Turknelli Trials And Tribulations

Took the Turknelli to the range and had some issues.

Basically, it would not eject, or would eject but not  chamber the next round. In short, it had become a lever operated shotgun.

Stripped it for cleaning and it was rather apparent why.

Turns out the gas pistons were frozen solid, completely locked up with massive carbon deposits.

As in really locked up:

 

 

 

That's solid carbon poking out of the piston tube under the barrel after hammering the piston downward to try and get it to move.   The pistons had to be removed by tapping on them with a hammer, a lot and rather hard.

 

Both O rings were found to be broken on the piston covers (that's the remains of one below between the piston covers and the pistons, so I ordered some new ones. I wonder if they broke during the first shooting session and that's why the other rounds wouldn't feed properly.

 

 

Look at all that carbon on those pistons, the one on the left with what looks like a black cap should look like the one on the right with the carbon removed. This stuff was packed on, solid 

Now the pistons move freely again, and I expect the Turknelli will work properly now.  They were rather impressively filthy and absolutely coated in chunks of carbon, as were the insides of the tubes they sit in.

Got everything back together and per the internet, it apparently will work even without the o rings in place but I expect the replacements will come in soon anyways so I'll pop them on before taking it to the range for its next trip.

Overall, the fit and finish of the Turknelli could be a touch better.  It takes a fair amount of effort to get the barrel lined up and inserted, and it seems to be a fair bit more effort than on Benelli M4s as seen by others showing disassembly/assembly on Youtube which is a bit of an annoyance. 

Then again, this is a budget version of the Benelli so if this now works, I won't complain all that much. Be interesting to see if this carbon build up  is due to some particularly dirty ammo or if it is some break in issue.