Benelli Super Black Eagle 3
12 Gauge 3.5″
with ADVANCED IMPACT (A.I.) Technology
Part 1
Advanced Impact (A.I.) is the new kid in town. After watching the barrel design by Benelli develop from the SHOT Show 2024 to the same event in 2025, the barrel that was only a concept for two years has now become a reality. Welcome to the first testing outside the industry mainstream regarding the Benelli A.I.-designed shotgun barrel.
Advancing shotgun barrel performance is not new to this writer/researcher. For the past decade, performance change has been mostly centered around back-bore work and chokes. With some knowledge as to smoothbore performance changes when the bore has been altered, I asked Benelli for a sample of the new A.I. concept to use with my test systems when measuring how effective the new shotgun barrel may be.
The test shotgun provided in this case was the SBE, Super Black Eagle 3. Be advised the A.I. barrel cannot be installed on the current line of Benelli shotguns because the option to go A.I. is a Benelli custom shop feature. The barrel and receiver are exclusive to a different design made to accept a much larger receiver ring. The Super Black Eagle which I tested in late spring/early summer, to date, has not been released for A.I. barrel configurations. The Benelli SBE 3 I’ve been testing is a step away from a prototype design. As a side-by-side test match to this new Benelli 3 A.I. shotgun, I elected to use my own SBE 2 which is a smaller barrel ring than the A.I. shotgun’s receiver and, as such, makes use of a conventional barrel and choke system.
Right away I noticed the A.I. shotgun’s choke-tube system was not the traditional Benelli Crio, but rather a much longer Crio choke tube followed by an extended section beyond the muzzle. As such, it would be impossible to test apples to apples in this case, but the test would match performance from a more standardized gun like my own SBE and the new A.I.-barreled SBE under review.
Straight out of the shipping box, I spotted the first different element associated with the A.I. SBE shotgun barrel. This barrel measured at the outside diameter point a Full .919. When checked against the tube on my SBE, the measurement came through as a .850-diameter pipe. Checking the measured 4¾” length special Crio choke in the A.I. barrel, I found the base point against the inner barrel step measured .780. This brought a smile to my face, as I realized I was looking at a 10-gauge bore machined into a 12-gauge shotgun barrel.
In terms of learned information regarding this basic type of barrel construction, I only had to turn to two different sources. The first was my 55-plus years of specialized load development with strictly 10-gauge magnum waterfowl guns from the late ’60s through the early ’90s. The work was so extensive that Petersen Hunting took my very first feature ever on the subject because it was totally unique. It featured 100-yard-plus pass shooting that was often very effective as applied to hunting Canada geese at Rochester, Minnesota’s Federal refuge.
Second, about seven years ago I hooked up with a U.S. Army Major from the 101 Airborne Division who, after six full tours in the sandbox, was coming home wounded but full of some great lifestyle ideas he was willing to share with me. Major Adam Ziegler not only started his own ammunition manufacturing company, Backridge Ammunition, but continued to work in load and weapons development, which turned out to be the engine that created his current Ziegler-designed 10-gauge bore/12-gauge chambered barrels designed for the 870 Remington receivers. The barrels are, in effect, 10 gauge and as another brilliant idea makes use of Mossberg’s 12-gauge 835/935 choke tubes (.775 bore). What has taken place here are two different paths regarding barrel design moving straight toward the same outcomes in terms of upgraded gun/load performance downrange. For far too long, load development has moved off the charts in terms of advancements, but the gun itself remained much the same as those used back in the days of black powder. Now the smoothbore game-changers have started to arrive.
While some back-bored barrels have been built and used successfully, these new breeds of full over-bored tubes tend to generate their own history of sorts. Performance is the game, and now Benelli is the new player in this area of ballistics advancement regarding smoothbore firearms. But I have gotten a bit ahead of myself.
Another point is that a great deal of respect and credit needs to be given to Mossberg and the early development of the .774 12-gauge 3.5″ pump and autoloading shotgun. In effect, Mossberg was years ahead of everyone in terms of offering up this very unique and successful barrel/gun design. Actually, all the test hunts we have done with both the Mossberg .774 and the Ziegler barrel creation have included coyotes, coons, pheasants, ducks, geese and 400-lb. swamp hogs.
