Benelli M4 EXT Shotgun Review

The new Benelli M4 EXT. Let’s check it out. (Available Here) 

 

The Benelli M1014. This has been used by the U.S. military since the mid-90s. In fact, the Marine Corps is one that uses this extensively. Also, a lot of special ops units, a lot of police agencies, and a lot of just home defenders. These are known to be extremely reliable, low maintenance, and they’re just built for combat.

This is a tactical shotgun. Now, Benelli makes a lot of different types, and this is their new EXT. One thing about the commercial market originally was you had a five-round mag capacity.

In fact, there was a break right here in the tube that wouldn’t allow you to load any more. There’s a lot of aftermarket stuff, but this comes with a seven-round tube, plus one in the chamber, plus you can ghost load this, and we’ll show you about that. This comes with the pistol grip, which is standard for the M4, but it also comes with a collapsible stock that is five position, and a lot of other cool things.

I mean, this is a great upgrade of the original M4 system. Now, we’re going to get into all the upgrades, and we’re going to take it out and shoot it, but guys, this is the top of the heap when it comes to tactical shotguns. While it’s a little more expensive, it’s uber reliable.

And a big thank you to Benelli for sending the M4 EXT for this review. Guys, I love shotguns. They have a lot of great purposes, especially up close and personal.

It’s devastating. One of the best home defense firearms that you can have. They are limited to range, but what they do, they do very well.

Now, this is the Benelli M4 EXT. This is a new version of the Benelli M4, and of course, the US Marine Corps has been really using these for many years, and a lot of the joint services, a lot of special forces, police, the US military all throughout. This is one of the first semi-automatic shotguns that the US military adopted.

But one of the big things about this shotgun right up front is that it did typically have a five round capacity. And there was actually a little stop right here in the tube that would only allow for five rounds. And so if nothing else, having the seven plus one capacity is a big deal.

Plus, you can ghost load and have up to nine rounds right at your fingertips. We’re gonna make sure the shotgun is clear up in the tube. There are no rounds, and check the chamber, and it’s empty.

First thing we’re gonna notice is it has an enlarged charging handle or a bolt handle. So this is just gonna make it easier, and it’s kind of rounded off some, so you can just bring that back, and then you can load those rounds. Also, it has an enlarged bolt release, and that’s here on the side.

And so once this is back, and we’re gonna pop this little button here, hold it into the down position, all we have to do is hit it. And now we’re ready to go. One of the big advantages of the Minnelli M4 is the Argo auto regulating gas operated system.

And this is a dual short stroke gas piston. We’re gonna break this down. It’s very simple to disassemble and to pull that out.

It’s all in the hand guard. And really, this allows for you to almost cycle anything. I mean, some of the non-lethal rounds, you’re not gonna be able to, but we were shooting regular target loads in birdshot with no problem, switch to slugs, and it actually functions better.

It seems to kind of settle down with more high pressure rounds. It’ll shoot your two and three quarter or your three inch. And one big thing about the Argo gas system is that it is low maintenance because it runs clean.

It’s self-cleaning. And so you’re not getting a lot of gas back here on your face. I mean, I’ve heard reports of guys shooting these for years, 20 years, and not cleaning their shotgun.

And it’s still functioning extremely well, going to matches and different training events. Now it comes in three different finishes and this is the multicam black, but it also comes in what they call the H2O, which has more of a silver kind of titanium finish to it, more for Marine use, and then also the FDE version. And so with the multicam black, you have just little spots of camo all through it, through the barrel and the receiver.

And we have an 18 and a half inch barrel and the tube extends all the way to the end. And you have your hand guard, which is a polymer and it’s got a good texture to it. And it kind of brings it down.

It makes it really natural. Plus there’s a little place here to rest your thumb and the tips of your finger on the other side to be able to hold onto it. We do have a QD port right in front of the hand guard.

And of course this is removable. It comes with the shotgun. Then we have another QD port here at the back.

And again, you have your sling swivel attached. The rear sight is fully adjustable. It is a ghost ring and you do have these ears that come up and protect it.

And it’s drilled and tapped. And we have a Picatinny rail on top. We have a white dot front post.

These are protected as well. And it does have a modified choke. And that way you’re going to be able to fire slugs out of this, buckshot, magnum loads, whatever, even target loads.

There are multiple choke options for the M4 and they do supply a choke wrench. And so we can put this in here and we can take this in and out if we want. But I like modified because it is so versatile.

