Total impulse buy. I’ve used a 28” Beretta A391 Xtrema 2 for the last 7-8 years. Absolutely love that gun. I made the mistake of looking at Beretta’s website and saw they had just upgraded the A400 Extreme to the Extreme Plus. All the upgrades (extended controls, extended forcing cone, extended chokes, extended lifter, angered out feed area, elevated rib, mid bead, fiber optic sight, upgraded Kick-off, etc.) made sense to me. I just received a temporary promotion so why not blow some of it on a new toy?  I opted for a 26” version as I hunt out of a kayak quite a bit.

They just released the Gore Optifade Timber. I really like this pattern. It’s color should work well for brush on the Missouri. Most of the other patterns seem too light which contrasts with the rubberized grips.

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The only negative reviews I’ve seen state that the plastic B-lock 60* turn end cap can break if you let the sling swivel cut into it. I found that the outside of the magazine tube is still threaded and will accept my old A391 metal cap if needed. Also, some of the early A400’s had issues cycling 3.5” shells.

Today I ran 150 1-1/8oz target loads (Federal and Remington) through it with zero malfunctions. I also tried a box of Winchester 3.5” steel shot. No problem.

After adjusting the cast off and comb drop everything lines up nicely. The trigger was super gritty out of the box. I spent and hour working it over and now it feels pretty good. That should only get better with time. Beretta claims the Kick-off system absorbs 70% of the recoil. I’ll call BS on that. If it’s like my  Xtrema 2 it will get softer/better with age. But no way is it eating up 70%.

I need to pattern it next.  It’s early but I think I have another keeper.

I was shooting with an instructor a few years back that had over 250,000 rounds thru his A400

It was one nice shooting gun.

I've been looking at those lately too.  I've had a Super Vinci for 5 or 6 years now and really like it.  Lately though I have had the itch to buy another nice shotgun, either a semi-auto for hunting or a over/under for clays.  I was pretty interested in the SBE3 until I started reading about all of the issues with it shooting way high and no support from Benelli.  That pushed the Beretta to the top of my list.

I really want to like the SBE3, but that's a deal breaker for me.  I'm fine with floating the bird, but not by a foot or two...  I don't have a single complaint about my Super Vinci, I've shot trap, skeet and lots of birds with it and have never had an issue from 1 oz. #9 skeet loads to 3 1/2" BB it has cycled them all.  I don't really have a reason to get another shotgun, I just want to.  Other than my Citori skeet gun, Benelli is all I own.  Looks like that might not be the case for much longer though!

Well I couldn't help myself at Scheels today.  I shot it in the yard this afternoon and tried out some 3" Black Cloud #2, 3" Kent Fast Steel BB and 3" Fiocchi BB loads.  I tried them out at 40 yards with the factory modified choke.  After the first round I put the shim in for a larger drop because it was shooting a touch high for me.  Adding more drop helped get closer to a 60/40 ish pattern but I still wasn't terribly impressed with the factory choke.  It had quite a few holes in it, especially in the middle.  I ordered a pair of Kicks High Flyer chokes to try out, so I'll do the same thing once those get here.

It's going with me in the morning though, so we'll see how the factory choke does on some ND ducks and geese (hopefully).

Well it works!  I did have to change how I lift the doors on my layout blind a bit though.  With the huge bolt handle when I flipped the doors open for the first time the handle caught and kicked the shell out of the chamber.  That was a bit frustrating, and I wasn't familiar enough with the gun yet to get another round chambered and send it at the geese that were landing perfectly in our decoys.

Overall though I like it at least as much as the Super Vinci.  Once I can get it out on the skeet field that will tell me a bit more.

Nice. I handled one at Scheels awhile back and really liked it. I have a regular A400 xplor LH and really like it, I just wish Beretta would offer one of their synthetic models in LH configuration so I don't have to drag my nice wood stocked A400 through the brush.

That’s awesome!

I’m hoping for two days on the river this weekend to try mine out. I’ve been focused on the elk which paid off on Sunday. Waterfowl season is officially open for me. Lol.