Benelli Advanced Impact Barrel, Tested and Reviewed

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For diehard duck hunters, any alternative to enhance downrange lethality is all however irresistible. In spite of everything, geese may be robust, and premium pellet supplies like tungsten and bismuth are solely getting scarcer and pricier. So I used to be excited, if not a bit skeptical, as I watched Benelli roll out its Superior Affect barrel know-how during the last couple years.

Benelli’s AI barrel is, in keeping with the corporate, “designed to generate as much as 50 % extra penetration.” That’s an intriguing and daring declare. So this summer time and early fall I got down to check it.

I purchased a Super Black Eagle 3 with an Advanced Impact barrel. I then took that gun and a normal SBE 3 to a third-party ballistics professional to judge downrange pellet velocity. I additionally shot each barrels into ballistic gel at 40 yards to measure penetration. Then I patterned each barrels at 40 yards, with three totally different hundreds. Lastly, I hunted with the gun in the course of the first half of my duck season. Right here’s what I discovered.

Defining the Superior Affect Barrel

Earlier than we get into how the AI Barrel did, let me attempt to clarify what it’s. Benelli has designed a novel, patented inside barrel contour that works along with a particular choke system. Extra particularly, the barrel has an extra-long forcing cone, a larger-than-standard bore diameter, and a novel part the place the barrel widens dramatically earlier than assembly the very lengthy, prolonged choke tube. I measured the barrel with a bore gauge and located the next:

• The AI 12-gauge modified choke diameter was .765 inches
• Customary 12-gauge modified choke diameter is .710 inches
• The AI barrel diameter was roughly .775 inches
• That’s much like a 10-gauge barrel diameter

The design is supposed to permit shot pellets to move by the barrel extra simply, which in concept will shorten the shot string of the sample downrange. With a brief, compact shot column pellets would be capable of draft off one another and retain extra velocity. And that’s the place the improved penetration would come from — once more, in concept.   

Benelli shouldn’t be claiming important enhancements on muzzle velocity with this barrel. Their promise is all about elevated velocity and penetration at distance. 

Velocity Testing

All issues being equal (which means pellet measurement, density, and form) the one technique to improve penetration is to extend velocity. So after taking pictures the AI gun a bit on the clays course I introduced it to a third-party ballistics professional to judge downrange velocity. (The professional wished to stay nameless for this text and video.)

They measured velocity at 40 yards utilizing a high-speed Phantom camera. On this check we used two totally different hundreds and shot 10 patterns per load, per barrel. 

They used ballistics software program to measure velocity of particular person pellets at this distance. They then averaged the totally different pellet velocities for every load and barrel mixture. Additionally they measured the shot strings of every sample and averaged these for every load/barrel mixture. They measured the speed of a complete of 221 totally different pellets all at 40 yards to construct this knowledge set. 

The ballistics professional discovered that there was primarily no distinction in 40-yard velocity or shot string size between the AI Barrel and Customary barrel. A number of feet-per-second distinction in common pellet velocities is insubstantial.

Ballistic Gel Testing

Based mostly on the speed knowledge, it is sensible that I didn’t see a lot of a bonus with the AI barrel when taking pictures ballistic gel blocks. I used the identical two hundreds as I did for the speed testing, plus Kent Fasteel and Fiocchi Golden Waterfowl. I shot three patterns per load, per barrel right into a gel block. Then I measured the common penetration depth. As you possibly can see within the video above, there’s little or no distinction in penetration from barrel to barrel so I merely eyeballed the common of every sample. In spite of everything, a 50 % improve on 3 inches of penetration can be 1.5 inches (that may be very substantial). Even a 25 % improve on 3 inches of penetration can be .75 inches. 

As you possibly can see within the knowledge under, I used to be splitting hairs to discover a tenth of an inch of variation between the barrels. 

Patterning Efficiency

Similar to with all shotguns I evaluate, I did a normal 40-yard patterning check. I shot three totally different hundreds from each barrels, and recorded 4 pictures per load. I counted the variety of pellet strikes inside a 30-inch circle drawn across the core of the sample after which averaged them for every load/barrel mixture. Each barrels shot dense, even patterns. And each shot a bit excessive, which is frequent for me, when taking pictures from a bench with SBE shotguns. 

It’s notable that the weapons had been shut with the metal hundreds however the usual barrel did a lot better with the smaller Hevi XII pellets. My assumption is that the tighter choke of the usual barrel (roughly .710 inches) was optimum for these No. 6 pellets vs the broader choke on the AI barrel (.765 inches). 

Last Ideas

I actually love duck searching with my SBE 3 AI. I shot the gun effectively, it functioned flawlessly, and it has killed an entire pile of geese for me this season. Whereas taking pictures patterns, I did discover that there’s much less recoil with the AI barrel in comparison with the usual barrel. 

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However sadly, that was the one substantial efficiency profit I used to be capable of finding with the AI barrel. The SBE 3 Superior Affect prices about $2,500 proper now. You will discover standard SBE 3s for about $700 much less. Based mostly on the testing I’ve achieved, I’d say that for many duck hunters (who are usually not going to do intensive patterning to seek out that magic load pairing for an AI barrel) sticking with the tried-and-true commonplace SBE 3 is the best way to go.