Benelli Advanced Impact Barrel, Tes...

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For diehard duck hunters, any alternative to enhance downrange lethality is all however irresistible. In any case, geese might be powerful, 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 Influence barrel expertise during the last couple years.

Benelli’s AI barrel is, in accordance 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 take a look at it.

I purchased a Super Black Eagle 3 with an Advanced Impact barrel. I then took that gun and an ordinary SBE 3 to a third-party ballistics skilled to guage 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 completely 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 Influence Barrel

Earlier than we get into how the AI Barrel did, let me attempt to clarify what it’s. Benelli has designed a singular, patented inner barrel contour that works at the side of a particular choke system. Extra particularly, the barrel has an extra-long forcing cone, a larger-than-standard bore diameter, and a singular 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
• Commonplace 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 go 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 to 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 dimension, density, and form) the one strategy to enhance 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 skilled to guage downrange velocity. (The skilled wished to stay nameless for this text and video.)

They measured velocity at 40 yards utilizing a high-speed Phantom camera. On this take a look at we used two completely 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 completely different pellet velocities for every load and barrel mixture. In addition they measured the shot strings of every sample and averaged these for every load/barrel mixture. They measured the rate of a complete of 221 completely different pellets all at 40 yards to construct this information set. 

The ballistics skilled discovered that there was primarily no distinction in 40-yard velocity or shot string size between the AI Barrel and Commonplace barrel. Just a few feet-per-second distinction in common pellet velocities is insubstantial.

Ballistic Gel Testing

Based mostly on the rate information, 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 rate 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 typical 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 typical of every sample. In any case, a 50 % enhance on 3 inches of penetration could be 1.5 inches (that will be very substantial). Even a 25 % enhance on 3 inches of penetration could be .75 inches. 

As you possibly can see within the information 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 evaluation, I did an ordinary 40-yard patterning take a look at. I shot three completely 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 significantly 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). 

Closing Ideas

I actually love duck searching with my SBE 3 AI. I shot the gun properly, 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 Influence prices about $2,500 proper now. You will discover standard SBE 3s for about $700 much less. Based mostly on the testing I’ve completed, I’d say that for many duck hunters (who should not going to do in depth patterning to seek out that magic load pairing for an AI barrel) sticking with the tried-and-true customary SBE 3 is the way in which to go.