Very nice! Any thoughts on redoing the fake wood look?

 

Very nice! Any thoughts on redoing the fake wood look?

Thanks! I had thoughts on redoing the fake wood grain. Here is the problem. I shoot that other A400 normally. I started cleaning the stock one day and the brown oil/stain started coming off. I rubbed harder to see what it looked like underneath. IT LOOKS LIKE A PALLET. I am kinda stuck with it the way it is. I think what I will do on this stock is have one of the stock makers I know put a clear epoxy coat over it. As tacky as that extra grain looks, it looks a hell of a lot worse without it. I don't want to pay for custom wood because I actually don't need any dimensions changed but if Beretta releases upgraded stocks with real grain, I will be the first to buy it as long as it isn't unreasonably priced.

 

Much better then that ugly blue. Nice looking gun.

 

Do you mind telling me how much it cost to have yours nickeled, and where you had it done?

Thanks

 

Wow!

Looks just fantastic. I believe this is what Beretta should have done all along with the A400. I'm envious for sure. Enjoy your new mistress.

 

I don't mind the blue... but yours looks very nice!

 

I like it!

 

That looks great

Congrats

 

Do you mind telling me how much it cost to have yours nickeled, and where you had it done?

Thanks

A friend of mine did it for me. I traded my old grade 3 Beretta 391 stock in exchange for the work to be done so I don't have a price that I truly paid. I know that if you take the gun yourself, disassemble everything down to the last roll pin (including magazine tube and recoil buffer/stock bolt tube), clean all the parts, bead blast your finishes, blast and polish your magazine tube, you could send out the parts to any electroless nickel plating company and they should charge you between $150 - $200. Just specify you want a hardened coating and they will treat it a little different.

My friend is in the middle of setting up another company dedicated to do this kind of work. Once he gets that going I will let everyone know and ask him how much he wants so I can post a cost. I asked him if he were to charge how much it would have been and he said probably around $400 including the plating. We are in the southern California region but I am sure there are some good gunsmiths across the states that can do this kind of stuff. I don't know what the cost would be but it is very time consuming to do the tear down and surface prep.

Thank you all for your kind remarks. If I get anymore crazy ideas and actually do them I will post some pics. I have been having this vision of having one of my fake wood grain A400 stocks painted Mica Chipped Grey base with a whitish grey ghostly image of the Grim Reaper holding a A400 shotgun with broken targets all around a barren wasteland. I will let you guys know if I make it happen. Don't anyone steal my idea yet!!!!!

 

Thanks for the info. I actually don't mind the blue on mine too much, but I really like how yours turned out.

Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

 

I Love it!!!!

Too bad you couldn't put a blue Beretta emblem like the Sporting Clays 391 has... Just to offer a little accent to the bling

 

a little on the plain side but not bad.

jerry
_____________
N.S.C.A. 551074

 

Looks good!! Damn site better than the blue.

 

I like it.

Any idea on durability of the finish?

 

I like it.

Any idea on durability of the finish?

The shop that did the nickel plating said the hardness should be approximately 60 Rockwell. To give you an idea a Glock's slide is about 64 due to the carbon nitrating process (Tenifer), near that of a diamond. A quality electroless nickel plating is on par with a quality hard chroming. This thing should wear really really well but only time will tell. In about 4,000 rounds I will compare the frame gulling where the casing strikes the frame and see how it holds up to my blue one. I believe the factory blue is suppose to be a level 3 hard anodizing.

It looks flatter/plainer in the picture then when you are holding it in person. But anyhow, less is more in this case. Less blue that is.

 

I think it looks great.

 

The blue is horrible. It should have been offered in black and nickel just like the 391's. Nice job smurf be gone.

 

Ain't no one going to tremble in fear when that walks onto the range now though. I don't even see the blue anymore. Strange what we can get used to, proof is in DC I think.

 

I love it. I think you should send the pics to Beretta to give them a few ideas for their next gun models. Blue wouldn't have been my first choice if I were running Beretta. Great job on the gun.

 

Thank you all for the nice comments. I tried to take out the magazine tube and the recoil buffer tube off of my last blue A400 yesterday. IT AIN'T HAPPENING UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! I can see how you can get the magazine tube off but I risk damage to the gun doing so. The trickiest one is the recoil buffer tube. IF YOU HEAT IT UP YOU WILL DAMAGE THE SPRING FOR THE BUFFER. This is something best left to the experts. There is also a pin on the recoil buffer that doesn't seem to have an exit hole. It almost looks like it was made to go in once and once only. Please be very VERY CAREFUL if any of you are planning on trying to do this job on your own. I don't recommend doing it without prior knowledge. A400s are new guns so parts are scarce and probably still pretty expensive should you screw it up.

 

You just "pimped" your gun! Looks really nice. Congrats!

 

That is positively obscene! I'm gettin' my 390's receiver done up like that for sure.

 

Ain't no one going to tremble in fear when that walks onto the range now though. I don't even see the blue anymore. Strange what we can get used to, proof is in DC I think.

AMEN

 

The guys out there trembled in disgust when they saw the blue. When it came back out nickel plated, a few started limping as if some form of rigamortis set in on one of their limbs. :lol:

 

If the Blue gun hadn't been Blue, there would be no need to alter it now would there? So you might say Beretta did someone a favor by making it blue in the first place. How's that for circle logic?