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Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 157
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OP
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Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 157 |
Anyone here running a Benelli Montefeltro Sporting? Looking for some feedback on what you like/don't like. Thanks.
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 407
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Campfire Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 407 |
Looking at one of these also for my daughter. Hopefully some one will chime in with experience.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 4,284
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 4,284 |
Not sporting but a 20 gauge Montefeltro with 26" barrel. Have used it exclusively since I purchased it in 2003. Used for doves for first season every day for 10 days in September. Then on to quail. Season is approx second week of October to first week of February. Have put several thousand rounds though it. Very reliable.
There are a few things worth mentioning. The bolt handle can sometimes catch on brush which can move the bolt with its rotary head rearwards ever so slightly. It is enough to prevent the shotgun from firing. If the trigger is pulled the gun won't fire there will just be a click followed by a shell coming out of the magazine. Should this happen while shooting at a bird, pull bolt rearward and let it snap shut. It will eject round in chamber and the one that came out will be chambered and you can shoot. As a result of this occasional issue I am in the habit of occasionally pulling the bolt back a bit and letting it snap it back into full battery while hunting. This issue still gets me once or twice a year while hunting mearns quail in thick cover.
I keep four shells in the magazine for quail season, emptying gun after a hunt. Even so after a few years I noticed that sometimes the last shell wouldn't always leave the magazine with enough speed to place it in correct position for the bolt to pick it up. The issue is the hollow plastic piece that rides in the magazine tube will get dirty. In addition the spring began to loose its full pressure. Solution is to at least once a season to unscrew magazine tube and clean inside as well as plastic piece AND stretch the spring.
While cleaning isn't necessary for an entire dove season with 25 boxes or so fired, sometimes a basic cleaning and light oiling of bolt and adjoining pieces will help with fast cycling.
I have found the supplied chokes to perform a bit tighter than their name might imply. To date I only tried the modified once. I use improved for dove and gambels quail and can hit them at some very long distances with 1 oz field loads of 7 1/2. Cylinder choke is used for mearns with 1 oz of #8s. Have dropped many mearns as far as 35-40 yds. (of course mearns are easily dropped with a single pellet)
A friend has an Ethos in 20 gauge. That shotgun doesn't have the issue with the bolt getting out of battery but I recently looked at a new montefeltro and it still has this issue.
Hope this helps.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 10,090
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 10,090 |
I hunted with one, well tried to, for two years. Dam thing is SO light I couldn’t shoot it as well as my 11-87, plus it kicked more, way more.
Could be perfect for your daughter though.
It�s a magazine not a clip......
Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most, like it the least.�
- Lord Chesterfield. 1750
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 823
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 823 |
Not sporting but a 20 gauge Montefeltro with 26" barrel. Have used it exclusively since I purchased it in 2003. Used for doves for first season every day for 10 days in September. Then on to quail. Season is approx second week of October to first week of February. Have put several thousand rounds though it. Very reliable.
There are a few things worth mentioning. The bolt handle can sometimes catch on brush which can move the bolt with its rotary head rearwards ever so slightly. It is enough to prevent the shotgun from firing. If the trigger is pulled the gun won't fire there will just be a click followed by a shell coming out of the magazine. Should this happen while shooting at a bird, pull bolt rearward and let it snap shut. It will eject round in chamber and the one that came out will be chambered and you can shoot. As a result of this occasional issue I am in the habit of occasionally pulling the bolt back a bit and letting it snap it back into full battery while hunting. This issue still gets me once or twice a year while hunting mearns quail in thick cover.
I keep four shells in the magazine for quail season, emptying gun after a hunt. Even so after a few years I noticed that sometimes the last shell wouldn't always leave the magazine with enough speed to place it in correct position for the bolt to pick it up. The issue is the hollow plastic piece that rides in the magazine tube will get dirty. In addition the spring began to loose its full pressure. Solution is to at least once a season to unscrew magazine tube and clean inside as well as plastic piece AND stretch the spring.
