The Gunsmith Bench:  Benelli 828U Stiff Safety

Benelli’s Model 828U over-under shotgun is a popular choice for bird hunters, but there is one nagging problem that a lot of people have experienced with this particular model – a tang-mounted thumb safety that can be nearly impossible to move off-safe.  The gun is designed to automatically engage the safety when the barrels are opened, so once you load and close the breech you must move the safety button forward in order to fire the shotgun.  The safety button itself is recessed into the top tang with a very small, practically no, shelf for the shooter’s thumb.  That’s all well and good but when it safety itself is difficult to move it can render the shotgun unshootable.

Online forums are full of frustrated 828U shooters struggling with their safety.  Several contributors are suggesting deleting the auto-safety feature as a fix, but in fact that rarely helps.  It’s easy enough to do, the auto-safety is a simple wire spring that lives on the top of the trigger assembly.   Simply removing the wire allows the safety to remain in the Fire setting during the ng process.  Of course, we do NOT recommend disabling any manufacturer safety.  Do so at your own risk. 

The actual fix for the safety is a bit more complicated.  Looking up through the receiver after the trigger assembly is removed you will see the underside of the safety button with the attached barrel selector.  That assembly is held to the receiver by a black horseshoe shaped metal clip and is detented into fire and safe positions by a wire spring.  The clip and detent spring are secured by an Allen-head screw at the rear of the clip.

The black metal clip is the culprit.  It is a simple stamped piece of metal that fits into a slot in the receiver from the rear.  This means you will have to take the stock off, then position the safety button so you can access the Allen screw.  On a gun with a stiff safety be prepared to use a non-marring punch or wood to remove the safety clip.  If the line assembly worker at Benelli did not take the couple of minutes to correctly fit the stamped clip to the receiver slot and then just tapped it in anyway (bigger hammer!), the clip has deformed creating high spots and clearance issues for the safety button to slide forward.  Simply reducing those high spots and correcting any fitment issue from the clip to the receiver will resolve that sticky safety issue.

Judging from the amount of forum posts on the interwebs of people having this issue, Benelli really should do better training the receiver assemblers and then checking the safety movement prior to shipping.  It is a decent enough shotgun unless you can’t get it off safe!