Anybody shoot a Benelli SuperNova? I recommend you don't.

Spyder · #1 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 01:22 PM

Apparently its the second one that the gun dealer at the local Ace has seen this happen to, with different types of ammo. I'm not so sure its a gun problem, but with it happening twice to the same make and model with different types of ammo, who knows.

It wasn't my gun but a guy from work. It was from a factory box of Remington Sportsman Hi-Speed Steel 3.5" shell. He didn't notice it being heavier or lighter than the others in the box. He did say that it was a super light recoil compared to all the other rounds he had fired that day.

There is a double firing pin strike. One in the primer that looks very light and one on the rim around the primer that looks a little heavier. The crimp didn't fold out so I don't know if any bb's even came out or if there were any in it in the first place. There is a tiny bit of melting where one of the heavy creases in the plastic is and the face of the shell has a slight bend in it around about 1/3 of the rim.

He said that the shotgun was "messed up" a little bit around the trigger but up in the chamber and barrel everything seemed normal. I don't know what "messed up" means, but he said that the only damage visible was around the trigger. It is currently en route back to Benelli for replacement. The gun dealer said that the last one they replaced, no questions asked. I wish I would have gotten to see the gun before it was sent off, but the guy that had it blow up on him just brought me the shell.

Anybody seen anything like this before?

Sinister Angel · #2 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 02:33 PM

Holy shit.

Spyder · #3 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 02:46 PM

Lemme say that I'm not blaming this on the gun. Benelli has a great reputation and I don't want to imply that they're unsafe...but this has been the second one that this guy, who sells them for a living, has seen in the past year or so...so I'm doing a bunch of research before I buy one. I've been wanting one of their autoloaders for a long time...and now I may wait until I hear/research some more...

ZeroOctane · #4 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 07:44 PM

I don't know too much about shotguns as I don't own one and have only shot one several times, but that looks very dangerous. But even I am familiar with the Benelli name and know from fellow shooters, particularly hunters, that they make fine products.

In my hunter education course that I took a long time ago I remember the story of the guy who accidently puts a 12 gauge shell in his 10 gauge shotgun and then goes to shoot it later and when it doesn't go off he thinks it's not loaded and puts in a 10 gauge round only to blow open the barrel and his hands. Well, that round doesn't look much better than the pictures I saw of the blown open shotgun.

dkozloski · #5 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 08:09 PM

I was at a guys house and he shows me his .45-70 trapdoor Springfield. He looks to see if it's loaded and can't see down the barrel. He closed the breech and lowered the hammer by hand. He rammed the cleaning rod down the barrel and BANG!!. He looks at his hand and it's burned and the cleaning rod is stuck in the ceiling. We opened the breech and found the remains of a .45 Long Colt revolver cartridge case. His boys had been messing with it.

Spyder · #6 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 08:10 PM

Ha, wow...yea, that's one I havn't actually heard before Koz. This guy had been shooting all day though...so I don't think it had anything to do with the wrong caliber...

Good lesson for the gun rookies on here though...

**Rolex** · #7 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 09:23 PM

That's interesting. It looks like your typical case failure that you'd see in a centerfire round. I don't recall ever hearing about anything like this with a shotgun round. Was the barrel plugged with something?

ETA: with the "double primer strike" I'm guessing this was a semi-auto shotgun? I imagine the blowback threw the bolt slightly out of battery and it dented the rim when it came back in. I'll wager in the absence of BBs this was a defective shell.

Spyder · #8 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 11:28 PM

Nope. Pump action gun. Weirdly enough.

That was my thought. He told me his Benelli blew up on him and showed me the round. I saw the double strike and thought "crap, you're out 14 hundred bucks" and he said no, it was only 450. Turns out it was a pump gun. Anyways, I don't think the barrel was plugged because he'd been shooting all day. It doesn't look like a plugged barrel to me either because the failure seems to be in the chamber, not further down. The way the shell is, it looks like the brass was forced about 45 degrees out of alignment with the bore and the wad went out through the side.

Dunno...gonna do some research on it tomorrow when I have time. Right now I'm picking up a taxi with some folks to go do some hell raisin'.

**Rolex** · #9 (**permalink**) 10-24-07, 11:38 PM

Well damn. I'm

Let us know what you find out.

Red_October_7000 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-25-07, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkozloski

I was at a guys house and he shows me his .45-70 trapdoor Springfield. He looks to see if it's loaded and can't see down the barrel. He closed the breech and lowered the hammer by hand. He rammed the cleaning rod down the barrel and BANG!!. He looks at his hand and it's burned and the cleaning rod is stuck in the ceiling. We opened the breech and found the remains of a .45 Long Colt revolver cartridge case. His boys had been messing with it.

Reminds me of a story I read of a fellow who had a .50cal musket, and he read how soldiers would make explosive rounds for them, so he decided to have a go. He clamped a mini-ball type round in a vice, drilled out an aperature of appropriate size, and inserted a .22cal blank with the ass end leading. He makes up a few of these and goes out shooting -the venue of choice is an old fence equipped with tin cans. The first shot not only absolutely obliterates the tin can, but the top 6" of the fence post. Like any red-blooded male, this capacity for destruction brings a painful grin to his face. He loads up another, but as he drops the round home, instead of it plunking into place, it fouls on some unburnt wadding and doesn't go home. Naturally, and without thinking, he uses the rammer on the shell and after the second tap hears a muffled sort of "Spip" as the .22 blank goes off. Not a second later the full charge went off and sent the rammer and who knows what all else of the shell flying up into the sky. He heads towards his truck, but his girlfriend, in a fit of "chicken-with-head-cut-off", has locked herself in. The rammer landed smack in the ground right in front of his boot. He decided not to play with exploding musket rounds any more...

CIWS · #11 (**permalink**) 10-25-07, 09:16 AM

Yeah it's one of the "cheap" Benellis. The M shotguns rock, although they are certainly not cheap.