Benelli Ethos

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Benelli Ethos

Postby UnaStamus on Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:23 pm

After three days of blasting away at clay pigeons and very few pheasant since it's apparently a terrible year in South Dakota, I got to know my new Benelli Ethos pretty well.

The unboxing itself is somewhat more exciting than any other gun I've ever bought. The goodies that come with the shotgun are unique to Italian guns. When they sell you a quality gun, they want you to know it's a quality gun. They also want others to know that you have a qualit gun. This started with the included hard case that Benelli gives you. The case is a gray plastic take-down hard case. It closes securely, and it can be locked. It's not flight/airlines worthy, but it's perfecly good for storage, show or travel in your own vehicle. The inside of the case holds a disassembled shotgun. The case is lined with plush faux suede cushioning, and there are different stylized dividers to hold the included accessories. There is a separate compartment for the manual, which is the usual Benelli highly-detail multi-linqual manual that basially reiterates how simple their shotguns are.

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Inside the case are the shim sets for changing the length of pull and cast of the stock. I have never needed these, but I might play with my stock if I get bored some night.

The Ethos is unique in that it has interchangeable front fiber optic sights. You can switch between red, green and amber fiber optic sights. The shotgun comes with red installed, and I was figuring that Benelli would sell the other two as accessories. Much to my surprise, Benelli included all three in the case.

Benelli had a habit of giving you choke tubes in cheap plastic containers. Now they give you a plastic case that holds four Cryochokes and a choke tube wrench. This prevents you from losing the chokes and wrench, which has happened before with previous Benellis I've owned. You get all five of the Benelli chokes, with the cylinder, skeet, modified, improved modified and full CryoChoke tubes.

Once I put the shotgun together, I couldn't help but admire the Ethos. It's a beautiful shotgun. As soon as I pulled it out of the case on the morning of the first day, the other five guys hunting with me immediately noticed. They were all very impressed with the look of the shotgun. The model I bought was the model with the engraved nickel plated receiver. There is scroll type etching around the upper portion, with the rest of the nickel having a semi-matte brushed appearance. Common with Benelli, the top of the receiver was attached to the barrel. This truly enhances the aesthetics, and with the Ethos they did a great job. The barrel and receiver top are a traditional bluing as opposed to the more common and less visually pleasing annodizing.

We had some rain hit us on Friday, and the bluing held up to the moisture and wind. As long as you dry it off, it sheds the elements well and keeps its luster.

The stock is a finished walnut style, and it looks beautiful. You look at it and wonder how the weight was kept down with a hard wood stock. Pull off the forend and you figure out how. The forend is thin and long, and feels great in the hand. When you pull it off, you see that it appears to be some kind of lightweight composite with what is likely a veneer covering it. The foreand has virtually no weight, and it sort of blows your mind that it can look so beautiful and not be full heavy walnut. It's not a structural component that needs to absorb recoil, so I guess it makes a lot more sense to make weight cuts where you can.

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There are other design elements that catch your eye. The loading port is very large with smoothed edges. The rear of the loading port has a concave indentation. The shell carrier is designed to funnel the shell into the magazine when loading. The underside of the composite/polymer trigger guard is rounded to cradle a cartridge. All of these design components essentially act as one big multi-piece feed ramp that allows you to load cartridges faster and with less effort. They definitely thought this through. The magazine follower is an annodized red aluminum piece, and it looks pretty cool. It's a much better and more durable option than the plastic followers you get in cheaper guns.