Save for the new super barrel and larger receiver ring tied to the Super Black Eagle test gun, the rest of the Series 3 Black Eagle is not much different from my Series 2 shotgun. The right-side bolt release has increased in size, and the charging handle has been enlarged as well. The use of a nice camo pattern across the stock and a carbon-fiber vent rib makes for a good-looking waterfowl or turkey gun.
First Tests, Live Fire
With that background in place, it was time to turn hard-nosed measured performance results into historical facts. The measurement system in this case is Dr. Oehler’s Model 33 Chronotech Skyscreen System, used at times in pairs. With the U.S. Army testing 120mm tank guns using this system and the same chronograph used in Federal’s test tunnels, as well as at Backridge Ammunition’s plant in Dover, Tennessee (Major Ziegler’s operation), the velocity-recording system requires little or no further introduction. The Chronotech 33 is a computer set well away from the live-fire action. Using cable, the armored screen rail is mounted in place about 10 yards away from the black box computer, which has its own armored box. Screen spacing is three feet, and firing point for testing I set at five feet to keep muzzle flash “glints” from returning false velocities regarding the lead pellet crossing the photo screen during pellet-speed recording periods.
Selecting test ammunition for live-fire speed-recording tests involved the use of a brand-new target clays load called “Master Class” offered by Federal Ammunition. The load consists of a new 2¾” light-blue hull that makes use of a new one-piece wad system that carried 1 1/8 oz. of lead #7½ shot and retained a listed muzzle velocity of 1235 f.p.s. Why is this information so important? Because the new target loads returned some of the most balanced and uniform data I have ever recorded for a shotshell load. With good test ammo, the rest of the story falls on the gun barrel system itself and, as you will see, there is a real story to tell.
Firing the first series of three rounds returned velocity recordings at the one-yard distance from the muzzle of 1231 f.p.s., 1249 f.p.s. and 1256 f.p.s. These three rounds also returned an “ES,” or extreme velocity spread, of 9 f.p.s. Now be advised my fellow smoothbore gunners, I have only observed this ultra-tight velocity recording once before in my almost 60-plus years of recording pellet velocity. The recorded number at that time was by way of a Tom Armbrust Ballistics, McHenry, IL, test load in 1 1/8 oz. 12-gauge #7½ and was also 9 f.p.s. difference in a three-shot string. Also, the returned velocity was faster than what Federal listed on the box.
Moving to the standard-barrel SBE (my gun), a three-shot string produced a 1207 f.p.s., 1204 f.p.s. and 1200 f.p.s. velocity series. The ES value on that test string returned a 6 f.p.s. difference. This recording was, in my book, a world record. Shotshell loads like this are producing rifle pressure differences well away from almost every load I have ever tested in some 58 years of recording velocity information.
While the A.I. barrel and my standard barrel had nothing to do with the performance recorded, it did tell me to stay with that series of lot numbers for the remainder of my velocity testing.
Right away, the raw numbers told me the A.I. barrel was faster, up to 50 f.p.s. faster than the standard .724-bore SBE. During SHOT Show 2024 when the first display of the Benelli A.I. system was presented, I had been informed the new barrel was designed much like an hourglass shape in terms of its interior measurements. In other words, the chamber’s forcing cone started at 10 gauge, then quickly closed down to some measurement close to or at .724 or about mid-bore for a few inches, only to start to reopen toward the 10-gauge specification before reaching the 4½” choke tube, which was measured at the muzzle.
While chokes have some effect on velocity as constriction increases, to my knowledge nothing in the choke world changes the recorded velocity to the degree observed in this test. My conclusion is that the Benelli A.I. system works. As advertised by Benelli, speed increases, energy moves up the ladder and performance in general increases to an actual measurable degree.
Phase 2 of my testing then matched recordings of a Major Ziegler-developed barrel. This was the barrel that proved itself across the board on a great many warm targets as well as paper-punching pattern work. The Ziegler barrel, of which I have two here at Ballistics Research & Development, are machined, as previously indicated, for Remington 870 receivers. With both the 28″ and 30″ pipes to choose from, I turned to the 30″ tube so as to match the Benelli A.I. creation as closely as possible. The point here is both barrels are based on 10-gauge inside the bore measurements. I was thinking: Could the hourglass Benelli A.I. outshoot the Ziegler custom-built creation that first came from southern card-shooting events? Also of note here, both barrel systems were totally unique, made use of 10-gauge specifications and are under consideration as military drone gun barrels at this time.
