The Italian gunmaker’s latest claybuster offers technical improvements, but will Becky McKenzie like how it shoots?
Becky McKenzie is the current English Open Compak Ladies Champion and a clay shooting coach
ON TEST: BERETTA 694
I feel rather spoilt for choice now I am doing these gun reviews for Clay Shooting magazine. I’ve been wanting to try a Beretta, and this provided the perfect excuse. There’s a huge range of Berettas to choose from of course, but I fancied taking a look at the Beretta 694 – a 12 gauge with 32in barrels.
I own a Beretta myself, an old Teknys 12 gauge 28in semi-auto. I really like that gun, and shoot it very well indeed. People sometimes ask why I don’t shoot it as my main gun, and there’s no easy answer. I think it’s probably down to a snobbish reluctance to shoot a good old cheap semi-auto!
That aside, I was interested to shoot the 694, as I haven’t really shot a more modern style Beretta. My husband’s son had a Beretta 682 Gold E, a solid gun which I used when my old Winchester packed up. It was a very nice gun, but I couldn’t hit a barn door with it – and yes it did have an adjustable comb, and we set it up to suit me!
First impressions
Enough about me – let’s take a look at the 694. This is what I think of as a mid-range gun price-wise. It’s priced around £3,325, in-between the White Onyx at £1,745, and the DT11 at £8,275 for a nonadjustable version.
Beretta’s engineers are always trying to improve their guns, and on the 694 they have re-designed the stock and fore-end to give it a better feel, and also to improve the contact between shooter and gun. The stock fits smoothly into the action, improving your peripheral vision.
Mechanically, the fore-end now has an all-steel mechanism which is said to maintain a smoother opening pressure with an increase in longevity. The fore-end catch is located centrally underneath as you’d expect, but it has a new sliding catch release instead of the familiar latch that you lift and pull. I liked that, and felt it made removing the fore-end much easier.
The 694’s action has a really eye-catching new look which I really liked; it’s quite different from the other Beretta models. It has a Nistan nickel coating which gives it a matt silver finish, with a thin blue line around the edge. It’s nothing too fancy, but it’s angled in such a way that it ju