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The most noticeable benefit to the Ethos by far was the weight. My Benelli Super Black Eagle synthetic 26" was the first gun I ever bought when I turned 18. I've been humping that thing in the field for 14 years in South Dakota (besides holding in deer blinds and goose pits). The SBE with synthetic stock weighs in at around 7.7lbs. Fully loaded with 4 field shells, it's around 8.1lbs. That doesn't seem like a lot outwardly, but when you're spending 3-4 days walking through upwards of 5,000 acres of CRP land, cattails, crops, tree strips and bluestem, it wears on you a little bit. Compare that to the Ethos with 26" barrel, which has a dry weight of 6.4lbs, and it's a bit of a difference. The Ethos fully loaded with 5 shells weighs in at about 6.9lbs, plus or minus. Even with one extra shell in the gun, I'm still over a pound lighter with the Ethos.

The light weight benefits the swing of the shotgun. It comes up to the shoulder quickly and allows you to swing is with ease as you shoot and follow-through.

The raised rib on the barrel is a separate piece that is removable and interchangeable. The rib is made out of carbon fiber, and it has an uncoated matte carbon fiber appearance that does not reflect light. Aesthetically it is very pleasing, but it also allows you to eliminate light glare on the rib without needing to mill in ridges or serrations. The rib has the typical Benelli middle metal alignment bead, which aids in more precise shots. The size of the fiber optic front sight is substantial, and it makes for faster shots on target. The fiber optic is also very bright, and it stands out dramatically against the background. This is a much better and brighter sight than on previous Benellis I've owned or used.

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The rib is slightly raised, but I would like some more elevation on it. Benelli does not currently have replacement ribs on their website, though I can't help but wonder if they have plans for it in the future. I would like to see options of replacement ribs of different heights. Part of the allure of this shotgun was the potential to change out the rib to a different height to better fit my face. I tend to sit a bit high on the stock, so a higher rib benefits me better than a lower one.

When I look at this shotgun and what it does, I think that it is a hybrid of the Legacy and Ultra Light. They took elements from both and made some tweaks and introduced their new design evolution. This made for a great shotgun; at least until 2 or 3 years from now when they come out with an evolution of this shotgun that I want even more...

As far as shooting it, the gun shoots with typical boring Benelli reliabilty. I did have one malfunction with a 1 1/8 oz light trap load on the morning of day 2 when I was warming up with my brother doing a round of trap outside the farmhouse we stay at. The gun ejected the shell, but the bolt locked halfway back. This was the first time I had shot the gun, and Benellis are inertia-driven shotguns. They all require a break-in period before they are considered to be fully reliable. Over the weekend, I fired all of about 50 rounds out of my gun, but most were magnum field loads. I plan to put the gun through its paces at the gun club and keep breaking it in more. With all that being said, I got the gun pretty dirty with dust, dirt, grass and other plant material, and the gun never failed. It had no other malfunctions and digested loads with multiple stalks of bluestem grass in the action at one point.

I know that people are reading this and wondering if this is one big worship session of Benelli. Some are asking if there is a "but" in the future. Well, there is... but it's subjective. The recoil mitigation is somewhat of a mystery to me. Benelli has really talked up their Progressive Comfort recoil mitigation system, and quite frankly I think they've over-sold it. The recoil mitigation what not nearly as effective as I was expecting. I noticed significant recoil with a 1-1/8 oz #8 trap load, which surprised me.

My primary field load was Kent FastLead 2-3/4" 1-1/2oz 5 shot at 1420fps. I also had some leftover FastLead 1-1/4oz 4 shot at 1330fps that I needed to burn through. For the few times we hit public/state land, I used Federal BlackCloud 3" 1-1/2oz 3shot magnum loads at 1450fps. If you are familiar with field loads, you know that these loads are pretty heavy and harsh for recoil. They will beat your shoulder up regardless of what you use.

The nature of the Progressive Comfort design module is that it is supposed to reduce more recoil as the load charge weight increases. The heavier the load and the more the recoil, the more recoil the Progressive Comfort module is suppposed to mitigate.

