Hello forum members...
In December I purchased a new Benelli R1 rifle (not carbine) in .300 Winchester Magnum caliber. I was impressed with the innovative modular technology, the overall esthetics of the arm, as well as positive reports I read on the Internet. When I got the rifle home, and after a somewhat awkward and inexperienced assembly of the rifle (yet following carefully the instructions provided with the rifle), and after mounting a Nikon Monarch 2-7X, I took it out to for a shooting trial. My first shot the case jammed in the chamber! Accuracy was good but I experienced repeated jammings on subsequent firings. I also had failures to feed from the magazine. This was an unhappy situation.
As I could not determine what was causing these jams and failures to feed, and seeing no clear way to rectify the situation myself, I returned the rifle to Benelli USA. After waiting for a week or so, I got a call from a friendly Benelli technician saying that he had tested the rifle and there was nothing wrong with it. Duh. He said that he was sure I had overtightened the barrel cap piece when assembling the rifle. Two little red dots have to be lined up exactly or the rifle will not function correctly. I said OK, you are probably right. I will be more careful when I get it back.
I got the rifle back and reassembled it and breathlessly awaited function with my first clip full of ammo downrange. Worked perfectly! Subsequent firings with both factory loads and reloads the rifle continued to function fine. I have had no jams since I got it back. Closer examination of the assembly process reveals that it is impossible to assemble the rifle with the barrel cap too loose, as then a noticeable gap develops on trying to fit the forend to the rifle. And it is not possible to overtighten it as the dots do not line up. I still do not know exactly what I was doing wrong, but it works fine now which is the main thing.
I post this experience and warn potential Benelli consumers that it is extremely important not to overtighten the parts when assembling the rifle. Read the instructions carefully! I think Benelli should provide more of a Bold Print warning in the instruction booklet to this effect.
I really like the Benelli. It is light, fast handling, and a beautifully designed piece of firearm engineering and technology. No doubt it was quite pricey, but hey...
I am interested in long range accuracy and rapid fire functioning once the ground thaws out up north here, I can move around more, and I can more thoroughly perform necessary shooting tests. I have only shot it at 100 yards but it is inherently capable of 1" groups, as long as I do my part and the wind is not blowing too hard.
Cheers,
Gary
