With a variety of patented technology built in and stylish good looks, the Benelli LUPO lineup is following a similar trajectory to the Italian gunmaker's famed Super Black Eagle shotgun family. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead)
January 22, 2025
By Lynn Burkhead
Just minutes after the opening bell for the 2025 SHOT Show in the spacious Venetian Expo building, it was hard not to notice the big smile on Nick Andrew’s face.
For starters, Andrews—who is the marketing director for Benelli USA—was basking in the glow of his Ohio State Buckeyes claiming the College Football Playoff National Championship the night before (a 34-23 win over Notre Dame). While the Buckeyes own nine national titles in college football, Andrews was taking it all in the eve of the SHOT Show opener the next morning.
But when that opener came, Andrews was all business as the Benelli booth swarmed with media and buyers wanting to gain a glimpse of what’s new from the Italian gun-maker that has made such industry stalwarts as the Super Black Eagle family , arguably the best waterfowling shotgun lineup of all-time.
Just after the opening bell of Day 1 for the 2025 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, the Benelli booth was already buzzing with activity. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) On this Tuesday morning along the chilly Las Vegas Strip—the Vegas thermometer bottomed out in the 20s on the same morning that Gulf Coast locations like Houston, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile and Pensacola were getting slammed with up to a foot of snow—a cup or two of coffee delivered a caffeine jolt and Andrews was ready to go, especially when the subject turned to the company’s evolving LUPO rifle lineup .
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Unveiled at SHOT 2020 Back in November 2019, I was fortunate enough to travel to a Nebraska to see Benelli’s long-rumored introduction into the rifle market with the LUPO bolt action. Lupo is Italian for wolf, by the way. While I never saw a shooter whitetail on my hunt, other writers in our group found out that the LUPO was everything it had been rumored to be. A few weeks later at the 2020 SHOT Show—just before the world shut down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic—I was admiring a 30.06 much like the one I had hunted with and test-fired.
Since then, the LUPO has continued to evolve as Benelli has added new models and tweaked existing ones in the LUPO line-up.
Now, the LUPO rifle family has a little something for everyone, including new finish options for the lineup’s bolt action models that include the 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win, .300 Win Mag, 7mm PRC and of course the timeless American classic, the 30.06.
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Since its introduction a few years ago, Benelli has built its rifle family from the ground up in an increasingly tough market as the economy has grown more difficult for consumers and manufacturers alike, along with a seemingly endless supply of rifle-making competitors on the SHOT Show floor each year.
But Benelli has stayed true to the LUPO line, growing it into something that demands attention from anyone in the market for a new rifle.
Like No Other in Their Class How has the LUPO moved from being an upstart to one of the respected players on the crowded rifle field? By bringing a great product out, one that has blended both technology and craftsmanship in a super chassis-style bolt-action rifle that is like no other in its class.
While there were signs proclaiming some of the new and improved features in this year’s LUPO offerings, there was also a sense of familiarity and reliability that the LUPO line-up has built among customers over the past several years. Both in 2019 and now in 2025, consumers get a custom-built look and feel, all in a gun readily available at Benelli dealers and one that comes with the ability to be custom fit right out of the box.
It was hard to tell what Nick Andrews, the marketing director for Benelli USA, was more excited about on Tuesday morning at the SHOT Show. His Ohio State Buckeyes winning college football's national championship the night before or the ongoing evolution and popularity of the LUPO rifle family. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) But while the LUPO rifle lineup—including 2025 models—continues to evolve bit by bit, the rifle’s DNA of comfort, fit and accuracy remains steady with to seven Benelli patents that are incorporated into the lineup.
“Guns today in this price point are extremely accurate,” said Andrews when I asked why someone might want to purchase this rifle. “But what we do here with this chassis-style rifle, it’s really able to be customized to you. It fits better with our Progressive Comfort and then there’s our name, the Benelli brand and 25-year warranty on these rifles.”
In the final analysis, Andrews says that the company, Benelli dealers and customers know they are getting a rifle that they can shoot for the rest of their lives.
Want a great hunting rifle that offers 3/4-inch, 5-shot MOA results, a custom fit out of the box, comfort upon the shot and subsequent recoil, and hard-hitting and lethal accuracy into a buck or bull's boiler room? Nick Andrews and his Benelli family says all of that is available in the company's LUPO rifle lineup. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) It’s in the DNA Which explains why the Benelli booth was buzzing on Tuesday morning as SHOT Show attendees wanted to see what’s new, including a taxidermy centerpiece of a huge bull elk antlers and hide, as well as a LUPO, strapped to a pack frame for a trek out of the high country.