While cleaning isn't necessary for an entire dove season with 25 boxes or so fired, sometimes a basic cleaning and light oiling of bolt and adjoining pieces will help with fast cycling.
I have found the supplied chokes to perform a bit tighter than their name might imply. To date I only tried the modified once. I use improved for dove and gambels quail and can hit them at some very long distances with 1 oz field loads of 7 1/2. Cylinder choke is used for mearns with 1 oz of #8s. Have dropped many mearns as far as 35-40 yds. (of course mearns are easily dropped with a single pellet)
A friend has an Ethos in 20 gauge. That shotgun doesn't have the issue with the bolt getting out of battery but I recently looked at a new montefeltro and it still has this issue.
Hope this helps.
Another example of the Benelli click
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Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 157
Campfire Member
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OP
Campfire Member
Joined: Apr 2014
Posts: 157 |
Thanks for the insight. I run a super black eagle but was looking for something more of a target gun. I'm down to the montefeltro sporting or beretta a400 xcel. There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there on the monte sporting, but most with the regular monte seem to have good things to say.
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 4,943
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Nov 2008
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The Montefeltro, even in sporting get-up, is pretty light. I have a hunting Montefeltro and like it a lot, but it too is quite light.
The main reason folks who seriously shoot sporting clays with autos almost without exception use a gas gun. The advantage of the gas gun recoil attenuation. As a result, a number of folks use heavier 1 1/8 oz loads in the gas gun that otherwise create discomfort.
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,808
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,808 |
If you are going to use it for more of a target shotgun, then a really LW is not necessarily an advantage....More than a few sporting stations require a smooth follow thru....LW's tend to start quick and slow down fast....
laissez les bons temps rouler
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 11,262
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Sep 2009
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A wise man will listen to battue!
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,808
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 20,808 |
Well, I’ve seen you get a shotgun working quickly and accurately. I doubt if either one of these choices would cause you any issues.
laissez les bons temps rouler
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,103
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,103 |
I think the B Monte’s are very good shotguns. You don’t mention ga or configuration, or purpose so it’s a little difficult to advise but the basic shotgun IMO is one of the best choices for upland game there is. My experience is really limited to wild pheasants though.
My evolution as a Heartland pheasant hunter where “walk and carry” can go miles upon miles on uneven ground Has brought me to two primary guns (I also use a Beretta SxS) — 20 and a 12 Ben UL’s with 24” barrels — mirror images of each other but at 5.5 and 6.0 lbs respectively. Even at those weights, one finds shifting the gun to one side or the other Frequently after three-four miles or so. And I’ve never have been hampered by a magazine that only holds 2 as in the UL. The Monte’s and most SA’s hold 4.
I’m also purely a self-taught, “snap” shooter, looking only at the bird as it rises, crosses, or goes straight away. The B’s light weight (Including the Monte) spring up to the shoulder very quickly. Often the gun hitting the shoulder and slapping the trigger are almost simultaneous. Light weight enables all of this.
As has been mentioned many times the inertia recoil system saves weight and a monkey can strip these guns down and clean it, and reassemble in minutes. I fully understand weight (and a gas action) being an advantage in the clay sports, but as a rank amateur In clay sports, I have gone 25/25 in trap a fair number of times with light inertia guns.
A word about recoil that so many seem to worry about with the B’s. I’ve never noticed recoil in the field until I came upon these 12 ga loads: the various 1 3/8 oz loads at 1450-1500. Those I noticed and frankly I think they are unnecessary for pheasants. The typical quality upland 2 3/4” 12 loads of 1 1/4 oz at 1300 fps or so and the 20 1 oz loads at 1245-1300 fps are fully sufficient.
Montefeltro’s are very good guns as I have gone through three of them to finally arrive at the BUL’s, which is really just a lightened Monte, and not by much depending.
Benelli’s aren’t perfect but they make great upland SA’s.
Edit: the Benelli “click” is much ado about nothing. Just make sure the bolt carrier is in battery. How many times does one adjust other stuff?
Last edited by George_De_Vries_3rd; 05/28/20.
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