Benelli R1

ive heard good stuff about the r1 from benelli, and bad stuff and the occasional good news from the hunters, sure the semi automatic action is a good choice, but look around, if you can find a good used bolt action get it, i own a pre 64 model 70 that was given to me by my grandmother who killed many elk with it, it has the smoothest, fastest action i have ever shot, ive killed turkeys at 200 yards with it, i have a redfield widefield 2x-7x 30 mm, its a great gun, i use it for everything, it is a 270, i use it for everything, call it over kill, but ive used it for those pesky crows out at my deer feeder troph, i just sit it on the roof of the pickup and shoot from there, i have a cheap bi pod on it, it was only 15 bucks at cheaperthandirt.com, and a neoprene sling that was 20 bucks at academy, that gun is pretty heavy, it weighs 12 pounds, but ive packed it around for miles and its like its 7 pounds with that neoprene sling, but if you are still wanting an auto, go with a b.a.r. lightweight stalker, the sug. retail is 825, but youll get every pennies worth

I think the Benelli R1 is a nice looking rifle, the one I handled in the gunshop had a very nice feel to it and also had a pretty nice stock on it. The only experience I've had is what I've read in gun magazines. From what I've read, the accuracy was mediocre and not that great. I guess it was acceptable for big game but not outstanding. I prefer accurate guns and likely would not buy it myself for that reason. Maybe they just got a poor example for their test or just didn't use the right ammo, I don't know. If you are going to just get one rifle for everything as you say from small game to deer then I would research the accuracy thing a little more before commiting a purchase. For small game or varmint hunting you would want a rifle to be a little more accurate than would be required for big game.