While some of this year’s push has been to blend the LUPO’s DNA along with classic good looks in a traditional bolt-action rifle, the company has surfed a long wave that built from last year’s SHOT Show introduction of the LUPO HPR, a more modern-looking version of the original that targets big-game hunters, varmint hunters and long-range shooters.
While there are seven Benelli patents associated with the LUPO rifle family, those who long for a traditional looking, wooden stock bolt action rifle that is top of the line can find one in the LUPO lineup. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) If you’ll remember from last January, the LUPO HPR came to market in six calibers including: .300 WIN Mag, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 WINCHESTER, 6.5 PRC, .338 Lapua Mag, and .300 PRC.
That HPR rifle has hit the bull’s-eye in several categories, including factory-guaranteed sub-MOA (3/4-inch, 5-shot group) accuracy for both long-range shooting and hunting endeavors.
While last year's LUPO HPR was geared at both long-range shooters and hunters, the bulk of the Benelli LUPO lineup is designed to help hunters pack in light and come out heavy with a big game animal. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) The stock of the LUPO HPR—which remains very near the forefront of the LUPO lineup—features Benelli's Progressive Comfort System to deliver recoil reduction, along with QD and Magpul M-Lok attachment points, an eight-position push-button adjustable comb, and a removable bag rider at the bottom. The pistol grip is interchangeable, with grip options for target shooting and hunting.
In the LUPO HPR’s alloy chassis receiver, Benelli has stock spacers for LOP adjustment and shims to help shooters achieve proper eye alignment behind the scope. There is also an adjustable trigger, a Benelli BE.S.T. coated bolt and handle, a one-piece Picatinny Rail (30 MOA), and a detachable box-style magazine.
The front of the LUPO HPR consists of a fore-end made of the same tan synthetic and black webbing synthetic stock material. Right above Benelli's fully rounded AirTouch front grip region, there are more QD and Magpul M-Lok attachment points.
For the LUPO HPR's business end, Benelli gives shooters and hunters a free-floating and fluted CRIO barrel that delivers a Sub-MOA guarantee (3/4-inch, 5-shots) that long-range shooters and big-game hunters depend on. Add a matte coating of Benelli's BE.S.T. surface coating that resists rust and corrosion, and a threaded muzzle brake, and you have another real winner in the LUPO lineup.
As Benelli tweaks the LUPO lineup, some classic looking synthetic stock offerings in different finishes are available in 2025. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) Staying Power What’s impressive about Benelli’s ongoing drive into the rifle market—for years, it has been celebrated as one of the best shotgun manufacturers on the planet—is that with the passage of time and ongoing tweaks and evolution to the LUPO, the rifle family is developing stability and staying power.
And in a way, the last several years of Benelli rifle-making sort of resembles Andrew’s beloved college football team. Some of those nine national titles have been won with traditional run-oriented offenses, some with more modern passing attacks, and like the other night, some with offensive schemes that blend the best of all football worlds. But in the end, it’s the DNA, commitment to excellence and staying true to your strengths that help both football programs and gun makers in America achieve consistent success.
Among the features that Benelli's LUPO rifle series comes with are premium receivers and barrels, something that the Italian gunmaker has excelled at since intorducing the LUPO to the 2020 SHOT Show. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) In other words, when you find a recipe that works, you keep using it, right?
All in all, the Benelli LUPO rifle has gone from an industry curiosity I first saw on a Nebraska Sandhills hunt to a championship-level player year in and year out, despite the lineup’s modest six-year existence.
And while Benelli has brought newer versions and various tweaks to market since then, through it all the LUPO rifle remains a real winner on a crowded SHOT Show expo floor that has no shortage of rifles to choose from.
As the Benelli LUPO lineup has developed since the author used one on a Nebraska whitetail hunt in 2019, the rifle's DNA remains virtually the same as tweaks and evolution takes the Benelli model higher. (Photo by Lynn Burkhead) And something tells me—and I’m a very dedicated Texas Longhorns fan who is still smarting from Andrew’s Buckeyes beating my Longhorns in the national semifinals earlier this month—that once again next year, two things are likely to remain true at the opening bell of the 2026 SHOT Show.
One will likely be that Andrews favorite football team remains near the top of the college gridiron sport. The other will be that the Benelli LUPO lineup will remain near the top of a crowded hunting rifle market too.