Howdy all,

I've recently noticed some issues with the action of my M2 being a bit slow and failing to lock closed at times. This was occurring even after cleaning so I decided to pull the recoil spring and sure enough it had some crud in it (although not terrible). After re-assembly I was surprised that the action wasn't much faster on closing. Question is how often should a guy replace the spring? The gun is about 5 years old and has probably not much more than a thousand rounds through it. I also have a Beretta A400 and find that the action closes much quicker and with more force. Any advice would be appreciated.

With that round count, I wouldn’t even think of changing it. I’d run some shells through it, and see how it works since cleaning.

I have replaced the spring on mine a few times due to crud and rust. I hunt waterfowl in muddy and saltwater environments. Although I replaced the springs due to surface rust, I believe they were still functional. The most critical part to restoring proper recoil-inertia function was cleaning the other parts in the recoil spring assembly and honing out the cylinder with solvent, oil, then dry patches to eliminate friction. Used patches on a split wood dowel chucked up in drill. Hopefully this helps!

Does the gun fail to lock when shooting also?

Make sure the bolt rails are clean and don't have any burrs on them that could cause drag.

It could be a faulty spring. I found an article from the Benelli forum on their website where a guy that had been shooting Benellis since they were first imported said he's had some of the recoil springs fail after a year. a bad spring would cause failure to lockup after the first shot.

If the gun is strictly a hunting gun most people recommend the +25% Wolff springs but if you shoot target loads you might want to try a factory weight spring. The springs are cheap so you wouldn't be out much to get one and try, worse case you end up with a spare for when you do find the issue.

Update - hunted this weekend and continued to have issues. With initial loading the rotating bolt head doesn't consistently lock up (and doesn't slam shut near as hard as I think it should). Periodically will have a FTF on second round as again the bolt head doesn't fully lock. The bolt has been completely disassembled and cleaned, action is cleaned, recoil spring and tube cleaned ... is it possible the spring is weak after only 1000 -1500 rounds of waterfowl loads? PNW when you say "cylinder" are you speaking of the recoil spring tube? Thanks for the help everyone.