The new Benelli M4 EXT brings me back. My first exposure to the Benelli M4 was the military’s M1014. I fired a total of three rounds through it one time at a range in Afghanistan. We would occasionally check the zeroes of our PEQs and ACOGs in country, which required a lot of moving parts on our tiny COP (Combat Outpost). When doing so one day, our company XO brought out the M1014.
We had two, and they remained in the armory even though I volunteered plenty of times to carry one. His purpose was to shoot it for fun, and he let my team shoot a few rounds too. I was hooked, got home, saw the price of an M4, and set it aside. It would cost the entirety of an E-3’s paycheck.
The Benelli M4 EXT
The Problem With the Benelli M4
Years later, I scraped and saved responsibly and finally purchased my Benelli M4. It was a fine gun, but neutered due to 922R. I proceeded to convert the weapon to 922R compliance and was able to add the three-position stock, a seven-round magazine tube, and essentially un-neuter the gun.
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This took time, money, and a lot of help from Freedom Fighter Tactical. I later added a Mesa Tactical Truckee handguard to get a little M-LOK on the gun. This cost too much money and took too much time, especially for a gun that costs nearly two grand. You are purchasing a premium-grade shotgun and then have to spend a ton of money on aftermarket parts.
For me, it was worth it, but I would often tell people not to buy the M4. Guns like the 1301, the A300, and the Mossberg 940 Pro Tactical offered more shotgun for often less money. With that in mind, Benelli recently released the M4 EXT, and it’s made some very necessary changes.
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The Benelli M4 EXT: What’s New
The Benelli M4 EXT gives us an un-neutered M4 without having to seek out an often difficult and even more expensive LE model. Cops can buy Benelli M4s that aren’t 922R compliant and then resell them. This is completely fine, but it creates a small market, which means even more money. The M4 EXT aims to solve that problem.
The Magazine Tube
Say bye to that weird spacer that attaches to your five-round magazine tube. This weird plastic spacer ensures you can only fit five rounds in your Benelli M4. Instead, you get a true seven-round capacity. However, it’s not a single-piece tube. It’s a five-round tube with a plus two extension.
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I tried one of these +2 extensions in the past, and it was an absolute piece of crap. It was made by Lyman, never allowed me to fit seven rounds, and caused the follower to hang up at times. I ditched it quickly.
I do trust that Benelli does it right, and from all my shooting, they’ve done it without a problem. You still need to watch the extension and maybe add a witness mark to make sure it doesn’t get loose.
Adding a single-piece tube from Freedom Fighter Tactical is still an option if you’re not satisfied with the two-piece tube.
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The Bolt Release
The bolt release on the original Benelli M4 was painfully small. I mean that—you had to put a lot of force on a tiny little nub, and it got painful and annoying quickly. It made emergency reloads slow, and no one wants slow with a shotgun.
The new bolt release is dime-sized, which is just perfect. It’s easy to find, easy to engage, and makes for much quicker reloads. This was an upgrade I delayed on my M4 because I didn’t want to take it apart, and just learned to deal with it.
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The Stock
We finally get a multi-positional stock. This stock is the new generation of Benelli M4 collapsible stocks. The old model offers you three positions. Closed is just for storage. You have the middle, which offers a solid length of pull, but sits too high to use the iron sights on the gun and requires you to wield an optic.
The third position was extremely long with a 14.38-inch length of pull. That’s absurd and difficult for most normal-sized people. I’m a bigger guy, and I don’t even care for that crazy length myself.
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The new stock gives you five positions. It’s also no longer a twist to extend; it just moves back and forth like an AR stock. The closer positions still create issues using the stock, but positions three and four give you a short length of pull and the ability to use iron sights.
Sling Swivels
The Benelli M4 now comes with multiple sling points and modern sling swivel placement. You can move the sling around and the placement points to find your correct setup. It took no effort at all for me to rig the gun and sling it up in a way that best suited me.
What’s the Same?
Sadly, Benelli stuck with the lame polymer forend. It offers no accessory mounting options, and it’s the bare minimum. The Drone Guardian Version of the M4 offers an M-LOK handguard with an optics mount, and I think this might have been the way to go with this gun.
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Luckily, the aftermarket exists, and the long Truckee handguard would be the first thing I added. Other than that, the M4 EXT is what I always wanted Benelli to produce, and it’s finally here.
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