Beretta A400 Xplor Unico Anything Better?

stuckon308

stuckon308

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
214   0   0
Location
MB
I am looking for a semi with the following requirements:

At least a 3" capability.
Great wood patterning. NO synthetic stocks.
Dependability.
Price to be $2000 or less.

Considering I use a shotgun for clays, upland, and migratory birds, and don't use them with slugs or for turkeys would the A400 Unico be a good fit? Does anyone have anything bad to say about them? I have done a bunch of reading and held a bunch including Versa Max, Silver Hunter, SX3, Extrema 2, and Vinci. Most of them were ok. The Versa Max was a severe disappointment even though the salesman was pushing it on me hardcore.

The wood is important. Even though they use their Xtra wood patterning on it. It's still the best wood I've seen on one under $2000.

Enlighten me. Am I missing something?
 
They are probably very good guns. The wood is laser enhanced, and personally I find it hideous. Many of them have a tiger stripe pattern, which looks fake and awful. But if you like it,

I would take a plain piece of walnut over something that has been enhanced anyday.

Cheers,

Patrick
 
phinton81 said:
They are probably very good guns. The wood is laser enhanced, and personally I find it hideous. Many of them have a tiger stripe pattern, which looks fake and awful. But if you like it,

I would take a plain piece of walnut over something that has been enhanced anyday.

Cheers,

Patrick
Click to expand...

I've held a couple of them now. On two of them the "enhancement" was not done overly well. The other two had very nicely done stocks. Without knowing they were modified by lasers I would venture that the majority of people would think they were looking at natural wood.

The way I see it is that almost any wood is modified in some way. Whether it is through staining, checkering, etc. Sure I wish the waves would be natural but Beretta just isn't doing that and it seems that if I want that I will have to pay $3000+.

I'm saying this as a carpenter/woodworker. I suppose it all comes down to if you can live with it.
 
A plain piece of walnut that has been stained to enhance the grain is not the same as a piece of walnut that has been burned with a laser and given an entirely new grain. Maybe its just me, but you can find half decent wood stocks out there, you just may need to look around. Beretta has cheaped with this process as far as I'm concerned. The Unicos are not $2,000 guns by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of plastic, composite and marketing has gone into them. Find a nice used older Urika and you'll have a better gun in my opinion.

Cheers,

Patrick
 
The Xplor Unico is a very good gun but if you don't need or want a gun that will shoot 3-1/2" shells I'd suggest the Beretta 391-2 over the Xplor. I would however choose the Xplor ahead of the Xtrema if I had to have a 3-1/2" chamber.

Most of the non-synthetic Beretta semi-autos come with the X-Tra grain stock which is for want of a better description a decal stuck on a plain wood stock to fancy it up.
 
phinton81 said:
A plain piece of walnut that has been stained to enhance the grain is not the same as a piece of walnut that has been burned with a laser and given an entirely new grain. Maybe its just me, but you can find half decent wood stocks out there, you just may need to look around. Beretta has cheaped with this process as far as I'm concerned. The Unicos are not $2,000 guns by any stretch of the imagination. Lots of plastic, composite and marketing has gone into them. Find a nice used older Urika and you'll have a better gun in my opinion.

Cheers,

Patrick
Click to expand...

Not the EXACT same. But pretty darn close. You are modifying how the wood appears to someone. Just because the staining process has been around longer than the laser doesn't mean that it's more valid and natural.

But you won't change my mind on that anyway. So it all comes down to preference in that area.
 
Claybuster said:
The Xplor Unico is a very good gun but if you don't need or want a gun that will shoot 3-1/2" shells I'd suggest the Beretta 391-2 over the Xplor. I would however choose the Xplor ahead of the Xtrema if I had to have a 3-1/2" chamber.

Most of the non-synthetic Beretta semi-autos come with the X-Tra grain stock which is for want of a better description a decal stuck on a plain wood stock to fancy it up.
Click to expand...

I think I want the ability of the 3-1/2". It's not likely that I'll use it often but if the option is there then I'd like to take advantage of it.

So the worst thing about the gun is the nasty "fake" wood?
 
stuckon308 said:
I think I want the ability of the 3-1/2". It's not likely that I'll use it often but if the option is there then I'd like to take advantage of it.

So the worst thing about the gun is the nasty "fake" wood?
Click to expand...
Pretty much and I don't think the X-tra grain is all that bad. I have it on my 20 gauge 391 and it is attractive however I have doubts about how durable it is.
 
Claybuster said:
Pretty much and I don't think the X-tra grain is all that bad. I have it on my 20 gauge 391 and it is attractive however I have doubts about how durable it is.
Click to expand...

The durability isn't much of a factor to me. The one I was looking at seemed to be resistant enough. I don't plan on throwing my gun on the ground. And if I do, for some strange reason, I will take the scratches like a man.
 
Why not something like a Urika II and then put a wood stock on it? Be well under 2000 and you can have a custom piece of wood used.
 
stuckon308 said:
I am looking for a semi with the following requirements:

At least a 3" capability.
Great wood patterning. NO synthetic stocks.
Dependability.
Price to be $2000 or less.

Considering I use a shotgun for clays, upland, and migratory birds, and don't use them with slugs or for turkeys would the A400 Unico be a good fit? Does anyone have anything bad to say about them? I have done a bunch of reading and held a bunch including Versa Max, Silver Hunter, SX3, Extrema 2, and Vinci. Most of them were ok. The Versa Max was a severe disappointment even though the salesman was pushing it on me hardcore.

The wood is important. Even though they use their Xtra wood patterning on it. It's still the best wood I've seen on one under $2000.

Enlighten me. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

You may also wish to look at the Benelli M2 (with the wood stock).

Given some of the requirements that you've outlined the M2 may meet all. However, the Benelli model is inertia driven and will work best with a min of 1 1/8oz loads (read Clay shooting perspective).

FYI, the wood stocked M2 isn't equipped with the Comfortech system which may or may not be an issue in the scenario of high volume shoots. Personally, I didn't find that an issue shooting 4-6 consecutive rounds of Skeet or Trap and I had used another M2 (synthetic with Comfortech) for comparison in parallel.

http://www.benelliusa.com/shotguns/benelli_m2_field.php

The Benelli SBE II (with 3.5in chamber) is also available with wood stocks. However, it may not effectively cycle lighter loads particularly for Clay - unless one is just using that for Trap and won't care much about such drawback, so to speak.

I haven't had an opportunity to shoot the Xplor field models but those I got to handle seemed quite light for high volume range use.
 
I just bought one today -- Shot it at skeet this evening. All I can say is wow -- very soft recoil and I think it will cycle about anything I would throw into it. Shot 7/8 to 1 1/8 oz loads even trying 7/8's hand loads at 1050fps. Hard to believe a gun chambered for 3 1/2" shells will do what it does.
Happy!
 
A400

I was told about a month ago from a dealer. The A400 is coming out in camo this fall,and I was also told they are dropping the Extrema 2 in the next year or so.
 
I've had one for about 2 months. I've put various loads thru it from light trap to heavier 3 inch hunting loads. Absolutely no problems. A reliable shooter from the box. Very light, easy swinging shotgun. Adjustable for cast and lenghth of pull with the provided spacers. The wood looks fine to me, and the barell and reciever look sharp too. I would not hesitste to recomend this shotgun to anyone looking for the "all'round" semi-auto.
 
I shot one of the first ones to come to Canada, nice gun but I like the 391 more. I have shot both and seen them used on game, the XPLOR I shot always felt long to me even when adjusted.I was shooting Kents new at the time Fast-Lead, I found leads on sporting targets to be very short.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom