Benelli Clone Shotguns are great, but many need some basic upgrades

My favorite shotgun (if I don’t have to carry it while walking all day) is my Remington VersaMax. You may not know this: the VersaMax is a “sporterized”, improved, clone of the Benelli M4. I’ve shot mine a lot. So much that I ran into many of the issues that pop up from using them, even while caring for them. The first issue I had was light primer strikes/mis-fires. I went on a quest to figure out the issue and the fix:

I found that their were 3 basic areas to focus on simultaneously to fix the VersaMax light primer/failure to fire issues:

VersaMax Bolt with scar from burr in bolt carrier cam pin slot
VersaMax Bolt with scar from burr in bolt carrier cam pin slot

First, The bolt carrier: the cam pin slot slot frequently had a burr leftover from manufacturing that was gouging and impinging on the bolt and the Cam Pin itself deformed. It didn’t seem like it was up to the task of lasting for a long time. Removing the bur from the slot and buffing out the gouge in the bolt improved my troubles. I replaced the Cam pin with a better Benelli version, but those two alone didn’t fix the light primer strikes.

File knocking burr of edge of cam pin slot in VersaMax bolt carrier
File knocking burr of edge of cam pin slot in VersaMax bolt carrier

Second: the hammer/spring/plunger. When I moved on to the trigger pack to find the hammer spring plunger was chrome plated, but was flaking off and created hard, abrasive, crunchy grime that bound up the hammer. And even after polishing the hammer spring plunger the edge of the chrome still attached caught and slowed the spring’s push. The hammer itself was deformed and mushroomed. I replaced the Hammer, Hammer plunger, and spring with Benelli parts.

Remelli Kit, Benelli Cam Pin, Hammer, Spring, Plunger for Versa Max shotgun
Remelli Kit, Benelli Cam Pin, Hammer, Spring, Plunger for Versa Max shotgun

Third: the manual doesn’t tell you to clean and lube the recoil spring. I removed the buttstock, removed the action spring from the tube in the butt, cleaned and lubed. This worked for a few hundred shots, but then I had to replace the recoil spring. It had worn. Mine had gone from about 13 inches long to just under 12 inches long.

Versa Max worn out action spring against new spring

I posted about my adventure and listed the parts I researched and then put up for sale. We’ve helped a bunch of folks get their VersaMax’s firing reliably again. Along the way I started getting calls from VersaMax shooters (and Stoeger M3000 shooters) about extractor and extractor spring issues. Others had lost their D/C clips while fixing their guns. So now we offer those too:

Benelli Extractor
Benelli Extractor

So if you need some advice, or parts please make a purchase or give us a call at 989 795 2526, send us and email, for fill out a contact form. We’d like to help you have a more reliable shot gun for a rewarding hunt.

Trigger Pack Hammer retaining D or C clip, Benelli, Remington VersaMax, Stoeger

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