[saddlebum]

friend of mine decided to get rid of all his guns & go to belize (?) to retire. so he came by my house last night to say good bye ad gave me a beretta 1201 shotgun with extended mag. so tell me what ya'll know about this gun ,anygood? what kind of loads would ya'll use in it for home defence? any info would help . thanks, saddlebum

[Fed168]

It's a good shotgun. The gun is recoil operated, so reduced loads may give you a problem. Full power loads will fit the bill, however, mine would feed reduced without malfunctions. Try an assortment to see what works. Dissasembly is easy as well as cleaning, and you have sight options from Beretta in the way of 3 dot sights. I found the rifle sights to be a tad small, but they worked.

The stock angle may beat you up a some, hence the reason you may want to try reduced loads, especially slugs. HD wise, I use about a #8 load, and would choose a BB load if I didn't have #8s. It works well at social distances.

[Dave McCracken]

Good shotgun. Ask Beretta for a manual if one's not with the weapon. Grab some generic ammo and go shoot. Enjoy!

HD ammo is often debated here. The Archives have lots of input.

[mete]

The 1201 is actually a Benelli. And Benellis work very well. Beretta owns part of Benelli so it isn't strange . Get the manual, take down is easy.

[CWL]

It's a great gun!

I have the model with rifle sights and mine patterns (Federal Reduced Recoil 00 and 000 buck) about fistsized holes out to 15-20 yards every time. It is what I use for home defense. I have fired up to 200+ defensive rounds a day during practicework and have never had a malfunction which I did not generate. It does have a trickier manual of arms (over pump) and I would suggest much practice before relying on it as a self-defence weapon.

It is the same as the Benelli.

The only reason they no longer make this (civilian) model is because they are using this modified reciever for their military-contract M4 shotguns.

[jthuang]

Excellent gun. A friend has one (purchased for $450 at a gunshow) and loves it. Only complaint is that the bolt handle is a bit slippery at times.

One caveat: the Surefire Responder for the 1200 will not fit the 1201FP, at least not without significant modification.

Justin

[Cthulhu]

I'm extremely impressed with mine. Light, quick cycling, accurate with slugs If the factory stocks dont fit you well, remember that Benelli M1 stocks fit with little or no modification.