Benelli AI fact or fiction

reddog

CGN frequent flyer
Super GunNutz
Rating - 100%
76   0   0
So hearing a lot about the new Benelli AI (ADVANCED IMPACT) barrels. So is there something to this or is it sales propaganda, I know the forcing cone is longer as are the new chokes but thinking is it that much better ?
 
Sorry O rarely read black and green so did not see that there was a dialogue on this "new" design ,which I agree seems to be marketing.
 
Well, I went to my local dealer looking for a semi 12 ga for clays. After looking at several brands, the showed me the Benelli ethos AI Sport with the wood stock. The gun fit me perfectly so I made the deal. Absolutely love the gun. As to the Advanced Impact -seems the barrel is over bored to near that of a 10 guage. the chokes are nearly 6 inches long and are also over bored to the extent that you can actually drop a flush 12 ga choke tube completely into the rear of the Benelli tube. As to the performance, I seem to be having more dust balls than ever at skeet and sporting clays and yes, the recoil is very mild similar to a 20 ga. In my estimate with more that 40 years shooting clays and in the industry it seems to be Benelli's take on the Fabarm tri- bore system --- My humble opinion that this is a winner for me. Don't understand why some folks run down a new product without seeing or trying it. Cheers and keep your powder dry!
 
Well, I went to my local dealer looking for a semi 12 ga for clays. After looking at several brands, the showed me the Benelli ethos AI Sport with the wood stock. The gun fit me perfectly so I made the deal. Absolutely love the gun. As to the Advanced Impact -seems the barrel is over bored to near that of a 10 guage. the chokes are nearly 6 inches long and are also over bored to the extent that you can actually drop a flush 12 ga choke tube completely into the rear of the Benelli tube. As to the performance, I seem to be having more dust balls than ever at skeet and sporting clays and yes, the recoil is very mild similar to a 20 ga. In my estimate with more that 40 years shooting clays and in the industry it seems to be Benelli's take on the Fabarm tri- bore system --- My humble opinion that this is a winner for me. Don't understand why some folks run down a new product without seeing or trying it. Cheers and keep your powder dry!
Sounds like fancied up jug choking or back boring with a longet choke to " normalize" the big back bore😁
Cat
 
Last edited:
Well, I went to my local dealer looking for a semi 12 ga for clays. After looking at several brands, the showed me the Benelli ethos AI Sport with the wood stock. The gun fit me perfectly so I made the deal. Absolutely love the gun. As to the Advanced Impact -seems the barrel is over bored to near that of a 10 guage. the chokes are nearly 6 inches long and are also over bored to the extent that you can actually drop a flush 12 ga choke tube completely into the rear of the Benelli tube. As to the performance, I seem to be having more dust balls than ever at skeet and sporting clays and yes, the recoil is very mild similar to a 20 ga. In my estimate with more that 40 years shooting clays and in the industry it seems to be Benelli's take on the Fabarm tri- bore system --- My humble opinion that this is a winner for me. Don't understand why some folks run down a new product without seeing or trying it. Cheers and keep your powder dry!
Glad that it is working so well for you.
I have Benelli's predecessor called Cordoba Competition that was customized by Briley. This included over boring, long forcing cones, tuned trigger, weighted front cap and who knows what else. It works well, somewhat better patterns than my Super Black Eagle 3. There are several barrel techs such as Wilkinson that "tune" barrels for trap shooters so there is little doubt in my mind that Benelli can high tech their Benelli's for better performance. How much better---that's for the shooteres to tell us.
 
I was at a sporting clay shoot recently where Beretta/Benelli was sponsoring the event so they had a booth set up with a bunch of their guns that you could try.

Since I was actually on the market for one, I picked up a Franchi Affinity 3. The station had a crossing looper followed by a 24 yard straight-away target. It was a true pair, and the looper came in so quickly that you really had to take it first. By the time you get to the straight-away, it was already pretty far out there.

I was hitting the straight-away with the Franchi, but I was mostly just splitting the clay in half or chipping it.

Then I picked up an Ethos. I didn't realize at first that it was the Ethos A.I., and I immediately started hammering that straight-away. It wasn't turning the targets into dust, but the breaks were noticeably better with several smaller pieces instead of just chips or a clean split.

The rep was standing there and explained the Advanced Impact system to me, pointing out that I was breaking the straight-away noticeably better with the A.I. than I had been with the Franchi.

So naturally, I picked up the other Ethos he had there, the non-A.I. version, and tried it.

Sure enough, the breaks went right back to chips and split targets.

