This is my first year shooting the clay pigeon sports. I bought a Beretta A400 Xcel 32" 12ga with Kickoff in the spring and have used it all season. I shot around 6000 rounds through it. With just a couple more opportunities to shoot it this year I thought I'd record some things I learned.
-Gun shoots as close to dead-on flat (50/50) with the rib as I can discern. Even snowman-ing the beads puts the pattern just barely above the front bead. Often I get my smokiest hits when I put the barrel in front of the clay rather than the bead.
-If you are going to shoot trap, get a shell deflector or use a rubber band. My Xcell throws the spent shells at the guy to my right or the speaker stand in front of him.
-If you are shooting doubles, it is better to have the second shell in the lifter area rather than in the tube. You can do this by loading chamber, pressing carrier release button (large black button on right side), loading second shell in magazine tube, the pressing button at rear of lifter to drop the shell onto the lifter. You can instead leave the shell in the tube, but I find it results in more gun movement during the firing cycle.
-I found the IM choke best for trap. I patterend the gun with M choke and saw some pretty big holes in the pattern at trap distances. (#8 and #7.5 target loads).
-I used IC choke for skeet. However, if I aim right I smoke birds at the center stations, so a skeet or Cyl choke would be better. (#8 target loads).
-If you want to adjust the stock, you probably need to go buy the right tool. I had to buy the Torx driver because normal Torx bits for multidrivers are not long enough to reach the screws - the driver needs to maintain its thin profile for a few inches. I found a set of Torx keys (like allen keys) at Princess Auto that worked great.
-With the long magazine tube pin the tube holds 1 2.75" shell. With the short one it holds 2 2.75" shells. With no pin it holds 3 2.75" shells.
-The trick to changing the magazine tube pin is that the tube's end cap is threaded into the tube, but you have to depress a spring-loaded locking pin to be able to turn the cap.
-It _is_ possible to ghost load. However, it is very tricky to do because you have to pull the bolt back just enough to get the ghost shell into the receiver, but if you pull too far it cycles a new shell from the tube and you are screwed. In the end I only succeeded in doing this once, but it functioned perfectly in the 3-gun stage.
-This gun is longer than any other shotgun. The only thing that challenges it is a 35"+ unsingle.
-This gun has functioned brilliantly. The only failures I've ever had are two light primer strikes - both shells fired when I tried them again.
-Gun shoots as close to dead-on flat (50/50) with the rib as I can discern. Even snowman-ing the beads puts the pattern just barely above the front bead. Often I get my smokiest hits when I put the barrel in front of the clay rather than the bead.
-If you are going to shoot trap, get a shell deflector or use a rubber band. My Xcell throws the spent shells at the guy to my right or the speaker stand in front of him.
-If you are shooting doubles, it is better to have the second shell in the lifter area rather than in the tube. You can do this by loading chamber, pressing carrier release button (large black button on right side), loading second shell in magazine tube, the pressing button at rear of lifter to drop the shell onto the lifter. You can instead leave the shell in the tube, but I find it results in more gun movement during the firing cycle.
-I found the IM choke best for trap. I patterend the gun with M choke and saw some pretty big holes in the pattern at trap distances. (#8 and #7.5 target loads).
-I used IC choke for skeet. However, if I aim right I smoke birds at the center stations, so a skeet or Cyl choke would be better. (#8 target loads).
-If you want to adjust the stock, you probably need to go buy the right tool. I had to buy the Torx driver because normal Torx bits for multidrivers are not long enough to reach the screws - the driver needs to maintain its thin profile for a few inches. I found a set of Torx keys (like allen keys) at Princess Auto that worked great.
-With the long magazine tube pin the tube holds 1 2.75" shell. With the short one it holds 2 2.75" shells. With no pin it holds 3 2.75" shells.
-The trick to changing the magazine tube pin is that the tube's end cap is threaded into the tube, but you have to depress a spring-loaded locking pin to be able to turn the cap.
-It _is_ possible to ghost load. However, it is very tricky to do because you have to pull the bolt back just enough to get the ghost shell into the receiver, but if you pull too far it cycles a new shell from the tube and you are screwed. In the end I only succeeded in doing this once, but it functioned perfectly in the 3-gun stage.
-This gun is longer than any other shotgun. The only thing that challenges it is a 35"+ unsingle.
-This gun has functioned brilliantly. The only failures I've ever had are two light primer strikes - both shells fired when I tried them again.
