I've been toying with the idea of a semi-auto shotgun for a while now. My son and I like to go out and shoot clays with the cheap spring thrower every now and then, he's been getting into 4H, and my buddies and I have hit up the local sporting clays club a couple of times. The local college shooting team actually challenged the local cops to a round of sporting clays at one point, and embarrassed us pretty badly (didn't help that most of us showed up with the 870s out of the back of our squads with 18" cylinder bore barrels, lol).

After the college team debacle, I went out and bought a 28" vent rib and modified choke for my 870, which helps but it's still not ideal. The LGS had an 1187 super mag a while back for $450 that I'd looked at, but I knew I was primarily going to be shooting 2 3/4" target loads out of whatever I bought and didn't think that a supermag would be reliable with those. My buddy also has an 1187 that has been an absolute nightmare...it works great about half the time.

Another buddy gave me a Mossberg 930 to work on a while back. I fixed it, but getting inside that gun made me realize that I have no desire to ever own one. It's full of plastic and pot metal, horrible handguard fit, and a shell latch pin that is nowhere near robust enough to handle the forces exerted on it.

I've also looked at some of the cheap Turkish Clones that seem to be everywhere these days. After handling a few I just couldn't get excited about them. They feel cheap and I don't trust the metallurgy.

This was a process of a couple of years, and I just couldn't find a gun that I thought I'd be happy with for a price that I was willing to pay. Yesterday was my day off, I had some errands to run in town, and decided to stop by the LGS. I looked over the shelves and didn't see much of interest. My son found a browning A5 on the shotgun rack, but it was pretty pricey. Then I noticed this ugly thing next to it. Initially I thought it was another Turkish clone, but then I noticed a familiar emblem under the hideous rattlecan paint job. That's a Beretta! And the price tag says $349!

I looked it over, and aside from the horrible paint job, it seemed intact. The store guy said one of them had taken it out back and shot it, and it cycled fine. I decided that for $350 I had to take the chance, and brought it home.

It's an A300 Outlander...a bargain basement gun for a Beretta, but it's made in the USA and is gas operated. I spent a few hours with some mineral spirits and cold blue and got it cleaned up pretty good. The stock is adjustable with shims so I set it up for this 6'5" giraffe, and we took it out and put a whole case of crappy Walmart-Special Federal bulk pack through it today shooting at clays out of our spring thrower. It ran 100%...didn't hiccup one time. It shoulders nicely, is well balanced, very smooth, and much easier to make hits with than the 870. It also came with a full-choke, which is great for completely obliterating clays in a very satisfying manner. It's not cosmetically perfect, but I'm pretty happy for $350.

Nice score!!!


I wouldn't have been able to get my wallet out fast enough for a $350 Beretta A300.

Nice job cleaning it up too.

Thanks, it took quite a bit of elbow grease....that crap didn't want to come off!

quote:

Originally posted by IndianaBoy:
Nice score!!!


I wouldn't have been able to get my wallet out fast enough for a $350 Beretta A300.

Same here, you absolutely stole it. Best part is you have no fear of ever banging it up or putting that first scratch on a new gun.

Why were you squirting ketchup on it?

quote:

Originally posted by DCFD4:
Why were you squirting ketchup on it?

What, you don't do that?

The ketchup bottle is actually a handy container/applicator for my homemade gun lube of choice....2 parts full synthetic 20W50 motor oil, 1 part full synthetic ATF. I've been using it for years and it has served me very well in any conditions that I've encountered.

quote:

Best part is you have no fear of ever banging it up or putting that first scratch on a new gun.

Yeah, no doubt. This is one you could toss in the back of the truck or drop it in the lake and not feel bad about it. It's pretty easy to takedown for cleaning, too.

I'm glad you rescued that poor, mistreated thing.

Hmmm... I would have jumped at $350 too. Then I would send the barrel off and have it trimmed to 22 inch (if thats enough length to keep the action functional) reset a F/O bead on the rib and have it threaded for interchangeable chokes.

