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 ?
It be marketing hype fer sure. Parent company Beretta pushes a similar method. They need to do their homework I reckon.
Back in the early 80's, Seattle gunsmith Stan Baker developed & made his own barrels and chokes that gained
high praise from trap shooters back then. Stan's BB-84 barrels were essentially chamberless by having the bore the same .800" dia as the
chamber all the way down to his 10 ga choke tubes. His system worked well gaining averages of 60 fps faster than standard .730" 12 ga
barrels using control ammo confirmed at a major US ammo makers' lab.
This was possible because of the plastic shot cups used in modern shotshell ammo which could expand into the bore to seal the gasses
during firing. The chamberless shotgun idea actually originated in the 1920's but was abandoned because of the fiber wad & card ammo
available then. I tried a Rem 1100 w/BB-84 tube on 'er that pointed & shot fine fer me yrs back.
Only company making guns that get close to this kind of velocity improvement today are the Mossberg 835/935 series units which be 10 ga
.775" bore down to their 10 ga Ulti-Mag chokes. With ammo companies going with ever larger payloads per given sport, larger bore barrels
be the ticket in my book. I got a 40 fps average increase with the budget ammo I used in me 835 trap unit.
