two tips:

1. If you shoot #1 buck, the vast majority of 2 3/4" 1B shells are a tad longer than 00B and slugs. As such they're ever so slightly too long both with the factory spring and Wolff spring, and you can only get 6 in the tube, not 7. Five 1B and two 00B is the largest amount of 1B I can get in the M4 while maintaining 7 shots in the tube. Don't have a problem fitting the extra length of the 1B shells in my M590A1, but they're a no-go for the M4.

2. Lot of people change the charging handle to a larger one because of "Benelli bites" where the M4 bites into the fleshy bit of your index finger if you have it too close while pulling the charging handle or general difficult gripping it. Can't say I've ever had any difficulty gripping it and I have large hands, but I HAVE had a Benelli bite. I personally underhand it and pull it with my pinky finger. Never gets caught, and it's just as fast.

Wardog,

I'm glad you decided to purchase the Benelli after reviewing our experiences. It's not a cheap purchase but that old saying of "buy once, cry once" definitely applies here. It's a pricey shotgun but if I could only choose one shotgun to own, hands down this would be it. I don't mind paying for a quality product if it delivers and I definitely wouldn't steer somebody into a shotgun that may affect the family budget if it didn't stand up the way it has.

V/R
Ron

I hate to assault a deceased equine, but what is a conservative round count on that gun?
What has been replaced (and roughly when) on it for PM, such as springs o rings etc?

I wish I could give some sort of estimate but it's been on the line for over four years and we've never really tracked it because it hast given us problems. When we are getting 3-4 weeks out of a shotgun before it fails, we pay close attention to it. I have to ask myself, is it the armorers, is it the RSO's abusing them, is it the ammo, etc. When the gun doesn't give us problems, we tend to focus on the others.

V/R
Ron

Roger that. I knkw you dont have detailed data, but. Do you think it's hit 100k yet at least? Any replacement springs etc?

Thank for another epic thread Ron. I've only owned half a dozen or so Shotguns in my life but, still own a Benelli M4 that I bought in 2008 and a Police Trade in Remington 870 Wingmaster. Only two Shotguns I need for the time being.

I think the OP provides information that we can potentially use to decide which shotgun to purchase for our needs according to our financial resources.

I have a few difficulties with the info provided.

1. I don't know what use or abuse the used Police type shotguns had endured prior to being deployed at your range. I don't know if the Remingtons were Express, Police Magnums, or Wingmasters. There is a difference.

2. I can't determine reliability based on time frames instead of round counts.

3. Round counts would be difficult to determine unless you catalog how many rounds the customer purchased for a specific gun. That seems to be a bit unrealistic and time consuming. This number may also be inaccurate if the customer brings his own ammo, which requires asking the consumer directly, "how many rounds did you shoot?" and then logging that info. I have never been asked that question by any Range employee.

4. If a Remington goes through 1,000 rounds per month, and a Benelli that is rarely rented goes through 1,000 rounds per year, it is not a fair comparison.

5. You can buy 4 or 5 Remingtons for the cost of one Benelli M4, so the cost/reliability ratio isn't truly relevant.

6. I won't shoot 1,000 rounds for at least 5 years. LOL

For the record, I own a Remington 870 Police Marine Magnum. Zero issues, but I upgraded the follower to an S&J and installed a Wolff Mag Spring.

Thanks very much for sharing your findings.

How about just a rough ballpark estimate so we can get some kind of general idea?, eg.

About:
10k
20k
30k
50k
100k
Etc.


Max

Why do people keep asking this even after Ron has said he doesn't know

A big +1.

I bet if you people who keep dogging Ron for the info want to pay his bookkeeper for a couple hours of overtime, I bet he could get you some numbers. Amount of total rentals of "X" brand shotgun, and the amount of average shells shot by each customer by questioning the Range Officers.

I personally find the breakages more interesting than what the round counts are. Allows for spare parts stocking.

Hi folks,

I'm on my flight heading home and tried to come with a fair and conservative round count for the Benelli. It would be fair to say that using the lowest daily round count and then estimating down (instead of rounding up), I believe it's fair to say that the Benelli M4 has seen at least 40,000 through it since it started out here on the range.

As for the police trade-in Remington's, they were engraved with Police Magnum on the left side of the receiver if I remember corectly.

V/R
Ron

Ron,
Any chance you can test a IAC Hawk 982 out for us?  Norinco's 870 Police Magnum clone with ghost ring sights. No MIM and metal in many places that Remington started putting plastic plus one more round capacity in the mag tube.

If it comes down to it I'll split the cost on one with you 50/50...we'd both be in on one for less than 100 each.

Thanks!

And if I recall, you said it was all buck and slug? Damn!

Bump for this question, as I'm debating getting a KSG next month.

Too bad you don't have a Benelli M2 to compare with all those other shotguns.  I have both the M2 and M4.. but I typically use the M2.  Just curious of the quality of Benelli carries thorough their other products.

Definitely I would be hard press to run the same # rounds in any of my shotguns!

Benelli's ID system has been proven time and again by high volume dove hunters to go a long long time even using stout field loads. The ARGO system has been proven by the military, but most of that was not released to the public, hence the great interest generated in this thread.

The ID system works better with stout loads. They produce greater energy, which keeps it working even when really dirty.

Ron, thanks again for the great info in all these threads.

Wow, a conservative estimate of 40k rounds... That's REALLY saying something about the M4's durability/reliability.

Ok, you got me hooked. Never been much of a shotgun guy, but I just snagged one new locally. Time to try some 3-gun.


Max

curious how you manage the shotguns on your range...  my local indoor range has all sorts of rules regarding how far is too far to shoot as people are blasting everything but the target.  I think it was 15 yards max but they didn't hassle me last time I was in there shooting at 25 yards with my M4 Entry gun.  However, compared to alot of guys shooting there, I look like Seal Team 6 by comparison so maybe the RO just left me alone.

Anyway, given your shooter's lack of experience, do you have an issue with pellets going everywhere?  Also, you mentioned the M4 you use is an entry gun.  My M4 puts the open into open choke.  At 15 yards with #4 buck and 25 yards with OO buck, the pellets hit shoulder to shoulder.  In fact, I only had one pellet anywhere near the centerline at 25 yards, a skinny guy with some luck could have turned sideways and gone unscathed.