I used the Kent FastLead 1-1/2oz 5 shot load to test several Benellis that were out there. I tested the Ethos against my Super Black Eagle, my dad's M2, and my uncle's Montefeltro. If I ordered the shotguns from least recoil to most, it would look like this:
1. M2
2. SBE
3. Ethos
4. Montefeltro

The Ethos is the lightest of the four, and I'm sure that the weight is a major contributing factor to the felt recoil. It's a matter of physics, and you really have to work miracles to get around physics. The heaviest of the group was the SBE, followed by the M2, the Montefeltro and then the Ethos.
SBE - 7.7lbs
M2 - 7.1lbs
Montefeltro - 6.9lbs
Ethos - 6.4lbs


The M2 is about 3/4 of a pound heavier, but the ComforTech stock on it truly is a great feature. That stock really does a fantastic job at reducing felt recoil. The Super Black Eagle is the original model and not the current Gen II model, so it is just a straight synthetic stock with no ComforTech feature. The weight of the SBE is what reduces the felt recoil, so while it is the boat anchor of the group, that boat anchor weight at least gives something back to you. I suspect that a SBE II with ComforTech stock would be softer-shooting than the M2.

The Montefeltro and Ethos both have wood stocks, which cannot be fit with the ComforTech stock technology since that system requires a synthetic stockmaterial. The Progressive Comfort system is currently only fit to the Ethos and the 828U over/under. Both of those models have wood stocks. The Progressive Comfort system is likely their wood stock answer to the ComforTech synthetic option. I think that the system does its job, because the Montefeltro is a half pound heavier and had more felt recoil. Subjectively, the Progressive Comfort stock system does work when compared to a standard wood stock. I would be curious to see if Benelli starts offering it on the other wood models like the Montefeltro, Legacy, Sport, Ultra Light and SBE II wood stock.

So, if you've made it this far you'll probably suspect that I am very happy with this shotgun. The Ethos is a beautiful shotgun, it shoots well, and I love it. This is my third Benelli that I've owned, and fourth that I've bought (bought my dad his M2 for Father's Day).

I want an over/under shotgun, and I've wanted a Beretta 686 Ultralight 12ga O/U for years. When I saw the Benelli 828U, I was sold on that thing. I WANT ONE. The problem is that the 828U is like a unicorn right now in my neck of the woods. GOOD LUCK. I want to get hands-on before I buy one, so I didn't order one online. If I find a Beretta Ultralight, I may buy it. Beretta discontinued it, but it looks like they reintroduced it. At 5.95lbs, it is certainly lighter than the already light 6.5lb 828U. For next year, I may have to get yet another shotgun. The question is whether it will be a Benelli or Beretta.
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UnaStamus
 
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Re: Benelli Ethos

Postby mmcnx2 on Thu Nov 05, 2015 7:33 am

Benelli under Beretta's direction has really stepped up their auto product. Which was not always the case. Some of their early autos kicked like a mule.

That said the 828 is the ugliest O/U being built today. They used the receiver blank from an auto and it just looks wrong, and the forearm is worse than something gone wrong in the front grill design department at fiat.

I got a chance to shoot one and it also feels as weird as it looks compared to other doubles.

If you want a double buy a real one, Beretta's are great as are Guerini, Rizinni are all very very nice.
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Benelli Ethos

Postby gun_fan111v2 on Thu Nov 05, 2015 12:58 pm

Thanks for the review - I enjoyed reading it. I often think about a Benelli as I am getting beat up by a Stoeger :)
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Benelli Ethos

Postby LumberZach on Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:20 pm

I used to be really against buying guns not made in America, benelli being the biggest offender. After playing with a few of them though I'm beginning to see the light and like them quite a bit. It's hard to even find poor reviews of them(over under not included haha) in most cases.


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Re: Benelli Ethos

Postby gbono23 on Sun Nov 29, 2015 12:24 pm

I've had one for a year and a half, even after 3 rounds of trap I can continue to shoot. The recoil is so light for a 12 ga, its amazing. I love this gun, yes it was expensive, the most I've paid to date for a gun, but it was worth every penny of it.
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