What is the purpose of a 9 round magazine for target shooting?

Hi Everyone!

I recently acquired a Benelli MP95E and it came with a 9 round magazine. I'm curious as to why it's 9 rounds instead of 10. For Bullseye shooting, do you load up 9 and also put a round in the chamber?

Also if anyone has a spare magazine to sell, please message me.

Thanks in advance!

European guns have 8 or 9. I don't know exactly why but they have to be sure to work with 5

There are tons of international disciplines that use many different numbers of rounds. Benelli pistol mags are either 6 or 9 rounds, and they're popular in Scandinavian countries. There's a Swedish match that strings 2x3-shot, 3x2-shot, and other mixes on a variety of moving and pop-up targets. Here's a video - it actually looks like a lot of fun - a challenging mix of target and action shooting, and at different ranges, all under a clock. Every stage is 6 shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZdvPKki_w4

Bottom line, the euro pistols are all about ISSF rapid fire and other matches, they weren't designed for bullseye. But, the Benelli is great for it!

I suggest loading 5 and shooting every mag the same way. The gun will be more consistent, have a more consistent weight, and there's never any guessing. Absolutely definitely don't mess with one in the chamber and then inserting a 9-round mag. That's a recipe for being thrown off the line.

Redfeather had some new 6-round Benelli mags back in stock a few months ago. They aren't showing now, probably all scooped up, but wouldn't hurt to ask.

Thanks TT!
Why would you be thrown off the line for putting a round in the chamber (at the load command)? After all, you are allowed to chamber a round at that command...just normally done by racking or releasing the slide...no?

Normally you're instructed to load five rounds, which I believe is what he's referring to.

For slow fire you can load pretty much any way you like, but It's quite difficult to chamber a single round in the Benelli, and then you have to close the bolt on it which means the extractor will have to snap around the rim, etc. Nothing in that is going to lead to a good first shot.

Then, you're futzing around with loose ammunition and mags at the line, and that muzzle is going to wander, and then you're going to start thinking "did I load a full mag" (the Benelli 9-round doesn't have a view port) and check it, and ... you get the idea. If I saw it on my line, I'd be watching, anyway.

Just load 5, every time. Much safer, less thinking, better shooting. MHO.

For NRA you can load how you like. For CMP, I believe it's "five rounds load", even for slow fire.

-TT- wrote:Just load 5, every time. Much safer, less thinking, better shooting. MHO.

I was wondering also if 10/9/max rounds in a magazine would more likely cause an issue vs less than max (bigger variance in spring tension, too much tension to start, etc.). Thoughts on that?

NRA commands for Time Fire and Rapid fire strings.  "With 5 rounds load."

CR10X wrote:NRA commands for Time Fire and Rapid fire strings.  "With 5 rounds load."

Correct, however Slow Fire allows you to load 10 from my last recall (been a while and I most recently did a BE coupon league which allowed that).

Funny how all my 22 magazines that can load 10 rounds have only ever had issues when I loaded 10. The consistency of always loading 5 just makes life easier all the time IMO.

22Cool wrote:I was wondering also if 10/9/max rounds in a magazine would more likely cause an issue vs less than max (bigger variance in spring tension, too much tension to start, etc.).  Thoughts on that?

Full mags definitely behave differently from partially-full ones. Sometimes they feed batter, but more often a little worse.

One special case to consider - if you insert a full mag into a pistol with the bolt closed, the top round will contact the underside of the slide and compress downward. If the mag is full to the point of tight, it may not move much. Either way, the friction will almost definitely restrict the slide from moving. If you're trying an N+1 thing, that first shot recoil stroke will be affected.

Thanks guys, great info here!

Older Hammerli 208 had 9 rd magazines. I surmise from bitching, moaning and groaning that they changed the follower to allow 10 rds. Grip/frame height/length typically governs on rd count per caliber.
Jon

Jon Eulette wrote:Older Hammerli 208 had 9 rd magazines. I surmise from bitching, moaning and groaning that they changed the follower to allow 10 rds. Grip/frame height/length typically governs on rd count per caliber.
Jon

Looks like maybe Benelli owners either didn't bitch enough or bitched way too much!