Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl 391 beretta ?

I shoot a M1 for upland birds and SBE for ducks and geese. My wife bought me a beretta 391 for CHRISTmas last year (damn fine woman). I was wondering about cold weather reliability with the 391s gas system. I have a browning gold that doesn't like the cold but cycles perfectly in warm weather. I have only had maybe 2 or 3 jams in the last 10 years of waterfowling with my SBE. Is the 391 a workhorse or just a clays gun that needs a lot of cleaning.

It's a realible duck gun for all weather types. It will require a tad more upkeep then your SBE to run reliably all season due to being a gas gun but no more so then any other similar gas gun. Keep the action reasonably clean and use a good lube that doesn't gum up in cold weather and it won't miss a beat.

I would say the 391 is every bit as good as the M1/M2 benellis and better then most 3" guns out there.

I have a 391, M1, SBE and Extrema II that all get a lot of waterfowl use as I probably hunt close to 75-80 days of the season. My maintenance regimine throughout the season isn't much. After a hunt I do a rough field strip, throw all the major parts in the shower with me and rinse off all the parts well, dry em well with the air comprrssor, pull a bore snake down the barrel a few times and oil as appropriate.

I can't recall the last time I had a gun related issue.

I shoot two 391s, an Extrema and A400 with great satisfaction....They get very little care during hunting season other than a bit more lube around the bolt.

I'm with Vern, the wife & I both ran 391's until last yr when hers got knocked off the boat into the drink. She then took over mine & for the the last 11 months I have run a Franchi. The 391 is a lot easier to disassemble & wipe down after a weekend in the salt marsh or freezing cold & it has never failed to fire or cycle correctly. The first week I used the Franchi last fall in S.D. & MN & I know I had a couple clicks, & even today it still seems harder to load at times.

MallardAddict has it figured out. Your Beretta will not require much maintenance other than making sure the bolt has some descent lube on it. If you run it dry the action will slow down in cold weather. That happened to me one time and we fixed it by dumping a little motor oil off the dip stick of a four wheeler on the bolt. I bet you end up liking your Beretta more than your two Benellis.

I have shot a 391 for around 5 years now and I have had absolutely no problems with the gun. Very minimal maintenance I take mine down once a year.

10 years here, but +1.

Funny I have done the same thing with my browning. Its amazing how well a gun runs on rotella 5w40 out of the oil pan of a jeep. However I don't know if its possable to like a gun more than my M1 or SBE. I like the beretta but hate the location of the safety, anything is possable though. I wish the barrel was 28" instead of 30".

For what its worth my extrema 2 spent the better part of han hour 10 feet deep in the atlantic ocean. I shook the water out of it, stuffed three shells in it and shot it for three days. The beretta corrosion resistant finish. Works as advertised.

Wow! That is awesome! What kind of finish are they putting on the new Berettas?

They have a propritary coating. But I cant remember the name.