Afternoon Folks -
I posted this at the end of another thread, but thought I would post as a separate thread in case others wwere interested. Bought 80 rounds after this, of the 165 Hornady - that should last me a while!
Post:
Here's a range report - the Benelli R1 Comfortech is very pleasant to shoot! Even in 300 Win Mag, my wife, who's a 115# waif, had no trouble shooting it. I loaded one rounds for her, and then she loaded 5 more for herself after that.
The magazine is a little tough to get seated. The forward end goes in first, then you swing the back up. You really have to apply some pressure to seat the aft end of the magazine. The bolt handle and action worked flawlessly. And it is a real pleasure to hold, very ergonomically friendly. It does send the spent case back against the action just aft of the ejection port, so I have some (~25) small scratches. I expect it'll look like the front of a nose-guard's helmet before long. I would rate it an 8.5 over all. Very light, very easy to handle, wonderfully-reduced recoil, flawless action, but not too happy about the case deflection and the magazine is a pain to seat.
Ok - on to the performance. On the sandbags, at 100 yards, it performed very well I must say. I purchased 10 different premium cartridges, but only brought nine with me (doh!). It does not like 150gr bullets (Benelli does indicate what the twist rate is) as well as the 165gr and 180 gr bullets. All groups were 3 shots. I went through all nine with one shot, then again, then again (that's why I am moaning about the magazine, I had to seat it 27 times). I waited two minutes between shots. That barrel got very hot. The 150 gr rounds actually had the advantage, they went first in series. I started with e few fouler shots. In parentheses is the order is which they were fired in series. I'm a huge fan of Remington's centerfire handgun ammo; I swear by the Golden Sabers and use that for all my performance loads. But in 243 Win, 7mm Rem Mag, 5.56 Nato, and now in .300 Winnie it falls behind Federal and Hornady. My 1/8" Rock River .223 loves the 69 and 77gr Gold Match Federal rounds. My 1/10" 243 Win loves the 70gr Federal. My 1/9.75" 7mm Rem Mag likes the 165gr Federal Nosler Accubond. It rivals my best handloads.
What you see below is the average of two sets of three. I went through all nine (times three), waited for a target change, then went through them again.
Here are the results for the .300 Win Mag from the 24" Benelli R1:
1) 165gr Hornady SST Interbond - 0.573" (3rd in sequence)
2) 180gr Win Ballistic Silvertip - 0.935" (6th)
3) 180gr Rem Swift Scirocco - 0.960" (5th)
4) 180gr Hornady SP Interlock - 1.150" (7th)
5) 165gr Federal Nosler Solid Base - 1.250" (4th)
6) 180gr Rem Accutip BT - 1.283" (8th)
7) 180gr Federal Nosler Accubond - 1.335" (9th)
8) 150gr Hornady SST Interlock - 1.57" (2nd) Poo-poo!
9) 150gr Rem PSP Core-Lokt - 1.985" (1st) Double Poo-poo!
I posted this at the end of another thread, but thought I would post as a separate thread in case others wwere interested. Bought 80 rounds after this, of the 165 Hornady - that should last me a while!
Post:
Here's a range report - the Benelli R1 Comfortech is very pleasant to shoot! Even in 300 Win Mag, my wife, who's a 115# waif, had no trouble shooting it. I loaded one rounds for her, and then she loaded 5 more for herself after that.
The magazine is a little tough to get seated. The forward end goes in first, then you swing the back up. You really have to apply some pressure to seat the aft end of the magazine. The bolt handle and action worked flawlessly. And it is a real pleasure to hold, very ergonomically friendly. It does send the spent case back against the action just aft of the ejection port, so I have some (~25) small scratches. I expect it'll look like the front of a nose-guard's helmet before long. I would rate it an 8.5 over all. Very light, very easy to handle, wonderfully-reduced recoil, flawless action, but not too happy about the case deflection and the magazine is a pain to seat.
Ok - on to the performance. On the sandbags, at 100 yards, it performed very well I must say. I purchased 10 different premium cartridges, but only brought nine with me (doh!). It does not like 150gr bullets (Benelli does indicate what the twist rate is) as well as the 165gr and 180 gr bullets. All groups were 3 shots. I went through all nine with one shot, then again, then again (that's why I am moaning about the magazine, I had to seat it 27 times). I waited two minutes between shots. That barrel got very hot. The 150 gr rounds actually had the advantage, they went first in series. I started with e few fouler shots. In parentheses is the order is which they were fired in series. I'm a huge fan of Remington's centerfire handgun ammo; I swear by the Golden Sabers and use that for all my performance loads. But in 243 Win, 7mm Rem Mag, 5.56 Nato, and now in .300 Winnie it falls behind Federal and Hornady. My 1/8" Rock River .223 loves the 69 and 77gr Gold Match Federal rounds. My 1/10" 243 Win loves the 70gr Federal. My 1/9.75" 7mm Rem Mag likes the 165gr Federal Nosler Accubond. It rivals my best handloads.
What you see below is the average of two sets of three. I went through all nine (times three), waited for a target change, then went through them again.
Here are the results for the .300 Win Mag from the 24" Benelli R1:
1) 165gr Hornady SST Interbond - 0.573" (3rd in sequence)
2) 180gr Win Ballistic Silvertip - 0.935" (6th)
3) 180gr Rem Swift Scirocco - 0.960" (5th)
4) 180gr Hornady SP Interlock - 1.150" (7th)
5) 165gr Federal Nosler Solid Base - 1.250" (4th)
6) 180gr Rem Accutip BT - 1.283" (8th)
7) 180gr Federal Nosler Accubond - 1.335" (9th)
8) 150gr Hornady SST Interlock - 1.57" (2nd) Poo-poo!
9) 150gr Rem PSP Core-Lokt - 1.985" (1st) Double Poo-poo!
