Clean vs dirty benellis

[RiverRoost]

I know all guns act differently, but never owned a benelli before and curious if people typically see them like clean or dirty barrels?

[runngun]

I know folks say that it doesn't matter clean vs dirty, but I have NEVER seen that. I have always gotten better patterns with a squeaky clean barrel. After cleaning it with Carburetor cleaner, a brush, I wipe out with paper towels and then soak a paper towel with denatured alcohol and shove through the barrel. I also clean my chokes in a ultra Sonic cleaner. Over the last 40 plus years I have shot and cleaned a LOT of shotguns.

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[Tom007]

Even when the barrels are chrome lined, as with the Benelli and many others, I clean every Turkey gun after every shot. That being said, when I hunt, the barrel is clean. I set my optics up with a clean barrel every shot. They all seem to pattern better when the barrel is clean. Has worked great for me....

[Ranman]

I'm going to say clean, because that's all I have tested. Have been happy with the results from a clean barrel, so never felt the need try try otherwise.

[Greg Massey]

I have shot them both clean and dirty and i really can't tell that much difference with TSS and today's shotguns / back boring / lengthen the forcing cone, chokes all of this helps in what i look for with patterning my shotguns.  It's just your own preference .. IMO 

[bbcoach]

About 15 years ago, when Hevi 13's were the rage, many people experimented with polished vs dirty barrels.  Most got higher pellet counts and better patterns with a clean, polished barrel then a dirty barrel.  At that time, the consensus was about 10% higher.  With the denser shot that is shot now, I don't think it really matters. Dead is Dead!  Since I still shoot the Hevi 7's, my 835 barrel still gets a quick polishing every spring prior to opening day.

[3bailey3]

I clean mine after every shooting, still amazed at how much trash gets in the barrel with one shot.

[bwhana]

After burning through a lot of shells on paper in the past 10+ years, I discovered that cleaning the choke tube made the most difference in my guns, not the barrel.  This is especially true in the Indian Creek where slivers of plastic wad gets caught in the grooves. I use brake cleaner and a brush and I am always amazed at what comes out of them after just one shot.   I do use a bore snake through the barrel 1x with denatured alcohol between shots most times, but not always.  This may not be the case for everyone, but works well for me. 

[RiverRoost]

After burning through a lot of shells on paper in the past 10+ years, I discovered that cleaning the choke tube made the most difference in my guns, not the barrel.  This is especially true in the Indian Creek where slivers of plastic wad gets caught in the grooves. I use brake cleaner and a brush and I am always amazed at what comes out of them after just one shot.   I do use a bore snake through the barrel 1x with denatured alcohol between shots most times, but not always.  This may not be the case for everyone, but works well for me.

That makes a lot of sense that the choke would be perform better clean vs the barrel. May have to try that

[stinkpickle]

Wait....we're supposed to clean them?

[Ihuntoldschool]

I don't see any difference. The bore stays really clean in the Crio barrels with the chrome lined bore.

I don't clean mine and it still looks clean.

Big gun for waterfowl. I doubt if they swab between shots.

[g8rvet]

I swear my old 870 got worse with a polishing and shot better after a couple of shots. 

Benelli Nova had crappy POA but it patterned best squeaky clean.  hated that dang gun for turkey.

[DMTJAGER]

Five or six years ago I bought a advertised as "UNFIRED SAME as NEW in BOX" Benelli Supernova off GunBroker for a very reasonable price, the two big selling point for it to me was #1 it's receiver was D&T for a scope and #2 it came with a Benelli factory pistol grip stock . Thankfully it proved to be exactly as advertised.

Just while patterning it alone, I have fired at least 50 12ga 3.5" WLB/XR turkey loads out of it using it's Benelli XTA-F choke and three aftermarket turkey chokes. Sometimes I cleaned the barrel and choke between shots sometimes I didn't.

Based on my pattern results from my 36"x36" targets shot at 40 yards, I saw no measurable improvement in my patterns from a clean barrel, or dirty barrel and four different chokes. Incidentally although not by a significant degree, my BSN patterned better out of a dirty barrel than my 870 ESM did from a clean barrel using 12ga 3.5" WLB/XR's with 2oz loads of #5 shot.

Bearing in mind this is a sample of results from exactly only one BSN and only one ammo type.

Lastly I will NEVER even consider buying a pump or SA shotgun whos's receiver is not D&T'd.

[Kyle_Ott]

I own 4 M2's and another dozen turkey guns.
I bore snake the barrel and hit the choke with a brush between EVERY shot.
I have literally NEVER seen a shotgun pattern better on a fouled barrel.  The more debris the wad encounters navigating the barrel the less the shot inside it settles.  Destabilized shot leaving the choke then flies erratically and fewer pellets end up at the point of aim.

Keep those barrels clean if you're chasing the best pattern densities you can achieve. 

[Bottomland OG]

I swear my old 870 got worse with a polishing and shot better after a couple of shots. 

Benelli Nova had crappy POA but it patterned best squeaky clean.  hated that dang gun for turkey.

I can believe that. I had an old black eagle 1 that shot as good as you could want one to but I had the barrel polished and the pattern went to crap.