And of course this knurled end cap makes it easy to be able to disassemble. And you’ll notice the lock up to the barrel. I mean, it is solid.

And again, this is where your swivel is. This is really going to firm up between your barrel and tube. Again, you have that enlarged bolt release and we have a nice grab handle to be able to pull this back.

Here we have our ramp and we’re going to look at how to load this because it’s a little bit different, but it’s really a great system. And we have our firing pin release right here. So we hit that and then we pull it back and it locks it into place.

Then you can take your bolt release and hit it and it goes forward. The pistol grip has a really nice rubber overmold over it. And this really just cushions things, but it also has a piece that comes down to give this a lot of stability.

And it kind of rides up at a beaver tail right here at your hand. So it naturally fits right here. So your trigger finger can hit that trigger without any trouble and strain.

This is our telescoping stock and right here there’s a button. So you hit it and then you can just pull this down. And what this does, it drops your cheek down because it goes at an angle.

So it allows you to get your cheek in the right place for any kind of optic or for that matter, the sights. Now, one thing about this that’s really important is that when we pull this up, if you’re wearing body armor or you’re wearing a plate carrier or something, this is going to be able to shorten up and to be able to give you the correct length of pull. The length of pull is nine and three quarter inches all the way out to 14 and three eighths inch.

So it’s got a lot of real estate back and forth. And that button’s pretty enlarged, so it makes it really easy to bring back. And man, wherever you lock it, I mean, it is solid.

And we have a slot for a sling if you’d rather just run it through the stock. And we have a very ample rubberized butt pad. We’re going to hit our firing pin release and then we’re going to pull it back and it’s going to lock it into place.

And then you just drop in your round. And then we can hit that bolt release and it drives it home. Then take your rounds and just put them inside the tube.

And these are dummy rounds guys, so I’m not using live ammunition. Now when we fire the shotgun, the round comes out and it loads the second round. And then when you pull the trigger, it pulls out and then your next round just goes right into place.

Now guys, we ejected that last round without pulling the trigger. And so what happens is it just locks it and that feed ramp doesn’t pull the rounds out of the tube until you hit this button. And now we pull back and then we load the round in.

You need to pull the trigger or hit this little button, which deactivates your striker. So just like that. And so then it will load that extra round.

If I don’t pull the trigger again and I pull it out, it doesn’t load that next round. There’s still a round right here in the tube. So this is a very important part.

And if you’re having any confusion, you might want to make sure that this is actually hidden when you first pull it back and then either that or pull the trigger. There you go. And we added that last round.

And instead of pulling the trigger, we can just hit this. Now, as far as ghost loading the shotgun, we’re going to go ahead and drop our bolt, enter your rounds. Next, take your bolt and just bring it back.

Drop in a shell and it goes down into the ramp. And then bring it forward a little bit and then load in your round. Now we have a round in the chamber.

We have a round right here above the loading gate, and then we have our rounds in the tube. So this is going to give you nine rounds, one in the chamber, seven in the tube, and one under the bolt. And so as we fire it, and that’s as many rounds as we put in it.

And so this gives you again, nine rounds at your fingertips. Now the length with the telescoping stock all the way out is around 40 inches. Once this is collapsed, it gets down to about 35 inches.

It weighs 7.8 pounds. It is not a light shotgun, but it’s very balanced. And with that Argo system that’s up here, which we’re going to take a quick look at, it just gives it a lot of balance.

And when it comes to the trigger action, I don’t feel any take up. A touch of resistance and then a very crisp break. And reset.

Man, that is the fastest reset I’ve ever seen. And this is a very fast shooting shotgun. And trigger pull weight with our Lyman trigger gates and brownails.

Seven pounds. We were getting seven pounds pretty consistently, but it’s a very crisp trigger. All right guys, a big thank you to Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo.

They make a whole line of shotgun shells, every type you can imagine. And these are made in the US, which makes it really nice. And we really appreciate Fiocchi for sponsoring our ammo.

We’re going to be using some different type loads, and we’re just going to load this up. Of course, first thing I do is put it in here and drop the bolt, and then I can come in at the bottom. We can load up this tube.

But Benelli just makes really nice shotguns, so this is going to be a good treat. All right guys, we have the Benelli M4, and this is the EXT model. And this is new from Benelli, but this is a legendary shotgun.

With the Argo gas system, piston system, I mean, it just is very clean, very reliable, trusted by the US military, the Marines. They love this shotgun, and law enforcement, and for that matter, civilians. It’s just an excellent shotgun for home defense, self-defense.

