Wait, an over/under from Benelli? You bet your cannoli. It’s hard not to love Italian shotguns and Benelli’s foray into the double gun game is, as you’d expect, extremely impressive. It’s a modern, sleek take on a traditional design. The 828U features an aluminum receiver (with steel hinges), carbon fiber rib, cushy gel comb, shim-adjustable drop and cast, a fully removable trigger group, a fiber optic front sight and more. All in a very light package – a slight 6.6 lbs. for the 28″ model . . .
That light weight made it swing like a dream, but Benelli’s Progressive Comfort (a system of internal buffers in the stock) keep it from kicking like a mule. Sure, the black receiver model runs $2499 MSRP while the nicely figured nickel version will set you back $2999. But this ain’t your average gun. Oh, and it’s a Benelli.
Jeremy hits some clays:
http://youtu.be/d8gmuZoAqes
Ooooooo
Ahhhhhhh!
Another lovely gun which I cannot afford.
“If you have to ask how much it costs, then you probably can’t afford it”…. darn, I was drooling up until I saw the MSRP
Not that I could afford it, but that receiver design just looks disgusting.
I guess I am to simple a man too understand the want of an only 2 shot shotgun. I look at it from a self defense or home defense firearm. I guess I need more then 2 shots. 🙁
Obviously not intended for that use, notwithstanding Joe Biden. 🙂
I love my Benelli’s but don’t hunt or shoot trap so I don’t really see a need for this.
But damn, I want one.
Hello, Glock single stack 9mm, Y/N? Did glock threaten all media at industry today to not post on this? This is the biggest unanswered question if shot show 2015. Please, help?????
Um, no. No they didn’t. No surprise unveiling.
Love the futuristic look and tangless receiver (Ljutic has had them for years on their $10,000 trap guns, so we know it’s a functional design), but the front of that fore end is just fugly. Also, any 12 gauge OU that weighs only 6.6 pounds is going to give you a serious pounding (unless the entire buttstock is made out of Nomex). Give it a steel receiver, give the fore end a nose job, and knock $1000 off the MSRP and I’ll be Benelli’s new best friend.
I’ve shot the Ethos and their new recoil reduction system built into the stock is very effective.
Doesn’t look like a lot of kick in the video.
Yeah, Ken and Felix are right. The multi-stage recoil reduction system that’s built into the buttstock is definitely effective. It was really pleasant to shoot. I could shoot it all day long for sure. I’ve definitely had days at the sporting clays course where I’ve shot 144 to 200+ rounds in a single day and I think I could do that with an 828U. It might kick just a teeny little bit than the O/U that I own, but it’s way lighter and my O/U is one of the softest-shooting I’ve ever tried.
Jeremy-
In the video, is that a 26 or 28″ barrel? Looks short
They lost me at the aluminum receiver.
Why do you think they did that? Are people that hung up on weight?
Probably.
There’s a big divergence between European (esp. English/Scottish) guns and American guns on weight. This is because America’s gun makers don’t have a proof house at their disposal. We also have many more types of ammo in 12 ga, with a wider spread of MAP’s.
So… we end up making our barrels much beefier, which means heavier.
In the UK, some of their fine guns have barrels with wall thicknesses down to 0.025″ – whereas the typical American gun (or gun made for the American market) will have barrel wall thicknesses upwards of 0.035 to 0.040″. This makes our guns heavier, and slower-swinging than the Brit guns. Why don’t the Brit guns have barrel failures? Because they have a proof house. Before their barrels are allowed onto a gun, they have to get a provisional proof. Then when the gun is finished, the barrels are proofed again. The Brits will fire a series of rounds through the gun that have overly heavy shot loads, which pushes up the pressures to the 16K PSI range on a 12ga. If the dimensions of the chamber and barrel don’t change after firing proof loads through the barrels, then they receive the proofing stamps, and the customer knows that they have barrels of a known quality.
The closest thing we have in the US to a proof house is the HP White Labs company, who can/will do non & destructive testing on guns for a price.
Why don’t I like aluminum receivers? Because if you put a scratch into that receiver, you’re not re-blueing it – you have to re-anodize it. And you have to get the job to match the blueing – as they’ve obviously done above. This means that your local gunsmith who knows how to refinish guns typically won’t/can’t do the job for you – you’re probably sending it back to the factory to get something as trivial as a scratch taken out of that receiver. Aluminum works on the AR platform because a) they’re not nice guns, everything is finished in flat black, and b) all the pressure issues are contained in the barrel extension and the bolt. On a double gun like this, you’ll have pressure & shock loading on the hinge pin, and then pressure issues on the breech face and sides of the receiver if there is a case failure.
