Benelli ComfortTech Question

[Hookmaster]

I am thinking of getting a Benelli M2 for my son and talked to a guy in the gun dept of Gander yesterday. He said to try and shoot one first since he and another guy in the gun dept would bruise their cheek when shooting one. He said the ComfortTech dampens the side-to-side vibration of the gun except for the top of the stock near the shooter's cheek. I know it depends on how low the face is on the gun. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[S.D. Ice Angular]

I have a SBE II with the "Comfot Tech" set up.

I have never been bit by the stock. I really like it.

I am not sure if the stock set up is different on a M2 vs. SBE II or not.

[johnsd16]

Typical terrible, poor advice due to lack of knowldge and common sense from a Gander gun dept employee. Everyone's face is different and you need to get a shotgun that fits your face. Unless your son is one of those guys you talked to, forget what they said, plus they forgot to mention the most important part.

Cheek slap is due to the gun not fitting properly with regards to stock dimension, most notably here "drop at the comb".

When a gun has too much drop at the comb you see the back of the reciever when you press your cheek down on the comb of the buttstock, and if its way too much drop you don't even see the bead. This is when guys get slapped. So to see the bead and target which would be obscured by the back of the reciever if you kept your cheek on the stock, you have to lift up your head just a bit. Now there is some space between the comb and your cheekbone, when the gun goes off, it will slap you, and after a few rounds leave you with a nice bruise over the bone. Your cheek might still be touching the stock, but very lightly.

Imagine this. I'm going to try and punch you in the chest. If my hand is already pressed onto your chest with just a pit of pressure, I can't do much to make the impact hurt you on the surface. Now if I pull my fist back so it is off your chest I can hit you and the impact will make your skin hurt. Same pricipal.

When a gun has not enough drop at the comb you see too much of the rib and it looks like the bead is perched atop a long ramp no matter how hard you smash your face into the stock.

When a gun fits perfectly, you have a good cheek "weld" on the comb of the stock. No pressed so hard it hurts, but not just barely making contact either. You are looking at the rib in a plane exactly parallel to the rib so it looks flat, and you see the whole bead on the end sitting on top of a flat ramp that you can't see any of since you're looking in perfect line with it.

#1. The benelli with comfortec has a gel insert on the comb where it contacts your cheek. If these guys were getting slapped bad enough to complain by a comfortec benelli they must have some really poor shooting mechanics. I assume you know of this pad as you have been shopping these guns

#2. Benelli autos come with shim kits so you can change the drop at the comb. There are 5 or so that can be flipped different ways to make a bunch of different fits. They ship with the one in that has the most drop at the comb, why I don't know. So when I shoot them out of the box I get about as much slap as they can give. I had to adjust mine to have the least possible drop for a perfect fit.

Changing these shims you can get these guns to fit 99% of peoples faces. Rarely did I see someone who had a very long thin or short fat face that couldn't get it perfect for.

I have/had shot every benelli made through 2008. I used to work for a dealer that had a shoot every summer where the various reps brought all the guns in their lines to shoot, open to the public. Gun dept employees were supposed to shoot all the guns they had never handled before.

So I have literally shot all the benelli's. I shoot a Cordoba, out of 34 shotguns I shot one day, it was hands down the best (along with a browning citori golden clays with the gra-coil recoil pad for $3500). I have had the rep hold two other guns for me, taken shots at two clay targets with a SBE II without comfortec, handed him that, taken two shots with a SBE II with comfortec, handed that off, then taken two shots with a Win SX3, and done that with various guns all afternoon. I do have some perspective. I'm not basing this off of, "well I have a remington, and my buddy shoots a browning and he says his uncle's winchester is better than both" blah blah blah. I've shot them, and the berettas, remingtons, winchesters, brownings, stoegers, franchis, and S&Ws.

I bought a benelli with comfortech if that says anything. I've hunted 3yrs with it, and it hasn't let me down yet. Rain, dirt, snow, -25 degrees, sporting clays, ducks, snows, pheasants, woodcock, grouse, a turkey. Lots of other great guns out there that won't let you down either, but for fit, smooth shooting and reliability I went with benelli because of the fit and smooth shooting. The inertia operated berettas are great too but I don't like how they cycle.

No significant difference on the comfortec SBE stock and the comfortec M2 stock.