Of course, the 18-inch barrel makes it short, being able to move around inside. But with the EXT model, we have a 7 plus 1 mag capacity. So you have this extended tube.

We also have a five-position collapsible stock, and that gives you wherever you need to put it. But with that angle coming down, it allows you to line your eye up with the ghost ring sights. Pick rail has sling swivels, QD sling swivels.

And we have the multicam black, which has a camouflage finish to it, but it really looks nice. And of course, rubberized pistol grip. Now, you just bring it back.

We have an enlarged bolt release. So first, we take our round with the bolt hole open and just drop it in, and then we hit our bolt release, and that just drops it in. Then we load our tube.

So we’re going to start out with four rounds of buckshot, and then we’re going to do four target loads. So we’re just going to kind of just test a little bit that Argo gas system. Very smooth loading.

Now, those are the target loads. Now we have the buckshot. Now, I’ve had experience with Benelli.

The buckshot has very little recoil difference because of the Argo gas system. I mean, this thing just stays right on target. There’s not a lot that comes back into your shoulder, which Benelli’s known for that.

Now, Benelli’s are a premium, and they are more expensive than a lot of the other shotguns out there. But guys, if you are depending on something for home defense, especially with a semi-automatic, the Benelli is one of the best out there, if not the best. All right guys, now we’re going to disassemble just for basic field maintenance.

And we’re going to first check to make sure the gun is unloaded, and it is. First thing we’ll do is take off our cap for our tube. This kind of holds things together.

Next, we’re going to pull the barrel from the receiver. These are two pieces, so they will clamshell out. And so this is a little bit tight.

So we need just to kind of pop this out because we have part of the chamber extension goes right into the receiver. I’m going to release the bolt and help push that out a little bit. In fact, according to Benelli, you’re supposed to leave the bolt close.

There we go. Well, that was not very graceful, but it comes apart. The two clamshells, that’s your forearm.

And we’re just going to pull our barrel straight out. Now, one thing you’ll notice is there is a split ring here. And at first, I thought you needed to remove that, but it will go over this little bit of an extension right here.

This does kind of swell out a little bit. Then here we have the Argo gas system. We’re going to take a look at that in just a second.

Next, we’re going to take this bolt handle and you just kind of turn it and it pulls right out. And then we can just pull our bolt assembly out. Now you’ll notice this long tail.

And in the back of the receiver and in the stock is a spring. So this actually activates. We’re not going to get into that yet.

And I will leave a video right here of a guy that totally disassembled this and did a great job. But there is your bolt and this piece does not come off. Now here is your Argo gas piston system.

And here are the short stroke pistons. There are two and actually one would do it, but two just makes it more redundant. You want to take your bolt handle and this is actually a tool for disassembly.

You can put it inside and then we’re just going to turn it just like that. And then you’ll just want to unscrew this. And really this is just for maintenance.

You don’t have to do this every time, but I just want to show you the system. Then we can actually just finger loosen this up. And there is a silicone or a rubber gasket right here and that’s what’s giving it tension.

Now with the pistons, just drive them forward and you have your gas checks all the way through here. And of course it’s the same on the other side. You do not put any lubrication whatsoever on these pistons.

That will attract a lot of debris and dust and everything else which gunpowder and gun smoke and all that can build on here. So these need to be dry. Now we have one of the Otis bench blocks.

These things are very useful and with this little piston there is a hole that it fits right into. You’ll notice from the top there is a pin and then underneath is a spring and there’s a plate. So we’re going to take the screwdriver and we need to push down and depress that spring.

And once we get that spring depressed, we can push out that pin. But it takes quite a bit of force. And there goes the pin.

Now we’re going to release this slowly and it should just pop up and it does. Now we’re going to take it, just put it out. You have a spring, you have a little cap, and then we have a small piston here.

And really guys that’s all you need to do to keep up with maintenance. But honestly these stay super clean and really it’s low maintenance. Now I’m not going to take the other one apart just because it comes apart the exact same way.

So we’re going to put it back together. First I want to put in my cap. Then I’m going to put in my piston and spring.

And you’ll see that little disc at the top. Now we’re going to put it back into our little holder and now I’m going to push down on that disc until I get my pin in. And that pin just locks right into place once it sets.

So very simple. It does take a little bit of force to get that spring depressed, but overall I mean it’s not a big deal. Now we’re going to return our pistons and you want the little flange right here to be toward the receiver.

