The design of the Vinci allows it to be quickly and easily taken down into three modules.

Beyond The Basic Shotgun
When designing the Vinci, Benelli engineers strayed far from basic shotgun design that goes all the way back to the beginning of the 20th century. For starters, the barrel cannot be easily detached from the receiver.

If you think about it, the universal adoption of the screw-in choke made the need for switching from one barrel to another on a repeating shotgun pretty much obsolete, but out of the tradition as much as anything else, the concept continues to live on with most shotgun manufacturers.

One option not possible with a fixed-barrel design is outfitting a bird gun with a rifled slug barrel for hunting big game, but several manufacturers have told me that few shotgun owners do so anyhow. Most either shoot suitable slug loads in their smoothbores, or they buy a dedicated shotgun with a rifled barrel, equip it with a scope, and use it exclusively for hunting deer and other four-legged game.

It is a proven fact that the fit between the receiver and the barrel of a shotgun has great influence on slug load accuracy, and guns that have proven to be the most accurate either have their barrels rigidly fixed to their receivers or a gunsmith has pinned them in place. The fact that the barrel and receiver of the Vinci are fitted so tightly together that they appear to be one piece leaves little doubt in my mind that it will be capable of delivering excellent accuracy with the right slug loads. In fact, it may prove to be so accurate with some loads--the Remington Buckhammer and Federal's TruBall loading of the old Foster slug come to mind--that a rifled barrel may not actually be needed. And since the receiver of the Vinci is drilled and tapped for scope mounting, it will be easy to find out just how accurate it can be.

Only slightly larger in diameter than the breech end of the barrel, the receiver is cylindrical in shape. Whereas most autoloading shotguns have a recoil spring either around their magazine tube inside the forearm or in the buttstock, the spring of the Vinci is located totally within the receiver and attached directly to the bolt. This in-line, Inertia-Driven system, we were told, cycles faster than more conventional designs and in doing so, it all but eliminates muzzle rise during firing.

As we discovered in Argentina, the statement contained far more truth than brag. As flocks of doves streamed by within range, I found shooting doubles to be easy, and anytime I kept the gun swinging smoothly and did not lose my concentration, dropping three doves with three shots was not only well within the realm of possibility, it happened frequently.

A peek inside the Vinci reveals its simplicity of design.

Occasionally, it got even better than that. On more than one occasion my bird boy would shout "cuatro" with great excitement in his voice as I killed a fourth bird before the first one had hit the ground. That's how quickly you can get on multiple targets with the Vinci.

But there is more to the story than an in-line bolt. The Comfor-Tech synthetic stock plays a key role not only in the reduction of muzzle jump but in reducing perceived recoil as well.

Cutouts in the buttstock virtually make it a two-piece design, with the two pieces connected by rubber cushions called chevrons. Each time the gun is fired, the stock flexes, allowing recoil to be absorbed by the chevrons.