Thoughts or experiences with a Beretta TR-1 Trap Special?

[BCRider]

A couple of months back after visiting the dentist I was cruising the toy stores and came across this nice looking shotgun for what I figured was a silly "Chump Change" price of $150. So it came home with me.

First time out it jammed really badly with basic Federal trap loads. Only got two shots off then had to get a rod to beat out the empty hull. A while back I picked up a brake cylinder hone and eased it out until it fit a variety of empty hulls brought home with me from that day at the range. It's been out for a quick test with a couple of brands of shells I have here and it's now working like a champ.

But when I look around for some history on this shotgun I all but come up dry. From the embossed "engraving", the quality of the rib lining and wood quality I'm pretty sure this was not a cheap shotgun in its day. Maybe not anything high end but I'm thinking that today's equivalent would be up in the higher hundreds.

Anyone ever have one and relate any tales about how it was or still is?

 

[oneounceload]

Google turns up some older threads on SGW suggesting a value of 150-250 (2010); that's all I'm finding - maybe someone with a Blue Book can fill in the blanks better.

 

[BCRider]

Thanks. So it wasn't a give away price. Just a fair one.

Of course that was 2010 and this is 2015 so maybe it was a pretty good price. Still, I'm a little surprised that this nice a shotgun is so cheap. Although given the fixed choke and my problem with the tight chamber maybe it's not so odd.....

I tried a few searches for back ground as well as a search here on THR. I didn't turn up anything on this particular model on THR and precious little on the web in general. I'll have to try some other word options to perhaps get a bit more.

 

[au_prospector]

I would have brought it home as well. Is that an aftermarket butt plate or original? It makes the LOP look long in the picture.

 

[BCRider]

The few pictures of the TR-1 model that I found on the web have the same recoil pad setup. So I'm guessing that it came out of the box that way.

I'll have to measure the LOP but the action is not very deep which might make it look longer where it's really only skinnier.