My nephew is joining a sporting clay league so I am looking for a reliable, durable semi-auto for him.

A neighbor has a new, unfired Beretta A390 Gold Sporting for sale but the price he wants is comparable to a new Beretta Xcel Black. Which one would you go for? Thanks in advance for your advice.

390 in a heartbeat.

The 390 would be my choice also

I've never owned an A400, but if you're looking for reliable and durable in a semi-auto, I can vouch for the 390. It's also surprisingly easy to disassemble and clean when desired.

Thanks for making the choice easy for me!

Another vote for the 390,

390 has been out of production for a long time; so, parts may be less readily available than they are for the A400. That said, in my experience neither 390 nor A400 break much. Finally, out of the box, 390's trigger is substantially better than A400's.

The answer is not quite as obvious as everyone is making it out to be. I think most folks would agree that the 390 WAS a better gun. I am amazed (perhaps skeptical) you found one unfired. They have been in high demand since they went out of production 20 years ago. But you are still buying a used gun that is probably over 20 years old at a serious markup from it's original price. It has no warranty and parts can be difficult to find.

Unless you are knowledgeable about shotguns, buying old guns can be a crap shoot. If you buy it and it breaks, what are your options? The A400 may not be as good as the A390, but it is still a good gun. It has a warranty and plenty of parts available. Think it through.

Very good advice. As much as I agree the older 390 and 391 platform gun were awesome I also hold the A400 in high regard

I ran 60000 rounds or more through the 391’s I owned and probably at about 20000 through my A400 Cole special. Both systems have been dead on reliable. My opinion is that the A400 is a little softer shooter. As noted it is current so would include a warranty if you need it. Coles will be able to provide support for either if you need it. They are awesome when it comes to Beretta gas guns. Their shop here in Maine has a couple smiths that are excellent on the auto loaders

Cole's has about any 390 part that you are likely to need, and many of the small (common wear) parts in the 390 are interchangeable with those in the A300 Outlander - a current production gun; so, parts availability should not be a deal breaker.

The A400 shoots a little softer than the 390; so, if you are especially recoil sensitive, that is a consideration. Also, the A400 may be a bit easier to disassemble and clean than the 390. I don't think you will go wrong with either gun.

A400 and 390 have a similar feel. The 391 is slimmer overall.
The 390 will exhibit faster receiver wear, especially around the magazine cutoff and ejection port.
The 400 has an overbored barrel, fouls up less. It has a carbon rib, Which some don’t like.
The silver side plates on the 390 have a varnish coating that will flake and peel at the edges.
The 390 has real wood, the 400 is fake finished wood.
$1900 for a 390 is a very high price, but NIB 390s and 391s go for $1500 +/- $200.
$1900 for a A400 is also high.
Your choice.

The 390 takes the Mobil chokes which are plentiful and fairly cheap. The A400 takes ???? chokes.

I'm not sure how an overbored barrel fouls less. Never heard of that before. Both guns have chrome lined bores which are a piece of cake to clean.

Never seen silver side plates on a 390.

Yep, real wood on a 390 stock.

I think that parts are still available for the 390 from various sources. And with the number of 390's that were sold over the 8-10 years or so that it was in production, there will always be someone willing to part a gun out. And, as mentioned, many parts interchange with the A300 Outlander, a current production gun (I think).

As for a fair price for a nice 390 in like new condition, I'd say about $1,300 or so should be plenty. They don't come up for sale real often, but when they do they're generally around $1,100 or maybe $1,200 from what I've seen.

For clays, A400 in my opinion... I also own a 390, and a couple of 391s.

The A400 has the occasional habit of eating it's barrel extension through no fault of the user (either design or manufacturing issue). This is a replaceable part by Coles IF they have the part, but it isn't free (I believe a few hundred dollars). If you can't find an extension to fit, you're looking at spending 800 odd bucks for a new barrel. This is what prevents me from buying a LH A400, because the LH extensions are NOT available, and I'm not going to roll the dice on a $1500 dollar gun that leaves me holding the bag if the extension breaks.

Dealt with a lot of A400s. Never saw that. Occasional is how often?

Often enough that I won't buy one (and on LH and RH guns, so it's likely a design or materials issue and not a production issue), that's all that matters to me. It's been brought up a number of times here and ts.com.

Here's a thread which illustrates the issue. To my eye it looks like that part was made to thin in the area of failure. This thread also references another thread where the owner had the same problem, and the same problem was referenced again by another user. The LH failure was referenced on ts.com, with Beretta being unable to supply a replacement extension, or even the same length barrel.

https://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewto ... 7&t=501576

A youngster will likely find the A400 to be the more ‘cool’ gun and that absolutely matters.

When I think of the number of A400s in service and the number of folks that have had this issue, the odds look really small of it occurring. I found it interesting that porting had been done on several of them. Shouldn’t have an effect, but? Looks like they were all repaired in short order at minimum cost. I do agree it I wouldn’t want it happening to me.

That was the thread about my wife's A400. Just went back and reviewed it as there had been some posts last fall that I had not read about another failure from another member.

Our gun had been AnglePorted by the guy I bough the gun from, and far out of warranty. I shipped only the barrel and had it back in a month at no-cost. I am reading that others mileage is varying on that issue.

I will say that I did find another barrel for the gun at a reasonable cost and have that mounted currently - it cycles everything from 980fps Low Recoil Win AA to our normal 1210fps 1oz target loads without issue. The repaired and ported is a backup barrel if it ever happens again. We shoot slower/lighter loads (1oz 1210 or 1oz 1250 at the max). I question if the past owner also had the gas port enlarged - but I know that barrel did struggle sometimes on light loads if not clean so I do doubt that was the case. The new barrel spits out everything and I had almost thought about changing to a stiffer Cole's gas spring spring as it was really chucking the hulls with the light loads.

Even with the issue we experienced - I would buy the A400

MTR, wouldn't you want the weaker spring gas piston spring if the gun is throwing empties too far? Weaker vents more gas to the front, stiffer sends more gas to work the action as far as I understand it. Anyway, good comments on getting the broken part repaired on your A400 for no charge. (I've got a Black Sporting and a Xplor 28 ga and really like them.)

390 gold sporting has silver sides with gold birds, They used a clear coat over them that gunscrubber and certain gun oils caused it to flake off.