Shooting Times & Country Magazine
CONCLUSION
The gun provided was one of the straightstocked options, and it was beautiful to behold from every angle. With a length of pull of 14½in, about 1/8in of cast at heel and a decent amount of drop (23/8in at heel), it came up well enough.
I would always like to see slightly longer stocks with a touch more cast from manufacturers, but with Beretta’s pad system you can push it out to over 16in if required, and you can have guns cast with relative ease. I have shot a few 486s before and each experience has been a good one, with this being no different.
It is a side-by-side with a straight stock at the end of the day, and a much more natural gun to shoot. When shot in the manner appropriate to its design, it flows with ease from the classic on-peg stance to the shoulder and through the target. I could imagine hitting a lot of birds with this gun without having a clue how it happened, and that is never a bad thing for a gun to be.
Last year, I shot the pistol grip version and it couldn’t have been more different, so be honest with yourself about what you want from the gun before committing to one or the other. Recoil was something I was paying attention to. Some side-by-sides can be brutal, but this lightweight gun was very manageable indeed, with less muzzle flip than I expected using some punchier 28g loads. It does jump a little in the hand, but no more than other straight-stocked guns with splinter fore-ends.
So enamoured was I with my innate ability to hit things that I started to get a little silly, calling for random birds with an unloaded gun, seeing how far I could push my luck. The gun was magic, I was less magic, but I left the experience with a big smile on my face and the sudden urge to find a 28-bore version of this gun to bring home and join the family.
But where does this gun ultimately belong? The model on test is yearning to be used for traditional game shooting, be that on peg or walking-up. It’s everything beautiful about a side-by-side, but built for 2022, with chrome-lined rust-free barrels that are suitable for any type of ammunition that the future might throw at us.
On top of all that, a quick change of woodwork turns this gun into a high bird or clay cannon that could match any over-andunder. Beretta rarely misses the mark, and it hasn’t this time either.