I'm 110% convinced they designed that Beretta/Benelli station specifically so they could demonstrate the A.I. against the other guns. 😂

And to be honest, I was impressed. Same choke constriction in both Ethos shotguns and same barrel length, but the A.I. was producing noticeably better breaks on that longer straight-away target.

I actually can't recall what the rep said about the A.I system. Whether you take all of Benelli's ballistic claims at face value or not, I can at least say that, on that particular station, I could see a difference for myself.

And I couldn't resist asking the rep whether the gun worked off of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or some other form of A.I. 😂
 
The new barrels that are designed for defense against drones can presumably only be truly tested by use against them but I've never encountered any results coming back from Ukraine, if those guys even get any. What most of us want are patterns that are useful at much more moderate distances so I'm happy with regular issue Benellis.
 
While shooting targets at 140 Meters is impressive to say the least, I noticed none of them were crossers, now that would be impressive!

George Digweed was shooting 130 yards targets in 2011 with just his sporting clays gun without a high tech barrel. I say it's more about shooter ability than the barrel.
 
I was at a sporting clay shoot recently where Beretta/Benelli was sponsoring the event so they had a booth set up with a bunch of their guns that you could try.

Since I was actually on the market for one, I picked up a Franchi Affinity 3. The station had a crossing looper followed by a 24 yard straight-away target. It was a true pair, and the looper came in so quickly that you really had to take it first. By the time you get to the straight-away, it was already pretty far out there.

I was hitting the straight-away with the Franchi, but I was mostly just splitting the clay in half or chipping it.

Then I picked up an Ethos. I didn't realize at first that it was the Ethos A.I., and I immediately started hammering that straight-away. It wasn't turning the targets into dust, but the breaks were noticeably better with several smaller pieces instead of just chips or a clean split.

The rep was standing there and explained the Advanced Impact system to me, pointing out that I was breaking the straight-away noticeably better with the A.I. than I had been with the Franchi.

So naturally, I picked up the other Ethos he had there, the non-A.I. version, and tried it.

Sure enough, the breaks went right back to chips and split targets.

I'm 110% convinced they designed that Beretta/Benelli station specifically so they could demonstrate the A.I. against the other guns. 😂

And to be honest, I was impressed. Same choke constriction in both Ethos shotguns and same barrel length, but the A.I. was producing noticeably better breaks on that longer straight-away target.

I actually can't recall what the rep said about the A.I system. Whether you take all of Benelli's ballistic claims at face value or not, I can at least say that, on that particular station, I could see a difference for myself.

And I couldn't resist asking the rep whether the gun worked off of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or some other form of A.I. 😂
The same rated restriction, isn't the same choke, which I would attribute most of the difference to.
 
I watched a video online where they tested the velocities of several shotguns, as well as penetration tests using gelatin. The AI barrel produced about 1% more velocity than the others, and the penetration was virtually the same.

The main feature is the ability to get deeper into the consumers pocket and it is very successful at that.
 
I was at a sporting clay shoot recently where Beretta/Benelli was sponsoring the event so they had a booth set up with a bunch of their guns that you could try.

Since I was actually on the market for one, I picked up a Franchi Affinity 3. The station had a crossing looper followed by a 24 yard straight-away target. It was a true pair, and the looper came in so quickly that you really had to take it first. By the time you get to the straight-away, it was already pretty far out there.

I was hitting the straight-away with the Franchi, but I was mostly just splitting the clay in half or chipping it.

Then I picked up an Ethos. I didn't realize at first that it was the Ethos A.I., and I immediately started hammering that straight-away. It wasn't turning the targets into dust, but the breaks were noticeably better with several smaller pieces instead of just chips or a clean split.

The rep was standing there and explained the Advanced Impact system to me, pointing out that I was breaking the straight-away noticeably better with the A.I. than I had been with the Franchi.

So naturally, I picked up the other Ethos he had there, the non-A.I. version, and tried it.

Sure enough, the breaks went right back to chips and split targets.

I'm 110% convinced they designed that Beretta/Benelli station specifically so they could demonstrate the A.I. against the other guns. 😂

And to be honest, I was impressed. Same choke constriction in both Ethos shotguns and same barrel length, but the A.I. was producing noticeably better breaks on that longer straight-away target.

I actually can't recall what the rep said about the A.I system. Whether you take all of Benelli's ballistic claims at face value or not, I can at least say that, on that particular station, I could see a difference for myself.

And I couldn't resist asking the rep whether the gun worked off of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or some other form of A.I. 😂

It does sound like there is some kind of tangible improvement here.
 
Back
Top Bottom