Benelli freezing up?

[Dr. B]

Last weekend after breatking 1/4 inch ice in the hole, a few ducks started popping in. Only problem was my Benelli turned into a single shot. Then, to make matters worse, on a group of 6 pintails that cupped at 25 yards, my gun failed to fire. I assumed the bolt wasn't closed all the way. Needless to say, I was beyond pissed since the duck numbers were not stellar and the opportunities for shots were limited. I sprayed some WD 40 in and it seemed to work fine after that but of course, no more birds came in. Gun had only about 50 shells through it since last good cleaning. Have any of you had trouble with Benelli acting up when temps are in the 20's?

Thanks.

Dr. B

[bottomland84]

Quackerkiller had one do him like that one day on a cold day, the gun was brand new also. That was enough for me not to spend that kinda money on a Benelli.

[MrGoodtime]

Strip it down , degrease it , then lube it with graphite(sp) powder, no more freeze ups, i do this with all auto loaders, and havent had one freeze in yrs.

[maverick21]

WD 40 will gum up if that's what you've used to clean. Rem-oil it after a good cleaning

[chs36]

been through that years ago. got laughed out of the duck hole for buying it in the first place.(just figured i's try one)stand hung up,froze up,you name it... later the barrell flew off it not once but twice(ring piece that fits over the tube kept breaking) but benelli was great about sending me a new barrell twice. then i figured i wasn't meant to own a benelli so i parted with it. i DID let the man know that it liked to sling barrells off who baught it and he got it anyway at a great price.. guess the ol say'n "best lessons in life are the ones that cost you" stands true. must have just been my luck because everyone else i know that shoot them love them??

[deltadukman]

Had a beretta pintail. Practically the same gun. Dealt with it for years every time the temps got in the low 30's or lower. Ended up being told something about the metal in the reciever contracting and throwing off some angle or something it needed to be aligned for when cycling. I stripped it, put a sure cylce....everything.

[duramax]

Never had anything like that happen to my benelli. Had the SBE1 and loved it and never had a single issue. Bought the SBEII when it came out and the only issue I have had with it was it occasionally (max 1 time per hunt) wouldn't feed a third shell the first season. Only happend when I shot Xperts. Next season it never did it again. Not sure why it did it. Hunted with it in weather in single digits and it's never frozen on me. I clean it the normal amount. I break it down every week (breaking it down is so easy on a Benelli there is no excuse not to do it). Blueing is starting to wear off the reciever and the rubber on the recoil pad shows a good bit wear, but I won't part with this gun. It fits me like a glove and it treats me right. I've put a couple cases of shells through it each year for 6 seasons now.

[crow]

My twice-barrel ain't never jammed or froze up...not even once! My Daddy once said anything other than a double was just a single shot waiting to happen. Think he was right!

[duramax]

[mallardchaser]

I have a 1 and a 2...They both will "freeze" up...Actually they get slow cycling and you have to manually feed sometimes. This doesn't happen very often. If you don't have it on your shoulder good it won't cycle either. I hardly ever clean mine and it works great 98% of the time. I put very little oil on it. I use brake cleaner and a small amount of rem oil...It did fail to cycle today on a large group of teal.

[BR549]

It's dirty! It may be from lack of cleaning, it may be from cosmoline (if it's new) IT MAY BE FROM RUST FROM CARRYING IT ON YOUR SHOULDER WHILE WALKING IN THE WATER WITH THE STOCK SUBMERGED! Number 1 problem on a Benelli! The stock tube and piston must be in absolute "polished" condition for this gun to function properly. ANY RECOIL OPERATED CAN KILL YOU IF DIRTY! This Benelli will also fire with the saftey on if dirty enough. (But so will a Beretta)

Do not grease it, pour graphite powder in it, use Rem oil on it, or spray it down with WD-40 (except in a pinch to maybe fire a few shells) All of these will absolutely stop the function of most any recoil operated gun. Strip the gun and use some type of "gun scrubber" and hot soapy water. If you use hot enough water the gun will pretty much dry itself. The stock must come off and the recoil spring and piston must come out and be cleaned. (and possibly polished back to a mirror finish internally) If you don't know how to do this take it to a competent gunsmith that does! But please have this done every time the stock goes in the water! Once everthing is cleaned Benelli recomends putting them up dry but I've found that to cause a little undue wear. I use a product called Lube All. It's very similar to WD 40 except it won't trap water. Spray just a very light film on your hands and hand rub in any moving part on this gun while reassembling it. A Benelli is as fine a gun made but it is a "high" maintenence gun. So are most guns that are hammered with 3.5" shells though. All of em get dirty with use, most people just don't know how to clean em properly. A lot of people don't know that some Benelli's even have a gas port in em. But any gun with a rotating bolt can kill you or the guy sittin next to you if it gets dirty enough! When a gun goes to single shootin it's long overdue for a thorough cleaning! A SBE when properly cleaned will shoot anything from the lightest load made to the heaviest load made just as fast as you can pull the trigger! Never miss a beat and won't "freeze" up on a cold day!

[bottomland84]

Sell it and buy two Browning Golds.

[grant_c]

my benelli does that sometimes, I usually have to pull the spring and stuff out of the stock and air hose it then rem oil it and its normally good to go for the season

[stevea]

strip and degrease clean and polish spring and piston in stock spray down with pure silicon don't use oil products have fixed a bunch of them this way

[quack fiend]

Boy, a nice used A-5 mag-12 sounds better and better all the time. You benelli boys are missing out on the finest duck gun ever made! (IMHO)