I also need to add that O.F. Mossberg and the 835/935 shotguns they offered should not be left on the back burner. About 35 years ago, Mossberg developed the first massive back-bore system in 12 gauge 3.5″ using 10-gauge specs. Some gun writers stated the system could never work. Well, tell that to several decades of goose, duck, turkey and coyote hunters. During early testing, there were days when the Mossberg 835, even in a short-length turkey model, outshot the 30″ pipe associated with the Ziegler barrel.
On the day my third test took place, I had put away the Benelli A.I. shotgun and selected the Ziegler gun system for additional back-to-back muzzle velocity testing. Not that it was going to change the world, but something told me this would be a darn close performance race in the long run.
Shooting three rounds as I had done on the previous chronograph runs, I recorded the following: Round one produced a muzzle velocity of 1258 f.p.s., with the second round dropping off to 1218 f.p.s., and the final test round returned 1288 f.p.s. This was the fastest recorded velocity of the total test, but also the worst regarding round number 2. The average speed for the three rounds stood at 1274 f.p.s. What was obvious, however, was that the full back-bore 10-gauge specification Ziegler barrel retained the highest velocity, with the Benelli A.I. running a close second. The standard-bore SBE was a great deal slower. However, be advised round balls don’t hold velocity well at all, and it takes a pile of energy regarding pellet speed to gain much additional velocity and energy downrange much beyond 30 yards. About the only thing that puts this information into a gray area is when turning to tungsten shot, everything picks up a notch in the advanced performance and energy department. Round pellets are now vastly effective to some unbelievable ranges.
On the Pattern Board
Paper-pattern shooting is paramount when it comes to studying a two-dimensional view of gun/load performance. On day one I fired a single round just before the rains hit. That round was a Federal Black Cloud 3″ 1¼ oz. stacked (double pellet charged) load consisting of BB over #7 .18-density tungsten shot. Now, the BBs can return lead-shot #4 buckshot energy at 100 yards; the #7½s are loaded, to my thinking, for buffer. However, these small pellets also retain the on-terminal energy of lead-shot #2 when measuring downrange kinetic energy. In other words, I was shooting a very effective goose load.
At 70 yards, regarding only a single round and shooting at a 20″x15″ hog target (or about the size of a 130-lb. pig), I hit nine pellets in the head, neck and lung area with BB strikes. As for the #7s, I did not count them because, at that range, the hits on a warm target would have been no more than irritating at best. With a cold, wet turn in the weather, additional testing was put on hold for the time being.
With previous testing by way of three shotguns completed and knowing full well the performance record of the standard SBE as well as the Ziegler design, it was time to part company with the pack and concentrate all my attention on the Benelli SBE with the A.I. barrel/bore system.
I knew the A.I. shotgun would have its hands full taking on the Ziegler creation because the track record of Major Ziegler’s design had been nothing short of exemplary. That stated, shooting the Benelli A.I. gun system gave a hint that this new design has, indeed, some interesting possibilities. Since the Benelli A.I. is sold with a full set of five special Crio ultra-advanced tubes not used in the standard Benelli 12-gauge shotgun barrel, matching loads to choke would require a whole different ballistics performance outlook on the subject.
Downrange
Shooting a Full choke with the A.I. system did not return the results at long range I figured it would. The choke that showed an exit muzzle measurement of .722 just did not get the job done when it came to Federal’s Black Cloud BB steel/#7 tungsten-blended load. However, making a switch to the .781 exit measurement at the muzzle choke (which, in effect, is about an IC tube) “woke up” the Benelli A.I. gun system, and it shot outstanding 60-yard, 40-pellet average Black Cloud pattern prints against my self-designed hog targets.
I did not shoot 40-yard percentage target prints for this review. If that is your standard regarding maximum range for waterfowl hunting, coyote and hog dusting or even turkey hunting, then back away from this system. It’s far more advanced in terms of downrange payload extension and kinetic-energy retention regarding individual pellets and also payload contact mass on warm targets.
It seemed, right from the start, the A.I. system, even lacking any choke, generated pattern performance inside the bore itself. With a new world of bore design, the A.I. design, without question, is a different wrinkle in the industry’s race to better control downrange performance within the smoothbore firearms industry.
