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Planetcat
June 12, 2018
Eurooptic was great working with my ffl and shipped it quickly without issue. Here is my review of the Benelli R1 comfortech .338 win mag:
I finally got a chance to shoot my new R1 in .338 win mag with black ComforTech stock.
The Good:
In general, the rifle shoots well and I like it enough to hunt with regularly for large game. It shot 225 grain Fusions very well, cloverleafs at 50 yards shooting at the range (no lead sled). It also shot Superformance 200's and Federal Trophy Copper 225's very well, both had similar performance and ballistics, but different than the fusions (about 1" higher and not as tight groups). Feeding and ejection were fast and slick, as expected, and it even fed with my .300 win mag magazine from my other R1. I took my time breaking in the new barrel, cleaning and cooling between shots for the first box or so. Even after 60 or so shots, my shoulder was not bruised.
The Not So Good:
The fit and finish is not nearly as refined as my 12 year old blued/wooden R1 with the crio barrel. The machining on the older rifle is the nicest I've seen, as well as the durability of the blued crio barrel and finish. It looks like Benelli might have reduced manufacturing costs somewhere down the line. The black coating is decent, but not great (scratched the barrel on the cement range table), and the fitment of the action and parts isn't as precise as I expected. Also, I think my expectations were too high with the recoil reduction of the ComfortTech stock. It still kicked like a .338 win mag, with maybe a little less sharpness than my other bolt action .338 WM. I also wish they had done the crio treatment on the barrel, as I noticed some accuracy degradation from it when it got hot. This doesn't happen at all on the older model I have.
All in all, it shoots and functions great, which is all that really matters. It's a very good semi-auto hunting rifle for the price, and don't regret buying it at all.
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