Beretta A400 vs Benelli SBE3

Zedmania said:
I see guys talking about fit a lot. What exactly do you look for when making sure a gun "fits"?
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As a rough idea, close your eyes, and shoulder the gun, and without moving, open your eyes. If your eye is looking at the rib instead of along it, or if you can't see all of the bead, or if the rib isn't centered left to right, the gun does not fit you. Of course there can be a combination of drop at comb and length of pull that provides the proper sight picture, even though the gun doesn't really fit you, but if the sight picture is wrong, the gun definitely doesn't fit you. Once you find a gun that fits you, forget all about the bead for wing shooting, concentrate on the target, and ignore the bead altogether.
 
stubblejumper said:
As a rough idea, close your eyes, and shoulder the gun, and without moving, open your eyes. If your eye is looking at the rib instead of along it, or if you can't see all of the bead, or if the rib isn't centered left to right, the gun does not fit you. Of course there can be a combination of drop at comb and length of pull that provides the proper sight picture, even though the gun doesn't really fit you, but if the sight picture is wrong, the gun definitely doesn't fit you. Once you find a gun that fits you, forget all about the bead for wing shooting, concentrate on the target, and ignore the bead altogether.
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The problem with that advice is this. If the person can not recognize on their own if the gun fits, their mount will not be good enough to do it properly, especially with their eyes closed. They will most likely bring the gun to their shoulder, not their cheek. Body position will be out of sync because there eyes are not open to focus on a target point.
 
Westward1 said:
The problem with that advice is this. If the person can not recognize on their own if the gun fits, their mount will not be good enough to do it properly, especially with their eyes closed. They will most likely bring the gun to their shoulder, not their cheek. Body position will be out of sync because there eyes are not open to focus on a target point.
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I did post" as a rough idea". If the person keeps their eyes open, they will shoulder the gun to provide the sight picture they expect, even if it isn't natural. So what is your suggestion for the person that goes to a chain store to buy a shotgun, and there is nobody with a clue to help them?
 
stubblejumper said:
I did post" as a rough idea". If the person keeps their eyes open, they will shoulder the gun to provide the sight picture they expect, even if it isn't natural. So what is your suggestion for the person that goes to a chain store to buy a shotgun, and there is nobody with a clue to help them?
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Let me start by saying the last thing I want is to discourage helpful suggestions in the forum. If I came across as rude I apologize.

Most new shooters will mount the gun somewhere on their shoulder and tip their head sideways to look down the barrel. What they are seeing at that point will have limited value. As an experienced shooter, if you were to mount a gun at a gun counter, you would would naturally set up your feet, adjust your posture without thinking about it, and mount your gun to you cheek, rolling your shoulder up onto the recoil pad. You would then have a pretty good idea whether it fit you or not. POI testing or shooting a few targets would be the only way to confirm whether that was the case.

I would suggest to a new shooter, if they did not have someone to help them, that they spend some time on YouTube and watch some Coaches/Shooters explain the process. Everyone has opinions on who knows what, but Don Currie, NSCA Head Instructor, Gil Ash or many others should give a new shooter a good start on mounting a shotgun.

I just did a quick YouTube search and the results were endless, Chris Batha has a good video as well.
 
I used a Beretta A400 Xtreme Unico in optifade last fall. Points and fits great. Cycles great. Only trouble was getting used to the Beretta loading/unloading logic after using a Remington 58 and Browning Auto 5 in the past. I took it out for sporting clays and shot as well as ever so overall quite happy with it. Still have trouble with the space age looking stock but what can ya do.
 
I got my a400 b/c it was a RARE left handed model- and that makes I big diff if you're left handed
 
Westward1 said:
Let me start by saying the last thing I want is to discourage helpful suggestions in the forum. If I came across as rude I apologize.