During my research on this subject, I talked to my customers at Ballistics Research/Metrogun Systems and learned a great deal from card shooters in the American South who build open-class card shooting shotguns. As such, they have been using design very much like Benelli’s creation in bore design. For example, the term “double bore” or “twin boring” is old-school among card shooters trying to put as many hits as possible on a small black dot downrange during a shoot-off competition. Some shooters in the open-class shotguns have barrels built that retain wad-stop systems by way of studs cut into the bore. Also, some use over-bore forcing cone sections closing down to a tight bore center and then opening once again the over-bore section toward the muzzle. I get requests for special barrel extensions of varied and specific measurements and chokes built from my “Dead Ringer” design but modified to fit back-bored and other radical muzzle configurations for competitive use by card shooters.
I have been involved in smoothbore testing and mapping bore measurements which have led to advanced load development for about 60-plus years, but I can say, for a fact, I knew nothing about the grand sport of card shooting (also called a Southern Turkey Shoot). My point is simply this: if anyone tells you they know everything about this subject, believe little or nothing that individual says in the future. While the industry circle is small, the subject field regarding firearms is massive and not something one individual can totally encompass. As the old saying goes, if I go through my day and not learn at least one new thing, I have not been paying attention.
Mapping the Benelli A.I. barrel did not involve running special bore gauges down the pipe. Just using a 12-gauge soft full-bore cotton cleaning rod and pushing through the muzzle with the choke removed worked out well. The over-bore barrel was obvious, as the large bore-cleaning rod slid down and filled the barrel with almost no pressure. But at about 5″ below the muzzle, the rod started to return some resistance, and at about 8″ (general measurements here), the rod required stiff pressure against the center of the bore constriction as it moved into the next over-bore section of the barrel. In effect, the hourglass design I made reference to earlier in this review became clearly obvious.
Admittedly, the measurement system I used was crude, but sometimes simple works best. What I needed to know about A.I. was developing very quickly. Shooting the system returned modest recoil from most loads. I found the old Benelli recoil bounce was still taking place, as the return recoil spring did its thing deep in the buttstock of the shotgun.
Loads that shot well and produced turkey or hog-killing patterns at 50 to 65 yards were the new MIGRA “Stacked 7/9 .18 tungsten shot” loads. This test load carries 546 pellets as a dense cloud of shot with 40% #7 and 60% #9 TSS. (In the event you have not been in the loop regarding TSS, these very small pellets carry the energy of a lead #4 through #2. TSS is not your dad’s old school smoothbore load. This is space-age ballistics science running full tilt.) On the other hand, 3″ 12-gauge loads consisting of a 1 oz. package in #9 TSS as designed by Backridge Ammunition illustrated how small payloads can produce great results in the 12-gauge shotgun. In this case again, the open .781 choke was the selected tube that produced 59 hits at 60 yards on my hog target.
A final long-range load consisting of #2 through T shot in .18-density tungsten was rolled out on coyotes and even small southern states’ whitetail deer, harvesting well out to 70 yards. I had hunted South Carolina swamps for wild hogs using TSS “Super Shot” loads with Backridge a few years ago and specklebelly geese a year later. TSS in conventional 12-gauge guns was pressed into service with great results. This previous shooting was well ahead of A.I. bore designs.
A choke selection with five options can be a bit confusing. The A.I. chokes carry a glue-strip tag indicating, by the use of muzzle edge marks, the degree of constriction the choke will offer up. That was nice until the label was removed. I would have liked to see an etched constriction figure on the tube body. I carried a micrometer with me on the range and measured each A.I. choke for constriction prior to screwing the tube into the barrel. Doing this put me on the track of the .781 (exit bore choke size) discussed previously as a very solid choice as an A.I. payload control system. A.I. chokes are not your old-school chokes and may not give the same results as the chokes you normally use.
Table A: Pattern Testing Long Range
Load Range (yds.) Target Pattern Pattern % or Count
Load #1
MIGRA 3" TSS 2 oz. 7/9
50 yards 30"x20" Pig 82%
A.I. Imp/Mod. .722 exit diameter
Load #2
APEX 3" ¼ oz. TSS 7½, 1 1/16 oz. #2 steel (duplex load)
60 yards 30" circle 61%
A.I. Imp/Mod .722. exit diameter
Load #3
KENT 3" 1 3/8 oz. #4 Bismuth
50 yards 30"x20" Pig 50 hits
A.I. Imp/Mod .722 exit diameter
Load #4
KENT 3.5" 2 oz. #2 Tungsten Matrix
55 yards 30"x20" Pig 12 hits*
A.I. Full .709 exit diameter (Blown Pattern; Payload bore stress)
Load #5
Federal Black Cloud BBX7 TSS 1¼ oz.