Aluminum is one of those things that is an instant disqualification for my “nice gun” category – right after plastic. For the price here of $2K on up, I expect steel.
…there’s no normal hinge pin on this (it’s some weird crazy thing I didn’t get a chance to check out closely enough) and the breech face is steel as per comments below.
But yeah, the scratch thing. You could get the nickel receiver if that’s your concern, I suppose?
There’s a steel block thing between the shell and the receiver. It’s a novel design that I haven’t personally seen before. I have seen aluminum receiver competition shotguns with way over a hundred thousand rounds through though so I’m not sure I have any personal reservations about it. This thing felt really dang nice and looks sleek as hell.
Hey DG, I got a couple closer photos for you. The steel breech block or whatever you want to call it locks into the steel of the barrel above the top chamber and it’s in steel on the bottom also. It takes all of the recoil energy. The aluminum receiver doesn’t do much besides hold the trigger group, which incidentally drops right out the dang bottom by pushing a recessed detent button with a pokey object. The ejectors are actually cocked by the firing of the shell — propellant gasses cock the ejector mechanism, which is housed in the barrel assembly. Not gonna lie, I think this thing is pretty freaking cool. There’s a lot of new stuff happening here and it looks and feels really good. Pics of the action and the Benelli 828U launch party in this Box.net folder: https://app.box.com/s/mu805ediehrd3r2yzv5ym34i7foif7bw <<< I think the top of the barrels where they connect w/ the receiver looks like the bow of a high tech luxury yacht or something. But that shiny silver "tongue" thing that I had a hell of a time photographing w/ my cell phone in the bar moves around a bit and as you close the action, the top of it locks up into the steel of the barrels.
Hey, thanks for the additional details, I really appreciate that.
I guess I’m still stuck on stupid. I don’t understand why they’d take this approach. They could, if they wanted a really light gun, gone to 4340 (or similar) steel for the barrels and made a lighter set of tubes. They could reduce weight in the ribs. They could go to 4340 in the receiver as well, and still have the strength and just use less material. That steel breech block appears to be quite the complicated bit of machining.
Aluminum in a high-dollar gun just bugs me. In a sub-$1K field gun, sure, OK. My Beretta A390 has an aluminum receiver, it is as reliable a semi-auto as I’ve ever seen… and the receiver is simply covered with scratches and gouges. It is an all-flat-black, synthetic stock gun, so hey, I’m not bugged by the field wear from chukar hunting. Scratches on a nice clay sports gun? Oh, that would bug me no end.
Nickel is nice, but it scratches and wears too, but it probably would look better after a little wear than anodizing that has scratched through. The other thing that I decided bugs me (after sleeping on it) is the front end of the forearm. Those points on the wood are going to be prone to chipping off.
I dunno, you’re close to a Browning or a used Guerini at that price point, both are durable. Too light for a comp gun.
Dan, did they indicate whether the trigger is mechanical or inertia reset?
It’s inertia reset.
I like over unders to look traditional, so I’m not digging the looks. The wood color and figure looks nice though.
Can I get a decent O/U in 20 guage for trap/skeet/dove season for less than $800?
No.
New? No. You’d have to look in the used market.
What to they call that swell in the side of the receiver? Muffintop, Hangover, Dunlap, fatass?
I don’t care for the aesthetics. Too “swoopy” for my taste. They really botched the model designation engraving. What’s with the 80’s computer font? Nothing I see could convince me to trade out of my ’54 Sweet Sixteen.
No thanks. I can miss just as well with my Winchester 120.
The Franchi Renaissance of a few years back also had an aluminum receiver with a steel breechface insert, so this is nothing new for the Italians. It was so light that I would hate to shoot a round (100 shots) of sporting clays with it. The only recoil attenuating device was a weird looking pad that looked like what can only be described as a prosthetic fallen uterus. Maybe it worked better than it looked, but I’ll gladly leave it up to others to find out for sure.
Cant find one anywhere. Ive been to all LGS and cant find one. Not even gunbroker. Come on Benelli ship this puppy out already! !!!
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