The title says it all.
Anyone have experience with the Benelli M3?
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The title says it all.
Anyone have experience with the Benelli M3?
Had one for a couple decades along with an M1 and M4. Very cool but didn't fill a need. Pump action was sorta useless and didn't work as nice as an 870. Really only good for less lethal and what I believe it was created for. A folding stock is sorta cool but not necessary. I sold it when I ran out of room in my safes.
Dennis.
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Worked at a gun shop for a few years on and off while in college from about ‘98 to ‘01. They had an M3 that sat on the shelf from well before I worked there (had a friend that worked there before me that got me the job, and then became friends with another guy that had worked there before him. Nobody could remember he gun NOT being there).
It was there so long, and so many people had asked to finger-bang it, that some O-ring or other had failed and I managed to convince the owners to sell it to me at a deeper discount than even my employee discount (which was, typically, cost). I called up HK (Benelli was/is owned by them and the only reason the M1 and M3 were there was supposedly that the shop had to buy them as part of a minimum order to be an Hk dealer because Hk didn’t go through distributors and the shop was trying to get the contract to supply the Universally Shitty Pistol to a local PD, which means the M3 could have been sitting in the shop since about ‘94 at the earliest) and got them to send me the replacement parts and it solved the problem.
I shot it a few times, but it was nowhere near as cool in practice as it was in the shop and I quietly sod it off at a profit. I kept my police-trade-in 870 instead, of that tells you anything.
Had one for several years... Manual of arms is more of a pain than a 870... kept those, still have them. M3 is long gone to a HK collector... cool gun but not terribly useful to me at least.
Our Tactical team looked at them when we retired 870s for general use.
My understanding is the idea was to have a semi auto fighting shotgun which could be manually operated for specialty rounds such as Less Lethal.
I think the idea of running lethal and less lethal in the sane gun is fundamentally flawed.
I purchased an M3 a few months ago. It has quickly become one of my favorite guns to shoot. My 1301 is finicky with ammo less than 1400fps and the M3 eats everything in semi auto without fail, and obviously shoots anything in pump mode. Switching to the pump from semi-auto and back on the M3 takes a little bit of practice to get the action down seamlessly, but once you understand how to do it, it's easy. Because the M3 is inertia driven versus gas, cleaning is a breeze versus gas powered semis, particularly my 1301. If you purchase one, make sure you change out the lifter because the one it comes with is a thumb killer - there's a gap in front of the lifter your thumb will get stuck in. For the new lifter I went with the one from Taran tactical which is a game changer. I also switched the bolt release because the little nub that it comes from the factory with is a little tough to navigate. For the bolt release I went with Freedom Fighter Tactical and use the round one because the rectangle release is too big when you use it as a pump and the forend hits it when you pump back (they send you a round and a rectangle button when you buy from FFT). I really, really enjoy this gun. I got it new from a dealer on Gun Broker for a decent price. I think it's probably the most underrated Benelli. I also have a SuperNova, which is a great gun, but I prefer the M3 now.
I love Benelli shotguns… I own an M1, but the one thing I hate about them is the length of pull of the stock! I think my M1 has about 14”. I was able to cut the stock about 1.5” but the amount is limited by the recoil spring tube inside the stock.
I don’t know if the M3 uses the same operating system.
Agreed on the Benelli LOP. I put the Mesa Tactical Urbino stock on the M3. Works great.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pnut
Was it reliable as a semi?Quote:
Originally Posted by rcbusmc24
The only reason I'm looking at the M3 is that it is one of the few semi autos that will fit into the existing shotgun racks in our patrol cars (meant for pump guns like the 870).
We had a guy run one in class maybe 10 years back. I remember it because it was unique, and it wasn't terribly reliable in semi mode. The rear sight went walkabout early on day 2, never found it. I could stop the tube from feeding just by squeezing the forend too tightly. I was not impressed.