Nice work, not a bad deal, seeing the end result, for $350 & some elbow grease.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Then I would send the barrel off and have it trimmed to 22 inch (if thats enough length to keep the action functional)

Looks like the shortest factory length is 24", so that might be pushing the limits of the system.

There's a 22" slug barrel for the non-Outlander A300, but it specifically says it won't work with the Outlander.

quote:

have it threaded for interchangeable chokes.

It actually is threaded for chokes, but just came with the full choke that was already installed (sorry, just re-read my OP and realized that wasn't very clear). I ordered a modified and improved cylinder choke today, along with a wrench.


It's hard to tell in the pics, but it has a F/O front bead from the factory, which is pretty nice and easy to pick up. There's also a relief divot along the rib in the top of the receiver that provides great contrast when you're sighting down the barrel. I was amazed how easy it was to hit with this thing, even with the full choke.


For most scenarios I'm with you on preferring a shorter barrel, but for the intended purpose this gun will be just fine with the 28". The 870 isn't going anywhere, and will still be available for any scenarios that demand a shorter barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
I'm glad you rescued that poor, mistreated thing.

It seems like lately that's half the fun of my "new" guns. The project is almost as rewarding as the owning and shooting...especially if the purchase price is appropriate for the original condition!

I need that gun like I need a hole in the head, but I would have been slapping money down in a flash.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
It seems like lately that's half the fun of my "new" guns. The project is almost as rewarding as the owning and shooting...especially if the purchase price is appropriate for the original condition!

I felt the same way back when I was rescuing mistreated milsurps. Getting them cleaned up and back into original configuration was at least half the fun.

Nice score! And you cleaned it up really nicely, looks great. A few years ago, (not sure how long ago) we were perusing our LGS, and came across an 870, a tad beat up on the stock, but action was smooth as silk. Picked that up for $250! Functions perfectly too. Put new furniture on it, and it looks and runs great. It’s nice when you can find good deals like that.

quote:

Originally posted by m1009:
Nice score! And you cleaned it up really nicely, looks great. A few years ago, (not sure how long ago) we were perusing our LGS, and came across an 870, a tad beat up on the stock, but action was smooth as silk. Picked that up for $250! Functions perfectly too. Put new furniture on it, and it looks and runs great. It’s nice when you can find good deals like that.

That sounds a lot like my son's 870. Very clean but the safety was messed up. I got it for $250 and replaced the safety...it's been a great gun.

Next time you get a rusty receiver the first thing you should do is throw it in a pot of boiling water after you have stripped all the parts out of it. Any rusting small parts can also go into that pot of boiling water. Then you brush off anything loose with a brass brush using a fairly light force. Doing this will convert all that red rust to Black Oxide and restore the blued surfaces. If you want to see this process at work do a google search for Mark Novak on youtube.

BTW, this is part of the bluing process used for firearms in the later 19th century called Rust Bluing. It can be a very long lasting and durable finish but it is rather time consuming so Hot Bluing came into vogue starting around 1900 or so. It became predominate because it's so much faster than Rust Bluing. However if you want a Rust Blued shotgun today I believe that Purdey still offers this process, bad news is that they start at about 200,000 thousand dollars.

I've done rust bluing before, but only on handguns. I don't have a container to boil water in big enough to accommodate long gun parts or barrels. I probably ought to correct that.

The only rust on this gun is a small area at the base of the barrel. The rest of the brown stuff that you're seeing in the pics is spray paint (a real PITA to get out from under and around a vent rib, let me tell you!). The receiver is alloy, and in remarkably good shape under the ugly paint job.

ETA:
Here is a pic of my first rust-bluing project...it's not perfect but way better than when I got it:

Nice deal on a nice shotgun. Good job!!

Uh oh, now the clay pigeons will see you coming from a mile away.

: )

Congrats on the Beretta, I have an AL390 and 391 anf they are both great guns. I'm sure yours will be too.