Benelli 828U Sport - tried one

Was fortunate to be able to put 100 shells through Rugby Gun shop's demo 30" Benelli 828u Sport at Barby Sporting today.   Having tried the ultra-lightweight alloy actioned 828U (positioned as a game gun), previously - unpleasant in the shoulder would be a polite way of saying it beat me up even with 24g shells.

I was keen to try the heavier (steel actioned) clay gun derivative labelled 'Sport' that was announced last year and 1st appeared in the dealers 2 or so months back.  Was agreeably surprised - nicely balanced out of the box (adjustable for balance), a little heavier at a tad over 8 pounds and much nicer all round to shoot, recoil is well managed (damper device hidden in the butt pad).  The trigger is genuinely super-crisp and really light too.

Obviously such a gun is going to be a marmite tool being part semi-auto in appearance whilst actually being an OU - this could be my backup/wet weather gun - genuinely impressed.

I have been curious about this gun for a little while and whilst in the RFD the other day, I saw he had a s/h gun which I might try out on Thursday at Beverley. I had a look at the range of guns online but as yet it is still quite limited as the Sport is only available with 30'' barrels. The little 26'' field gun could make a cracking hide gun for the pigeons but my hide guns are generally cheap so not keen to spend £2500 on a hide gun even if the old pension would allow.

I do want to try it out just to satisfy my curiosity.

Phil

Have been on the lookout for one since shooting that demo gun in early march, the challenge being either 'ambitious pricing' or a piece of timber that may have had a past life in a pallet.  However the stars lined up today - found one with a nice piece of dark, nicely grained wood and at the right money - 220 mile round trip to go and buy it.  Shall have a tinker with it later...

5 hours later...have tinkered, out of the box it seems to be sent up for a kind of average right handed shooter (gun comes with a bunch of shims so one can alter the stock geometry and also the balance by adding or subtracting stock weights.  There is an IC choke in the bottom barrel and an M in the top.  The demo gun I tried was very tight, physically hard to open and felt like a little lube judiciously applied would have helped things - and indeed this one is the same.   Lube has helped..  It does seem exquisitely well made, proper precision engineering. 

Going to shoot the gun 'as is' tomorrow and see how it works in practice.

Cosmicblue said:

Have been on the lookout for one since shooting that demo gun in early march, the challenge being either 'ambitious pricing' or a piece of timber that may have had a past life in a pallet.  However the stars lined up today - found one with a nice piece of dark, nicely grained wood and at the right money - 220 mile round trip to go and buy it.  Shall have a tinker with it later...

5 hours later...have tinkered, out of the box it seems to be sent up for a kind of average right handed shooter (gun comes with a bunch of shims so one can alter the stock geometry and also the balance by adding or subtracting stock weights.  There is an IC choke in the bottom barrel and an M in the top.  The demo gun I tried was very tight, physically hard to open and felt like a little lube judiciously applied would have helped things - and indeed this one is the same.   Lube has helped..  It does seem exquisitely well made, proper precision engineering. 

Going to shoot the gun 'as is' tomorrow and see how it works in practice.

Click to expand...

How did you get on?

Apologies for not updating the thread.

It works really well, I've had two sessions with it and about 225 carts.  Handling is different than the Perazzi, it seems less effort to attack fast, close in targets.  I know this sounds a bit weird but the gun 'feels nice' , it has the tactile quality that separates decent kit from the normally functional, just something extra that's hard to define.  One senses that the 828U Sport was a team of engineers pet project - that 'let's make the 828U Sport as good as it can be' and that filters through to the user experience   The new removable trigger group that differentiates the Sport from the alloy action game gun versions is extremely crisp - Benelli marketed it as 'breaking a glass rod' and that's a good analogy.

With the supplied box of accessories containing stock shims and drop plates I got everything together yesterday evening for a serious bit of gun fitting - found an interesting Youtube video that suggested using Bluetac to attach a drinking straw (kindly donated by McDonalds in my case) to the top rib and thus being able check alignment.  Doing that test I found I could consistently mount the gun and be bang on for line-of-sight down the straw so have decided to leave well alone.

The gun comes with a user manual which is a pretty respectable piece of documentation (unlike a Perazzi - you get the build spec sheet and that's it) and that suggests using Snap Caps.  It specifically states that because the gun cocks the hammers for both chambers when you operate the top lever to open the gun that when storing it you should insert the 'caps and operate the trigger, move the barrel selector over and repeat.  

In the gun's delivery case is black envelope to make contact with Benelli direct, via email, in Italy if you wish to be a participant in the 828U Sport owner feedback process - they define exactly what one should write in the message (probably to stay compliant with GDPR), I have received a formal acknowledgement.  A nice touch.  I'm really looking forward to getting out this afternoon and tomorrow morning with it again.

I think these are fab I very nearly bought one but as Phil mentioned it's a bit steep for a rough shooting gun which is what I was after at the time

Thanks IPS.

The original 828U that came out in 2015 was and was firmly positioned for the game gun market having a lightweight alloy action and was the reason Benelli came up with the floating breech face idea - so when the gun was closed all the explosive load was retained in the barrel assembly.  The alloy actioned gun was unpleasant to shoot for the recoil-sensitive such as myself with large volumes of cartridges as we tend to do in clay target shooting.

The concept of the 828U however was brilliant, a clean sheet of paper approach to an OU shotgun design but cried out for a heavier action, ideally built specifically for clays and that's what the Sport is. The floating breech face is retained which will result in the gun not shoot-loose over 10s of thousands of rounds as the stub pins are not carrying the load of the explosive recoil.

Most likely, because the shotgun market and majority of buyers are fiercely traditional this will take a loooong time to become accepted.   I kind of admire Benelli for having a punt at something new. 

I was having a look at a sporter version a few days ago and just like the game version, the fit and feel was superb in the shoulder although the price difference between the two is somewhat excessive in my opinion but nevertheless it sits high on my 'want to try' list. As a 32'' shooter, I am not sure that 30'' is the way to go for me but until I have tried it, I won't know.

Demo guns were available at the Northern Shooting Show but with rain on and off, I didn't fancy being in a queue so perhaps if I go to the Game Fair, I may get a chance or after the game fairs are over, GMK said they will make demo guns available for RFDs to try them.

Phil

Update - now put approaching 3,000 shells through it.

I'm somewhat recoil averse so by default shoot 24grm shells, I've recently bought 1000 28grm Jockers and find that the felt recoil is similar and yet I know from my HPX Perazzi DSR that it's actually noticeably different - obviously more with the 28s.   Have concluded that the fancy recoil absorber hidden in the 828u Sport's butt actually get's into it's stride with a heavier load.  Still liking it a lot.