Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Benelli Lupo

I am not in the ugly camp, certainly different and interesting though.

I have an R-1 it took me7 shots to sight it in and end up with a 5 shot 1 " group an inch high at a 100 yards. Lupo doesn't interest me. The R1 is my wifes. It is a 30-06 and recoils about like a bolt action 243. Shoots plenty good enough. I like that it can be taken completely apart without any tools except the little peg on the forearm. It is a neat design. Not traditional. But trigger is good and will shoot fast if you want to.
I took it hunting this year once and killed a buck and a doe that came out.

No offense taken. I’m certainly appreciative of them taking me and, if the rifle were a POS, I would just keep my mouth shut.

Woodhits,

I’m interested in doing a evaluation on how tight the action tolerances are - I go to SHOT every other year, so ... I skipped this year (went last year).

One thing right off the bat - Plastic magazine lips on a 1,600 rifle ... when it’s is a known complaint by Sako guys against the Sako A7, was a easily for see-able thing.
I like the tang safety.. provided it’s bullet proof..
I’m not sure on the trigger angle to the stock... it’s out of line with the tactical shooting path, so it’s an odd ball looking thing for most of the guys..
The recoil system probably won’t impress many unless they throw some 3rd party testing to show how it reduces recoil.

Frankly the stock looks plastic, but the PR says the bottom is metal so it’s hard to tell what’s what.

I’d say you need someone to tear it apart and do some review on it, and I don’t mean a product guy .. I mean a gun smith or competitive shooter who knows what’s up.

It could be a good rifle - first thing I would do is put metal magazine catches, and lips on it... otherwise it’s a bit disposable
Cool you got to hunt with it...

Just for clarification the A7 has metal lips on the magazine.

One of those guns where you go.. "Oh man I like that, and this is also really nice, this is a good idea anyway even if it's odd looking, and I could live with this part I guess, but good lord why did they do that and that!?"

Slap a Benelli MSRP on it and the general public's interest fades real fast.


(I own 5 Benelli's and may be buying a 6th this week. This rifle didn't make me go "Oooh")

From my reading about such things, that appears to be the "industry standard" practice, among honest folks anyway. I always am encouraged when a reviewer buys the item after the test is over, the ultimate recommendation!

Are you in line to receive one for serious testing?

Yes, the economics of booking $10,000 trips to write $1,000 articles pretty much requires it. Unless a writer is independently wealthy or works as a guide, it's pretty much impossible to gain enough experience to keep one's writing interesting month-after-month without accepting sponsored trips. I maintain a real job that pays well so when I started out, I found myself booking expensive hunts year-after-year, only to turn down really great free trips. I've never felt pressure to speak highly of a product that I didn't believe in and I've been on more than one hunt that I never wrote about. To be honest, the bigger ethical battle takes place between the publishers, who are selling advertising, and the editors who are creating the content. Some are better than others: I was once told by an editor that I "could mount any scope that I wanted for the article, so long as it was a XXXXX." That they were taking out full-page ads every month probably had nothing to do with it...

As for serious testing, I had the rifle for several months actually. Since my primary concern was preparing for the safari, I did most of my shooting from sticks rather than on the bench. I probably put 200 rounds through the gun, mostly with the Hornady GMX load.

I imagine that the rifle will shoot well. Looks like the stock is set up similar to the R1. The r1 I had, was one of the most accurate rifles I’ve owned. Maybe I got lucky with it but the the groups it produced would rival most bolt guns.

Nice try but the market is well supplied. Instead of copying Browniing they should try Sauer. A lightweight and affordable S303 would be something.