50 yards 30"x20" Pig 61 hits
A.I. Imp/Cyl .781 exit diameter
Load #6
Federal Black Cloud BBX7 TSS 1¼ oz.
50 yards 30"x20" Pig 3 hits*
A.I. Full .709 exit diameter (Blown Pattern)
Load #7
Federal Black Cloud 3X9 TSS 1¼ oz.
50 yards 30" circle 76% N/A hits
A.I. Imp/Mod .722 exit diameter
Load #8
Backridge Test Load, 1 oz. #2 steel
60 yards 30"x20" Pig 43 hits*
A.I. Imp/Mod .722 exit diameter
Load #9
TSS-SL 81 pellets #2 tungsten .18
70 yards 30"x20" Pig 20 hits*
A.I. Imp/Mod .722 exit diameter
Load #10
TSS-SL 81 pellets #2 tungsten .18
71 yards adult gobbler 20 lb. (warm target) 11 hits*
A.I. Imp/Mod .722 exit diameter
Load #11
TSS-SL 81 pellets #2 tungsten .18
70 yards 30"x20" Pig 47 hits**
A.I. Imp/Mod .722 exit diameter.
Load #12
TSS-SL 81 pellets #2 tungsten .18
70 yards 30"x20" Pig 16 hits**
A.I. Full .709 exit diameter
Overview Load Testing
Shooting paper targets is always interesting, but in this case we have entered a whole new world of smoothbore performance standards. Benelli needs to replace the standard in-box owner’s manual for the SBE A.I. with a special manual. Choke selection is much different. I believe there is evidence the bore itself is acting somewhat like the choke and, as such, the team made up of the A.I. barrel and the installed choke tube work as a unique unit.
I have marked several test load results with asterisks to be covered in greater detail now. Note Test Load #4, shooting by way of the .709 Full choke, produced a blown pattern with very poor pattern results at 55 yards. I believe the cause was an over-bore load moving too much material through too small of a hole. Note Load #8, shooting a single ounce of #2 steel through the .722 Imp/Mod. showed smaller payloads but all of it got to the target. In this case, less was more.
Checking Load #6, we see a total pattern blowout because I would never shoot Federal Black Cloud with an A.I. Full choke. Federal Black Cloud is one of the very best long-range loads offered any place today through a Full choke. Black Cloud makes its own choke using special wad designs for the most part, and with a drop to an Improved Cylinder (shown in Load #5), the payload contact moves the impact count up to 61 pellets when shooting the same back-to-back load. Load #12 also shows the poor results with an A.I. Full choke being applied to the A.I. barrel. If we had time and space, we could go over patterns all day long and find interesting results downrange on paper. What the reader needs to go away with in this case is this: Do not assume anything about A.I., and when selecting ammunition for field applications be sure to run a few test patterns of your own with different choke tubes. (In this case, over $100 and change was spent on TSS load testing alone, so make use of the data, as it came at a price and hard work.)
The single warm-target example being load #10 was a late-season gobbler that had been hit by a standard lead-shot turkey load and was wounded while leaving the decoy spread. The actual take-down load was a current military test drone-killer load of #2 tungsten. The published results show just how effective the A.I. barrel package and TSS can be at long range. The target bird was hit so hard at 71 yards it looked as if it had run over a land mine.
Regarding the application of the Benelli SBE mounting the A.I. special barrel and choke system, stay tuned, because this story is far from over. I believe this is one of the very first hard looks at this very different approach to pattern payload control as applied to a smoothbore firearm, and we have much to learn. SS
Editor’s note: Look for Part 2 in the upcoming January 2026 issue.
L.P. Brezny has worked in research and development in the shooting industry for over 40 years. He developed and marketed the first sub-sonic shotgun and shotshell — The Hastings Metro Gun™ System (www.metrogun.com or 605-787-6321) — and was the first to measure shotshell pellets in real time at target distances, building ballistic tables demonstrating shotshell load performance and chronographing systems that are still in use today. He also developed the Dead Ringer® high-performance waterfowl/upland choke-tube system. L.P. has been writing for various shooting publications for over 40 years.
