Make sure you clean and properly lubricate/grease the gun at certain contact points. Yes it will be stiff at first.

 

The resistance is the ejectors cocking. They will loosen up. Nice gift.

 

This.

 

Thanks everyone. Time to go put it to use!

 

I bought a slightly used 694 and have been having a ton of fun with it. It is a bit stiff and doesn't allow me to effortlessly swing it closed while mounting in a single motion, more of a close then mount. Its only got about 500 rounds through it so perhaps it just needs more to loosen up. It did take me a bit of research to figure out how to remove the extractors to ensure everything was clean and properly lubed. As this thread explains it's very simple using a small magnet to remove the round retaining puck while compressing the extractor slightly.

 

Thanks for the trip on removing the extractors!

 

Thank you so much! Very much looking forward to getting out there to use this present!

 

I had a fore end tightened by a gunsmith recently and the action closing was so difficult I could barely do it in a relaxed posture as I had been accustomed. I laid the open gun on its side on a utility table and (with padding, tightly gripped the barrel and worked the stock end back and forth with my other hand a few hundred times. It is usable now although still a bit tight.

 

The 694 has a tension adjustment on the forearm, so a tweak to that can loosen up your gun. Unfortunatly I don't have a 694 and can't give you even a clue as to how to adjust the tension. All I can say is that it's been noted as a feature in every review I've seen on the 694. BTW, the reason why this feature was added was to allow an owner to "tighten" the action for a gun that has some years of regular use. Me, I like my guns to be a bit loose because I shoot Skeet to the tune of about 10,000 rounds per year. When you open and close a gun that many times loose is lovely. It's one of the reasons why the 694 really doesn't tempt me. The other is that I just don't need another 12 gauge, due to the cost of lead most of my practice is with 410 and a bit of 28 gauge thrown in so I can blast some targets.

 

Be real sure you grease where the forend iron meets the front of the receiver and where the barrels pivot on the trunnions. If you don't, you will get galling, your gun will get even stiffer to open, and you will really hurt the value of the gun.

 

Agreed a little dab will do ya every time you clean.

 

Make sure you take the plastic off the barrels. Someone at our club left it on and it opened real hard. You can change the barrel hook Search Results I went larger on mine after 10 k rounds.

 

Example of what can happen if you do not properly lubricate and have too much tension.. I would try and find an authorized Beretta service gunsmith and make sure the barrel / fore iron fitting is correct.

 

Heck of a gift!

 

Glad I found this. A friend bought a new one last week and at times can not open the gun after its been shot. At least we can try to have a look at a ew things now.

 

You say that he can't even push the top lever out and brake the gun as normal after he has fiered shot's..?
That's just not normal at all, even for a box new shotgun, of any brand! I recomend that he goes back to the seller with it, if it's brand new you'll have warranty.

 

For the gun that won't open after it's been shot. Take a look at the fired primers, if you see a line leading from the dimple to off the primer you have firing pins that aren't retracting behind the breech face. With many guns that can be a matter of fitting the pins properly to the action and on others it may be a symptom of something having broken. No matter what the cause it needs to be addressed quickly, because if it's not corrected you will be dealing with a broken firing pin or two.