Most new shooters will mount the gun somewhere on their shoulder and tip their head sideways to look down the barrel. What they are seeing at that point will have limited value. As an experienced shooter, if you were to mount a gun at a gun counter, you would would naturally set up your feet, adjust your posture without thinking about it, and mount your gun to you cheek, rolling your shoulder up onto the recoil pad. You would then have a pretty good idea whether it fit you or not. POI testing or shooting a few targets would be the only way to confirm whether that was the case.

I would suggest to a new shooter, if they did not have someone to help them, that they spend some time on YouTube and watch some Coaches/Shooters explain the process. Everyone has opinions on who knows what, but Don Currie, NSCA Head Instructor, Gil Ash or many others should give a new shooter a good start on mounting a shotgun.

I just did a quick YouTube search and the results were endless, Chris Batha has a good video as well.
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The sad fact, is that many people can't be bothered to even watch videos to learn about shotgun fit, they go into a store, look at the guns, shoulder one or two, quite possibly with a trigger lock on it, so they can't even hold it normally, then they pick one, and go home. So I try to suggest something as simple as possible, hoping, that they at least bother to try my suggestion, rather than just pick a shotgun based on the price alone, or how it looks. Most people have shotguns that don't fit them, they miss a lot, so they change loads, chokes, and install hi viz beads hoping that something will help them to shoot the gun better. It may sound harsh, but it is very true, I see it on a regular basis when new people come out to shoot skeet for the first time, or they bring a new gun.
 
stubblejumper said:
The sad fact, is that many people can't be bothered to even watch videos to learn about shotgun fit, they go into a store, look at the guns, shoulder one or two, quite possibly with a trigger lock on it, so they can't even hold it normally, then they pick one, and go home. So I try to suggest something as simple as possible, hoping, that they at least bother to try my suggestion, rather than just pick a shotgun based on the price alone, or how it looks. Most people have shotguns that don't fit them, they miss a lot, so they change loads, chokes, and install hi viz beads hoping that something will help them to shoot the gun better. It may sound harsh, but it is very true, I see it on a regular basis when new people come out to shoot skeet for the first time, or they bring a new gun.
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The up side is most semi’s have shims and LOP adjustability so you can give them some advice on fit and gun mount when they come skeet shooting.
 
lowridersvt said:
I have never used the sbe3 but have 7 years of hard use on the sbe2 never had a failure even in -40deg lake hunting . The A400 is nice and will be softer shooting . But gas guns have more moving parts and are more complicated and lets you down more often
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what kind of lube are you using by -40c below?
 
Westward1 said:
I have seen people do the same with adjustable combs. A friend of mine almost wore his out adjusting it every time he had a bad day.
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When I got my first shotgun with an adjustable comb one of the club elders told me to go to the patterning board with my wrenches, adjust the comb until the pattern was centered and then throw the wrenches away.
 
CreamySmooth said:
I have. SBEIII and my buddy has an A400. His May kick a little less, but you’d have to be 1 ply to notice. And at the end of the day he’s got an hour or 2 of cleaning and I give mine a 60 second wipe down. So yeah.... don’t forget that part.
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An hour or two to clean a gun? Wow. I think something may be wrong with your buddy....
 
CreamySmooth said:
I have. SBEIII and my buddy has an A400. His May kick a little less, but you’d have to be 1 ply to notice. And at the end of the day he’s got an hour or 2 of cleaning and I give mine a 60 second wipe down. So yeah.... don’t forget that part.
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If your friend is that challenged mechanically, perhaps he shouldn't even handle firearms?
 
CreamySmooth said:
I have. SBEIII and my buddy has an A400. His May kick a little less, but you’d have to be 1 ply to notice. And at the end of the day he’s got an hour or 2 of cleaning and I give mine a 60 second wipe down. So yeah.... don’t forget that part.
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I must be cleaning my a400 wrong cuz it takes me longer to unscrew the forend cap then it does to clean it.
Spray g96 on the mag tube and piston wipe clean. Wipe barrel and reciever with oily soaked rag and put back in case
 
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