And they both go in very smoothly and you want to keep this clean as well. Next we’re going to go ahead and start with our spring. Now it has a little bit of a rubber gasket so you got to give it a little push.

Then once you get it started just tighten it up as much as you can and then you can bring in the charging handle. Then to tighten things up we’re going to bring back our charging handle and we’re just going to tighten it up. And guys really you can get it pretty hand tight.

This charging handle was made as a tool for disassembly. Next you want to go ahead and check to make sure you do have some play in your pistons and you’re back in business. Now we could disassemble the bolt but I may wait and just do a full complete disassembly of the entire gun.

But really it has that same cam pin action that your AR-15 has. And so that just rotates in and out and it gives you a rotating bolt system. Next we’re going to take our bolt and we’re going to put it back into place.

We want to make sure that it really hits that spring and I can feel it hitting it right now. Then bring over your barrel and right over the tube and you want to get the extension started just like this. You don’t want to go all the way in though because you need to put on your hand guards.

And we’ll go ahead and put in our charging handle. You want to make sure that your mount fits over your tube. So once we get it to a good spot and it’ll say right and it’ll point in the right direction and it’ll say left the same.

So we want to get it up under and it’s just like the old M4 hand guards. They fit up under here and then we want to do that to the other side. And we want to get it towards the front first.

Next you want to hold it into place. I’m going to lock my bolt in the rear position just to make it a little bit easier to get this barrel back on. You want to make sure you have a good solid fit with that barrel just like that.

Then what holds this all together is your tube cap. We’ll just tighten it down. And guys honestly it’s a pretty simple operation.

It’s low maintenance and really to be honest you’re not going to have to really disassemble this that often. But it’s a pretty straightforward approach. So let’s go ahead and make sure and test the function.

The bolt is working and we’re ready to go. Otis makes some of the best cleaning equipment out there. They make a number of different kits that are dedicated for different rifles, pistols.

They also have Shooter’s Choice which makes excellent CLP and bore solvent and different cleaning materials. The Ripcord is one of their signatures and there’s a whole system based around it. They are suppliers to the U.S. military.

So check out Otis Technologies. Highly recommended and we want to thank Otis for being a sponsor of the channel. Now the Minnelli M4 EXT runs $2,599 retail and that’s a pretty steep price.

If you go down to the standard M4 $2,399 and then you go with the M1014 that’s $2,299. And there are different features that it lacks but it does have that Argo gas system, the short piston and it does have a lot of other features. This just has that extended magazine tube which if you’re going to add to a basic five shot tube they can be pretty pricey.

And then of course we have the five position stock and we have the oversized bolt release. And we have the multicam black pattern on it. And typically market price is less.

So what are the pros and cons? First off it’s used by the U.S. military, special forces, U.S. Marine Corps has been using it since the late 90s. I mean this has proven itself to be one of the best shotguns in the world for a tactical shotgun. And so that’s a huge pro just in itself.

This is a legendary firearm. Also it has the telescoping stock. Gives you a stable platform and then it comes down to be able to get to that red dot sight.

It does have Picatinny rails. The ghost rings are excellent sights in themselves. The seven shot is definitely a big plus.

Plus you can actually ghost load this thing to carry nine rounds. The Argo gas system it actually works better with the hotter loads. It just functions better.

But it will function all of your different type loads. Maybe some of the real mild ones you may have to single charge. But overall this is going to be just one of those uber reliable shotguns.

And the Argo gas system also is low maintenance. It’s a very clean self-cleaning system. It’s going to keep maintenance really easy.

And it’s just dependable. Really nice pistol grip. I mean overall this is an absolute beautiful shotgun.

It’s a legendary shotgun. The big con is are you willing to spend that kind of money? But if you want the best that’s what you get. And so the Benelli shotgun is at the top of the heap.

There are some other really nice shotguns out there. But the Benelli has proven itself over a long period of time for being an outstanding combat tactical shotgun. So whether it’s military, police, or home defense.

It makes an excellent choice. So the M4 is legendary. For a tactical shotgun it’s going to be very difficult to beat.

And with the Argo gas system with that dual piston in it. I mean it runs just about anything you put in it. Whether it’s your target loads all the way up to your buckshot.

And again you put buckshot in here and it actually shoots better. And then with the EXT getting those seven rounds plus one plus one. I mean it makes it a great home defense shotgun.

And again a big thank you to Benelli for sending the M4 EXT for this review.

 

Be strong. Be of good courage. God bless America. Long live the Republic.

 

-Don