Based on the discussions I've read, the Benelli R1 seemed to make a splash about 10-20 years ago and then interest largely evaporated. It seems to be a more popular gun for driven hunts in Europe, where I gather it's called the Argo, and where long-range accuracy is less important than rate of fire and shootability.
I have never seen such varied reports of accuracy on a gun. A lot of reports of "1moa accuracy, shoots fine, no problem". But then there's about just as many reports of "inaccurate, built too much like a shotgun to ever be accurate, design is incompatible with accuracy, can never be accurate". It really leaves me wondering if there is some method for wringing accuracy out of them, like being careful with assembly torque or shooting technique/ forearm use, that never made it into the hive mind. (Perhaps it's rather revealing that Benelli seems to have gone out of their way to make the gun incompatible with a bipod...)
Are there any R1 gurus out there? It's a unique enough gun that I'd think there'd be a cult around it. My understanding is it's caliber swappable between 338 win mag or 9.62x39 on the top end, and 308 or smaller on the bottom end, even if not exactly marketed as such. Which is neat at least, and like an AR, the optics stay on the barrel. It does also seem to have some more manufacturer support than a lot of Euro-influenced rifles do that make it to North America, so somebody must be using them, even if it's the Canucks.
I have never seen such varied reports of accuracy on a gun. A lot of reports of "1moa accuracy, shoots fine, no problem". But then there's about just as many reports of "inaccurate, built too much like a shotgun to ever be accurate, design is incompatible with accuracy, can never be accurate". It really leaves me wondering if there is some method for wringing accuracy out of them, like being careful with assembly torque or shooting technique/ forearm use, that never made it into the hive mind. (Perhaps it's rather revealing that Benelli seems to have gone out of their way to make the gun incompatible with a bipod...)
Are there any R1 gurus out there? It's a unique enough gun that I'd think there'd be a cult around it. My understanding is it's caliber swappable between 338 win mag or 9.62x39 on the top end, and 308 or smaller on the bottom end, even if not exactly marketed as such. Which is neat at least, and like an AR, the optics stay on the barrel. It does also seem to have some more manufacturer support than a lot of Euro-influenced rifles do that make it to North America, so somebody must be using them, even if it's the Canucks.
