Beretta A400 Cycling Issues
- Thread starter Sniffer
- Start date
I didn't read to many posts, to damn nice outside and I love gardening. I own a Beretta A400 Upland and never had a problem. Even after one good shoot for geese, I "totally disasemble" the gun and and give it a thorough cleaning with Hoppes solvent. Usually it takes about 25, 12 gauge-sized-patches to clean it. I usually leave it dry, sans oil.
Thank you.
It's been quite the journey. Have learned a lot.
At least some of the motivation came from Stoegers less than stellar response that the issue was that the "piston was dirty" and at that point the gun had only shot 250 rounds.
I already knew that was horse plop and it has now been confirmed beyond doubt that is indeed the case.
In this instance the A400 was / is the problem. Gas valve release spring that is too weak.
I am pretty picky and certainly look after my gear but my cleaning wont involve disassembly as I run an optic and would have to zero every time.
With the volume I shoot that would be a pain. I would fully strip maybe once a year and do a deep clean (piston etc). That has worked me on other similar guns.
*Update*
I ran a bunch of different ammo through the gun today including some light 7/8oz and some Challenger that is always a challenge (pardon the pun) and it ran great.
Bolt locked back every single time, didnt matter what kind of ammo so it is deffo getting enough gas now.
This pretty much seals the deal that the issue was the spring on the gas release valve being too weak and allowing gas to bleed off too easily (leaving too little to adequately cycle the gun).
Shame on you Beretta.
I ran a bunch of different ammo through the gun today including some light 7/8oz and some Challenger that is always a challenge (pardon the pun) and it ran great.
Bolt locked back every single time, didnt matter what kind of ammo so it is deffo getting enough gas now.
This pretty much seals the deal that the issue was the spring on the gas release valve being too weak and allowing gas to bleed off too easily (leaving too little to adequately cycle the gun).
Shame on you Beretta.
~~~~sighhhhh~~~ case closed....LOL
Congrats on hound dogging this. Could save someone else a BIG PITA next time it happens. (( annnnd it will )))
Yep, I know from some reading that I am not alone on this one.
I was thinking some more about it this morning and I really believe that the gun shoots the same with both the 1301 spring and the solid sleeve. That is subjective on my part but both were very soft shooting and the gun functioned correctly (which suggests the gun was not bleeding off any gas for these rounds with either setup) but I may be able to confirm that better when I remove the hand guard and look for new soot deposits from around the gas bleed off valve.
A lot of what I read talked about the gas ports from the barrel and how on some guns one wasn't drilled all the way through but however this was not the case on mine. Thinking deeper though drilling out the second port (if it were closed) would indeed allow more gas into the system but with the standard (defective) spring it would simply open more and bleed off even more gas which could lead to chasing your tail a little.
It really makes me scoff at the initial response from Stoeger that the issue was "a very dirty piston" (please bear in mind the gun wouldn't run when the piston was brand new / spotless and by the time they saw it there was ~250 rounds max on it).
You can't tell me that a warranty division that sees hundreds / maybe even thousands of these guns with at least some for the same issues as I was experiencing has not seen this before and knows that many times there is more at play than a simple "dirty piston". To anyone reading this in the future with similar issues please know a dirty piston *may* be a factor and should be one of the first things you try (ie clean to eliminate as the cause) along with general cleaning & lubrication but gas ports and bleed off valves are very much also in play.
For now I plan to run the gun hard and see how long it runs before it starts playing up and adjust my cleaning schedule accordingly.
CanadianMohawk
Member
- Location
- Stittsville
I've had terrible experiences with Challenger target loads in my sx4. Winchester AA's are much better in it.
You mean the barrel to receiver fitment is generally so good that it holds zero (bear in mind that my red dot is on the receiver)?
From memory it has needed a click or two after to rezero when removed in the past. I haven't done that this time yet (still playing with some stuff) but will confirm.
Agree with this.
As mentioned earlier in the thread the Challenger in the dark blue boxes is 3 dram and runs fine but the Challenger in the light blue boxes is 2 3/4 dram and is way more problematic.
Having said that I ran a full box through the A400 on Monday after upgrading the spring with zero issues. That is the first time ever. That ammo is a disaster in my other gun. Before that happened I honestly only took that stuff to the range if I wanted to practice clearing malfunctions.
Mine where always good no need to readjust after. I had lpvo on mine before I misplaced the mount in a move
