Benelli has been known as the premier, top-of-the-line shotgun for shooters of all disciplines for quite some time. The price of their guns reflects the standard they've stood by for so many years. The M2 Stands out as a more affordable option compared to the SBE3 or ETHOS lines. Today we'll dive in and find out just how valid this middle-of-the-road Benelli is. Let's go!

BENELLI M2 SEMI-AUTO

This Benelli has as MSRP of $1,559 - I got mine for EVEN LESS than that at Reeds Sports

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QUICK SPECS

• 12 gauge (20ga available)
• Finished in Max 5 (Various others camos available)
• 3" chamber
• 28" Barrel (26" and 24" available)
• 7lbs 2oz  
• Length of Pull 14 3/8" 
• Drop at Comb 1 3/8"
• Drop at Heel 2 3/8"
• Comes with 5 chokes

TRIGGER

• 6.4lbs (Average pull weight)
• Not super crisp
• It is a bit heavier than I was anticipating

ERGONOMICS

• The first thing I noticed was that the trigger guard may be a bit small if you have to wear gloves in colder climates like Minnesota
• I'd call the pistol grip medium size, which I like - I usually like it pretty narrow, but for an all-around gun, it feels good 
• It mounted OK. Felt a little bit rear heavy (may result in barrel whip)
• Super nice grips all the way around
• The trigger guard, receiver, and loading port have a pretty typical Benelli design 
• The forend has a nice large contour to nicely hold your fingers. The shape on the m2 is too much If I were to grip the forend with my pointer finger pointing
• Triangular cross-bolt safety on the back 
• The bolt release is quite tiny and hard to push
• Comfort tech stock and butt pad
• Mounts good!
• Nothing special overall
• This m2 has a fiber on front

Recoil/Reliability

• The initial recoil came nicely into my shoulder
• What I really noticed was the M2's tendency to whip right after each shot - this could be a gun fit issue but it seemed to really like to pull that way
• The similarities between this gun and a lot of the other Benellis make me want to take them all out and test the differences...Let me know if that sounds interesting!
• I was very impressed with how easily this gun cycled from unconventional positions as an inertia gun!
• Recoil was as expected - reliability is good

Disassembly/Build Quality

• It's a Benelli - Breakdown and simplicity is kind of their bag. Good stuff!
• Generally speaking, the only Benelli weak point I'm aware of is the bolt handle - I did some torcher tests in the snow with an SBE3 and the bolt handle fell right off!
• I love the trigger guard single pin design - super easy
• Assuming you're not treating your guns like this, you should be just fine with the M2...lol

SPEED SHOOTING

• I was able to accomplish shooting three hand-thrown clays in 1.08 seconds (Splilts of .20 and .20)
• I was having some trouble outrunning that trigger!
• The fasts Splits I had were .18. NOT bad but not the first choice of a gun to go fast with

 In summary, I think that this Benelli M2 is decent. I was especially happy with the reliability of this gun. There were some trigger hiccups when I got to speed shooting, but at the end of the day, most folks aren't trying to acquire 3 targets in under a second. With that said, ergonomically and economically, I may choose this gun over the SBE3 if price was a factor. Recoil is very similar. Looks and feel are pretty close. This is not a bad gun at all. Check it out at REEDS!

Whether our targets in the field or our targets in life, we will only hit what we are focused on so live the #targetfocusedlife 

Stay Target Focused,

Steve