jmbrowning
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2003
- Messages
- 17
Well, I went to the local sporting goods store and picked up my first sporting shotgun, a Beretta 3901. I thought I was going to get a humpback 390 but after looking closely at the box and the receiver, I realized that this was no Silver Mallard. But for under $500 who could complain?
The shotgun has a matte black finish and has a round receiver rather than the distinctive humpback on the 390. The receiver is non-magnetic, suggesting aluminum. 28" vent ribbed barrel/gold bead with 3 Mobilhokes, IC, M, F, comes standard as does a funky little Beretta choke wrench.
The furniture is black plastic and fairly utilitarian. The buttpad is about 3/8 or 1/2 inch of rubber. The foreend feels a little more blocky than the walnut 391 I had fondled a little earlier.
Manual of arms seems to be pretty standard for a Spaghetti Smoothbore. In other words it makes no damn sense. Pulling the trigger fires the chambered shell, ejects it and feeds another up the spout. Racking the bolt ejects the chambered shell, but no shell is released onto the lifter from the magazine. I suppose it would facilitate doing a select slug or shot drill but is this really performed that often in a sporting situation? To manually feed the next shell in the magazine into the chamber, you have to push a shell stop release button at the base of the lifter. This spits the shell on to the lifter and racking the bolt then ejects the chambered round. The bolt then locks back with the next shell on the lifter and pressing the bolt release rams home the new shell. Furthermore, the bolt cannot be locked back unless the magazine is empty when the bolt goes back or unless the shell stop release is pressed first. What a mess.
What really makes this standout from the 390 is that it has no magazine release, but after all the shenanigans mentioned above, I don't know when in a sporting situation you would want to make things anymore complicated than they already are.
The other things that this gun is missing at least according to the 390 manual tucked in with the 3901 are:
1) sling swivel attachments
2) cast/drop adjustment shims
Looks like Beretta is going after the WallyWorld 390 crowd with this 390/391 hybrid. Seems like a fairly good gun and I'm looking forward to busting clays for the first time with this shotgun, even picked up a do-all trap and a case of W-W clays. Unfortunately, my schedule has prevented me from going out to the range to the dirty deed. I will of course report back how it did with several different types of loads.
Can anyone recommend where I can get the missing items mentioned above (sling swivels/stock shims)? Is there anything else I need to do get this gun ready for shooting birds (clay/feathered)? Thanks in advance for your help!
The shotgun has a matte black finish and has a round receiver rather than the distinctive humpback on the 390. The receiver is non-magnetic, suggesting aluminum. 28" vent ribbed barrel/gold bead with 3 Mobilhokes, IC, M, F, comes standard as does a funky little Beretta choke wrench.
The furniture is black plastic and fairly utilitarian. The buttpad is about 3/8 or 1/2 inch of rubber. The foreend feels a little more blocky than the walnut 391 I had fondled a little earlier.
Manual of arms seems to be pretty standard for a Spaghetti Smoothbore. In other words it makes no damn sense. Pulling the trigger fires the chambered shell, ejects it and feeds another up the spout. Racking the bolt ejects the chambered shell, but no shell is released onto the lifter from the magazine. I suppose it would facilitate doing a select slug or shot drill but is this really performed that often in a sporting situation? To manually feed the next shell in the magazine into the chamber, you have to push a shell stop release button at the base of the lifter. This spits the shell on to the lifter and racking the bolt then ejects the chambered round. The bolt then locks back with the next shell on the lifter and pressing the bolt release rams home the new shell. Furthermore, the bolt cannot be locked back unless the magazine is empty when the bolt goes back or unless the shell stop release is pressed first. What a mess.
What really makes this standout from the 390 is that it has no magazine release, but after all the shenanigans mentioned above, I don't know when in a sporting situation you would want to make things anymore complicated than they already are.
The other things that this gun is missing at least according to the 390 manual tucked in with the 3901 are:
1) sling swivel attachments
2) cast/drop adjustment shims
Looks like Beretta is going after the WallyWorld 390 crowd with this 390/391 hybrid. Seems like a fairly good gun and I'm looking forward to busting clays for the first time with this shotgun, even picked up a do-all trap and a case of W-W clays. Unfortunately, my schedule has prevented me from going out to the range to the dirty deed. I will of course report back how it did with several different types of loads.
Can anyone recommend where I can get the missing items mentioned above (sling swivels/stock shims)? Is there anything else I need to do get this gun ready for shooting birds (clay/feathered)? Thanks in advance for your help!