[SmilinBob]

I should have read this before I posted on the shooting talk section, basically says the same thing, worded different. Johnsd says it right, mount the gun solidly, then get out and try different guns, DO NOT base your decision on "my buddy has...I heard...a salesman told me..." if you ask around your friends that have guns I bet most will let you try different ones so you can form your opinion based on experience.

[Hookmaster]

Thanks for the replies. The reason I'm interested in the M2 for my son is I have been shooting an M1 Super 90 since 1996. I did adjust the shim on mine one increment to get the point of impact right. The last 2 days in North Dakota last fall I let him shoot it. He shot very well with it. In fact the very first bird he pulled up on was a 35-yard one shot kill of a passing drake bluebill. You should have seen the smile on his face. The next morning on another longer passing shot on a gadwall, I missed all 3 shots and he killed it on his third. I asked him if he liked the gun and he said, "Yeah!" I figured the M2 replaced the M1 so I would think it is pretty much the same gun with the ComfortTech, Cryo barrel, etc. The shims are another reason I like the M2 because you can make that adjustment if needed.

[johnsd16]

Thanks for the replies. The reason I'm interested in the M2 for my son is I have been shooting an M1 Super 90 since 1996. I did adjust the shim on mine one increment to get the point of impact right. The last 2 days in North Dakota last fall I let him shoot it. He shot very well with it. In fact the very first bird he pulled up on was a 35-yard one shot kill of a passing drake bluebill. You should have seen the smile on his face. The next morning on another longer passing shot on a gadwall, I missed all 3 shots and he killed it on his third. I asked him if he liked the gun and he said, "Yeah!" I figured the M2 replaced the M1 so I would think it is pretty much the same gun with the ComfortTech, Cryo barrel, etc. The shims are another reason I like the M2 because you can make that adjustment if needed.

Exactly. If you take an M2 off the rack, it may slap your son a bit, but adjust the shim to the stock dimesions of your M1 and you'll be good to go. That's why its so silly when guys say, "oh I even borrowed my buddy's shotgun with those adjustable shims and couldn't hit a thing and it bit me on the cheek every shot".

You have to adjust the shim before you can make a final say. The guns that come with shims can be adjusted to fit 95%+ of the shooters out there. So, in guns with shims, the "off the rack fit" you get in the store means nothing really. If you are shopping all models that are adjustable, you should buy on feature benefit (action system, finish options, saftey style, barrel length, etc) and price, not fit, since that can be changed. For shotguns that are not adjustable, if they don't fit in the store, don't buy it. You will never hit as well with a $2000 gun that fits you poorly as you will with a $200 that fits you perfectly, plain and simple.

With all the major manufacturers putting shims in their upper end autos "off the rack fit" has largely been taken out of the equation. Benelli, Beretta, Winchester and Browning all have shim kits in nearly all of their autos.

Over-unders is really where fit is a big deal since those are often purchased by guys that plan on shooting a ton of rounds and speinding good money. Todays high end autos are bought more on features than fit (and name).

Good luck with the new gun whatever it ends up being. Sounds like you have a great passtime with your son. Mine little guy is 1 and I look forward to the day he and I share a duck blind and he shows me up shooting.

[Hookmaster]

My son definitely loves duck hunting. I remember how proud I was the first time he came with (without a gun but with a slingshot). With the addition of a yellow lab last September, he said "So will we be going pheasant hunting next year too?" Now if I can only get him more interested in fishing.

[goblueM]

not to hijack the thread, but i have an M2 and after hunting with it the first time this fall i noticed the rubber looked like "pruny" skin like you get in the bathtub

whats the deal with that? I probably should have taken it right back as i dont think the rubber should be reacting like that to some simple light rain

[Bryce]

Seeing the same thing in my SBE. Also keeps popping out in the back after a couple shots. Shop that sold it to me knows it's coming back. Just need to make time to drive it out. Will let everyone know how Benelli customer service is.

[goblueM]

i heard from somebody that they lost the butt pad and benelli was going to charge him 100 bucks or so for it. he said forget it, i'll stuff some padding and duct tape it.

their response was "nobody is shooting a benelli with duct tape on it, we'll send you one for free"

now that's second hand so i cant vouch for the validity, but something to check out