Dear Bruce

Howdy from Idaho! I am an avid user of the Beretta 390, have both a sport and field model. I shoot mounted trap, skeet and 5-stand in Lewiston, Idaho. My problem is that I find the guns a little too light in the front. I have always liked more weight to help my swing through. The original 11-87 seemed perfect to me but then I sold it for the mechanically better Berettas. I have installed an adjustable plate with a Kickeez pad and this seemed to have moved the weight back a little.

Do you have any experience with the replacement mercury end caps for the 390. Would it hurt the forearm during recoil with the mercury coming back and slamming the forearm? I have heard all sorts of speculations with no real experience.

Thanks,
Bob

Dear Bob,

There are some fine weights available for the 390. One of the screw on recoil reducer from Graco and screws on in place of the forend nut.I know that there are other brands out there that do the same thing, but this is what came to mind first. I see a lot of shooters using them, especially on Ballistics and Seminole guns that have had too much metal taken out of the barrels. Everyone seems happy with the results. The weight is securely fixed in place and can’t move at all to harm your gun.

I have never really liked barrel clamp weights like the skeet shooters use to balance up their 12 gauge barrels to the tube sets, but the BreaKO weight fits on neatly and does the job if you want to add that much weight.

Be very careful of any recoil reducers placed inside the magazine tube. First of all, there isn’t much room in the Beretta’s magazine. Secondly, I experimented with lead weights and mercury reducers in the magazine tubes of my 1100s. The typical approach was to put the weight in the front of the magazine. Under recoil this put tremendous stress on the forend cap and threads. The best system was to cut the magazine spring in half and put the recoil reducer between two lengths of spring so that is was free floating and couldn’t hammer either end of the magazine tube. The exterior screw on BreaKO weight has none of these problems.

An interesting point: To show you where the semi-auto market is going, BreaKO makes weights ONLY for the Beretta gas guns, not for the Remington. It used to be that all the add on accessories were made for the Remington only. Sic gloria transit.

If you only want to add a couple of ounces, remember that the old 390 forend nuts were heavy steel, while the new ones are light weight aluminum. Beretta has plenty of those old forend nuts in inventory (about the only thing that they do have).

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
Shotgun Report’s Technoid
(Often in error, never in doubt.)