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Benelli Nova

• easy
• Shop tier 1
• medium confidence
• Shotgun
• pump action
• polymer receiver
• magazine cutoff
• tube magazine

field strip ~3 min · reassembly ~5 min · detail strip ~25 min

Specifications

Model-specific safety

• The Nova uses a one-piece polymer stock and receiver shell over a steel insert. It is durable, but it is not a machined steel receiver and should not be clamped or pried like one.
• The Nova has a magazine cut-off button that lets you unload the chamber without feeding a new shell from the magazine. Learn where it is — it makes unloading far safer and quicker.
• Unloading a tube magazine takes several cycles. Verify both the chamber and the tube.

Under spring tension

• Magazine tube spring
• Hammer spring

Easily lost parts

Magazine cap · Trigger group pin · Shell stops

Tools

No tools required for the field strip.

Shop difficulty

Shop tier 1 Tier 1 — easy among shotguns, for the full job: strip to the parts that get coated and put it back together working. Simple pump in a one-piece polymer stock/receiver with a steel cage: the trigger guard drops out on two pins and the bolt and twin action bars lift out. Traps are minor (hammer cocked to refit the guard, longer pin forward, both action bars in their tracks).

Parts: 95 numbered parts (stand-in: Benelli Nova 3 owner's manual spare-parts list (Drawing 1 trigger group keys 1-26, Drawing 2 bolt/fore-end 1-18, Drawing 3 stock/magazine/sights 1-38, Drawing 4 barrel/sights 1-13). The Nova), from Nova 3 Manual — Benelli USA / Benelli Armi S.p.A., pp. 19-29 (PDF pp. 21-29) benelliusa.com [3].

Bench time: about 30 min to strip, 45 min to rebuild (estimate). Strip of bolt, action bars, trigger guard and magazine; polymer receiver/stock is one piece (coating is mostly barrel, mag tube, guard and small parts).

Small parts: 12 pins, 18 springs, 1 detents or plungers (counted by name in the same list: pins = D1 14, 20, 21; D2 5, 6, 8, 17; D3 11, 19, 33; D4 3, 8 (D2-4 firing pin and D1-19 pin bush not counted); springs = D1 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 22, 25; D2 3, 10, 16; D)

What comes off for coating

• Barrel / magazine: magazine cap, barrel, magazine spring, follower and limiter
• Receiver: trigger guard pins (long pin front) and trigger guard group, bolt assembly and action bars, fore-end
• Bolt: firing pin pin, firing pin and spring, rotating head and cam pin, extractor
• Trigger guard: hammer, sear, trigger and springs (only if coating the guard)

Special tools

• Punch set — Trigger guard pins and bolt pins

Known pain points

• The trigger guard goes back only with the hammer cocked, pivoting on its front hook, and the two retaining pins differ in length: the longer one goes in the front hole. (reassembly)
  Source: Nova Pump Field Shotgun Product Manual — Benelli USA / Benelli Armi S.p.A. benelliusa.com [2] — “NOTE: the longer pin is used in the forward hole (fig. 39).”

Fit or check on rebuild

• Trigger guard pins in the right holes — The longer pin goes forward; swapped pins do not retain properly.
  Source: Nova Pump Field Shotgun Product Manual — Benelli USA / Benelli Armi S.p.A. benelliusa.com [2] — “NOTE: the longer pin is used in the forward hole (fig. 39).”
• Function check: safety, trigger/sear release, disconnector and feeding with dummy rounds — Standard after any detail strip; a mis-assembled sear or disconnector can double or fail to fire.

This is Pew-Takedown's rating, not the manufacturer's. How tiers are rated. Forum reports are owners' experience, not specifications.

Procedures

Torque specifications

No sourced torque values from the manufacturer are recorded for this firearm. Where a fastener has a specified torque — action screws, scope bases, muzzle devices, barrel nuts — get it from the manufacturer or a gunsmith rather than estimating it.

What the manufacturer does say: The manufacturer's documents give no torque value. They say: "fully tighten the two screws." (Nova Pump Field Shotgun Product Manual, PDF p. 97 (rear sight adjustment)) "Tighten the barrel retaining cap" (Nova 3 Manual, PDF p. 5 and p. 16 (sentence continues))

Reported by other sources — not the manufacturer

Materials and factory finish

As stated by Benelli Armi. Prep, masking and cure depend on these; a polymer or aluminium part, a nitrided or anodised finish, and a blued steel part are each a different job. Variants with other finishes may exist — check the maker's page for the exact SKU on the bench.

Function check

• Verify the shotgun is unloaded — chamber and magazine tube — before each step.
• Cycle the action by hand and confirm the bolt locks fully into battery.
• With the hammer cocked, engage the safety and press the trigger. The hammer must not fall.
• Disengage the safety and press the trigger. The hammer should fall.
• Confirm the bolt locks open when retracted and releases with the carrier release.
• Load two dummy shells into the magazine and confirm they feed and eject one at a time.
• Confirm the magazine cap is tight.
• Confirm the magazine cut-off works: with it engaged, cycling the action should not feed a shell from the magazine.

Maintenance

Lubrication points

• Bolt body and locking lug
• Magazine tube exterior
• Action bars or link
• Hammer and sear pivots

Cleaning notes

Keep the magazine tube interior clean and dry rather than oiled — oil there collects plastic wad residue and slows the follower. The polymer receiver shell needs nothing but wiping.

Suggested inspection interval: roughly every 2000 rounds. This is a general guideline, not a manufacturer specification.

Wear parts to inspect

Inertia spring · Bolt head locking lugs · Extractor and spring · Recoil spring in the stock tube

Common issues

Also covers

The procedures above are reported to apply to: Benelli SuperNova · Benelli Nova Tactical. Verify against the manual for your specific model.

Similar manual of arms

• Remington 870
• Mossberg 500 / 590

Sourcing