Beretta 686 First Impressions

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  • winch

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 14, 2011
    1,326
    Towson
    Recently purchased a Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon Sporting 32" O/U. I have shot trap for years, but recently I'm starting to get serious. I was using a Savage 330 O/U Field Gun and a Sears Ted Williams pump.

    I probably screwed up by not getting fitted in advance, but I got lucky in that the 686 fits me pretty well.

    The Sporting model has some differences from the Field model:
    1. Sporting has a mid-bead.
    2. Sporting has manual safety.
    3. Sporting has a tapered rib.
    4. Sporting has the 32" barrel.
    5. Sporting may also be a little heavier than the Field.

    I'm really impressed by the quality of the gun. Great fit and furniture.

    It came with 5 flush chokes, but not a Full for some reason. I ended up buying a Full choke for another $60., which kinda pissed me off.

    It was a little tricky assembling the gun at first but now I have the angle down in my head.

    I've been getting some pointers at the range, and trying different barrel and choke combinations for the first 300 rounds. My score did not magically improve yet LOL.

    No issues, except for a sticky ejector that needs to cleaned. The hinge is still a little tighter than I like but I think it will break in with use.

    It has the oiled walnut stock. I was unsure what to use on the wood. Beretta told me they recommend Old English Lemon Oil.

    It came with a nice hard plastic case.

    It has an inertia trigger so the second barrel won't shoot with snap caps unless you manually change the barrel selector. (At first I thought that the gun was F'd up).

    I patterned it and it looks about 60/40 with most choke/barrel combinations.

    In conclusion, I'm pretty happy with the gun. It has all of the features that I wanted, plus it has some nice engraving.

    This gun, at $2100, is considered to be an entry level trap gun. It does everything that the more expensive ones do.
     

    Augie

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 30, 2007
    4,504
    Central MD
    Good shotgun, enjoy. Sporting guns don't come with full chokes because Sporting Clays rarely requires a full choke, I shoot IC and Mod in mine, sometimes 2 IC or 2 Mod depending on the course.
     

    jollymon

    Active Member
    Dec 6, 2016
    852
    Now in Tennessee ,
    Having had a 686 for a few years now with no problems , mine is a 28" 20ga. I use for Dove and Grouse , A little clays to warm up on .

    Forget the Full choke you'll never have a use for it, you'll get the hang of putting it together , I'm not a big fan of the plastic case, not a lot of protection
    and if your storing it in it open it so it won't sweat and rust ,

    Enjoy it.
     

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