Ask any waterfowler which shotgun they’d carry into a horizontal Colorado sleet storm and one name comes up over and over: Benelli. Founded in Urbino, Italy in 1967 by the Benelli brothers, the company reinvented the sporting shotgun with its inertia-driven action — a simple, self-cleaning design with fewer moving parts than gas guns and legendary tolerance for filthy conditions. In the decades since, that same reliability has migrated from marsh to mountain and, more recently, into bolt-action rifles and semi-auto centerfires that carry the same DNA.

01The Legacy

A Family Story

Benelli started as a motorcycle company — long before it built guns, it built race bikes. That engineering culture carried straight into their shotguns. When brothers Giovanni and Bruno Benelli backed engineer Bruno Civolani’s inertia-driven action patent in the late 1960s, they turned it into a shotgun that was radically simpler and more reliable than the gas autos of the era. That same design principle still defines the company today.

02The Inertia Driven System

Most semi-auto shotguns bleed gas from the barrel to work the action. Benelli’s inertia system doesn’t. Instead, recoil pushes the whole gun rearward, a small spring between the bolt body and bolt head compresses, and when that spring releases it kicks the bolt back to cycle the round. The barrel and receiver stay clean because propellant gas never touches them. Fewer parts, less maintenance, and reliable cycling of a huge range of loads — from light dove loads to 3½” turkey magnums.

03The Benelli Lineup

From wet-marsh workhorses to Colorado mountain rifles, Benelli’s family covers the full range of hunting missions. Tap any card to see what we have in stock or on the way in.

Flagship Waterfowl Auto

Super Black Eagle 3

12ga, 20ga and new 28ga. 3″ and 3½” chambers. Runs the heaviest steel loads and doesn’t care how cold it is.

See in stock

Lightweight Inertia Auto

M2 Field

12ga, 20ga. Lighter and quicker than the SBE — a favorite for upland birds and turkey.

See in stock

Bolt-Action Centerfire

Lupo

6.5 CM, .308, .30-06, 6.5 PRC, .300 Win Mag. Sub-MOA guarantee. Progressive Comfort stock.

See in stock

Semi-Auto Centerfire Rifle

R1

.30-06, .300 Win Mag and more. Inertia principle adapted to a big-game rifle — low-maintenance follow-ups.

See in stock

04Impact on Hunting

Modern hunting rigs are quieter, cleaner and more reliable than ever — and Benelli’s DNA is a big reason why.

Before Benelli, semi-auto shotguns had a reputation as fair-weather guns. After Benelli, they became the default choice for hunters who spend weeks at a time in weather that ruins other guns. The Super Black Eagle single-handedly changed layout blinds and rice-field hunting in the American South and the Prairie Pothole Region — and the same reliability now goes into upland fields, turkey blinds, and Colorado elk mountains via the Lupo and R1.

05Come Handle One

Reading about a Benelli isn’t the same as shouldering one. The balance, the trigger, the way the ComforTech pad soaks up the shove of a 3½” load — that’s the stuff that sells itself. Come by the shop in Steamboat and put one in your hands. We can talk you through the family, help you match a model to your style of hunting, and get the paperwork moving.

Chasing birds this fall? Read our Fall Turkey Hunting Guide. Big game? Head to the 2026 Colorado Big Game Guide.

Model specifications and availability change — call the shop or check current listings for what’s on the floor today.