Absolutely agree. The Beretta sporting clay guns have manual safeties. Browning leads the way again!

 

Everyone has an opinion, not everyone agrees. I'd rather have the safety of the Berreta than try to convert a Browning. I am glad for the auto-safety when teaching my grand kids. Safe is never dumb.

 

Everyone has an opinion, not everyone agrees. I'd rather have the safety of the Berreta than try to convert a Browning. I am glad for the auto-safety when teaching my grand kids. Safe is never dumb.

Do your grand kids only shoot Beretta over/unders? Are you doing them a disservice by not having them manually engage the safety every time they reload? If they switch to a semi or pump, will they remember to engage the safety? As an NRA shotgun instructor, I would contend that this is a potentially bad habit that is being formed.

I am not sure what converting to a Browning means, but I am not bashing the Beretta as a gun. I just spent a whole bunch of money on a Beretta and I said it's a great gun. I can't believe how little recoil I felt for such a light gun. My son loves it but the safety is antiquated.

 

In Beretta's defense, I am sure it is in part, at least, a liability issue that they are trying to address. Yeah, it is a pain in the butt, but that is one great gun. Why sweat the small stuff. Go and shoot, and do not let that small inconvenience spoil your son's new gun for you and more importantly, for him.

Get it to a smith. My understanding is it is very short dough.

 

I promise it isn't ruining our enjoyment of the gun. It's a little tougher than you might think to take your son's new gun away for a week and leave it at the gunsmith! With dove season opening this weekend, they are up to their ears in old rust buckets that folks think they can have ready for Sunday.

Does anyone know what the percentage of semis to over/unders that Beretta makes? I would think when you take into account all their sub companies it would be 2 or 3 to one. I understand minimizing potential liability but this has to be a drop in the bucket. If it was really an issue, FN would have Browning and Winchester on the same page.

I am not a gun basher. I believe in shooting good quality shotguns and I have never contended that Browning was better than Beretta. I like the fit and weight of Brownings but I always recommend people shopping for guns check out both B guns. The Beretta was a much better choice for my son than anything Browning makes. My wife shoots a Guerini Summit Sporting she loves. It is a very impressive gun as well.

If you have an opinion on something, this seems to be the place to express it. That is my opinion of the safety.

 

In Beretta's defense, I am sure it is in part, at least, a liability issue that they are trying to address. Yeah, it is a pain in the butt, but that is one great gun. Why sweat the small stuff. Go and shoot, and do not let that small inconvenience spoil your son's new gun for you and more importantly, for him.

Get it to a smith. My understanding is it is very short dough.

it has nothing to do with liability. Besides, Beretta USA is self-insured. Also, none of their target guns are equipped with a manual safety. A few there are asleep at the switch...

 

Slugo is right, it is only on their Field guns and that makes sense for safety in the field. That said, I personally found it to be a pain (especially since I switch back and forth betwenn a Beretta SP1 20 and Citori 12 depending on what I am shooting).

I took it to a local smith and he removed it in less than 15 minutes and it cost me $35. Worth the time and money.

 

A lot of clay targets get wasted due to the cursed auto safety.

I have had only one gun with this feature & it was quickly disconnected leaving me with a manual only safety.

 

You got a field gun, and it's set up the way Beretta sets up field guns. I like auto safeties for upland hunting. There's no reason the gun should ever be off safe when it's being loaded or unloaded, and flicking it off is instinctive for an experienced bird hunter if he actually uses the safety, manual or automatic. If flicking off the safety when going to flush birds is not instinctive, that just means that the shooter doesn't use his safety consistently and I don't want to be around him in the field.

I like manual safeties for targets.

This is not antiquated at all. It's a conscious choice, and a Sporting model from Beretta will always have a manual safety.

FYI the safety will smooth out quickly with use, or you can disconnect the auto safety by removing a single small link from it. SCTP tends to have a "safety on until ready to call" policy, BTW, so young neophytes learning to shoot targets can benefit from the habit, too. If you plan to do any shooting in the field, it would be good for your son to develop the habit.

WRT pump gun shooters, you should do a random survey if you go hunting. You might be unpleasantly shocked at how many people walk around with closed guns and the safety off, while pointing their muzzles at your head.

I use a Beretta Sporting 12 Gauge for Sporting Clays, but for subgauges I use my bird guns. I've taken my newest bird gun, a 28 Gauge Silver Pigeon I field gun with auto safety, out for two registered shoots so far, one the state championship, and it's gotten me a class win both times. I did forget the safety once at States. That's no reason not to flick it off and hit the target anyway.

Excuses are great if you want to be a loser. They don't get marked down as Xs.

 

I agree with you that automatic safeties are a product of the devil himself. And in your case, it's easy to get rid of it yourself. I've done it to several, no need to disassemble the action. Use a Dremel to grind through the auto safety bar on the left side (must take the stock off). About a two minute job. Then compresses air to get out any metal particles. I have a couple 686s, hunting guns, to which I did that almost 20 years ago and am happy many times over.

Safety is between the ears, and I grew up shooting pump guns with manual safeties. It annoys me no end to have the gun thinking for me.

 

You got a field gun, and it's set up the way Beretta sets up field guns. I like auto safeties for upland hunting. There's no reason the gun should ever be off safe when it's being loaded or unloaded, and flicking it off is instinctive for an experienced bird hunter if he actually uses the safety, manual or automatic. If flicking off the safety when going to flush birds is not instinctive, that just means that the shooter doesn't use his safety consistently and I don't want to be around him in the field.

I like manual safeties for targets.

This is not antiquated at all. It's a conscious choice, and a Sporting model from Beretta will always have a manual safety.

FYI the safety will smooth out quickly with use, or you can disconnect the auto safety by removing a single small link from it. SCTP tends to have a "safety on until ready to call" policy, BTW, so young neophytes learning to shoot targets can benefit from the habit, too. If you plan to do any shooting in the field, it would be good for your son to develop the habit.

WRT pump gun shooters, you should do a random survey if you go hunting. You might be unpleasantly shocked at how many people walk around with closed guns and the safety off, while pointing their muzzles at your head.

I use a Beretta Sporting 12 Gauge for Sporting Clays, but for subgauges I use my bird guns. I've taken my newest bird gun, a 28 Gauge Silver Pigeon I field gun with auto safety, out for two registered shoots so far, one the state championship, and it's gotten me a class win both times. I did forget the safety once at States. That's no reason not to flick it off and hit the target anyway.

Excuses are great if you want to be a loser. They don't get marked down as Xs.

Barry,

Your response is so disjointed that I am having trouble constructing a response. If you are a good enough shooter to take state level class awards you are far better than I am.

My son shoots an SX 3 for hunting and I think that having guns that automatically reset the safety make young shooters less safe if they use another gun in the field. He always puts the safety on. If you expect the safety to be on you won't bother to check it on another gun. Having safeties on with idiots pointing at your head makes you feel safe than good for you. Safe gun handling is much more effective than a mechanical safety.

I like the way you commit Beretta to always having automatic safeties on their field over/unders. Do you own Beretta? I don't spend a lot of time on these forums but I have seen enough of your responses to know that you are always defending Beretta and bashing every other gun. If they shipped a new gun made from pig iron, balsa wood and rubber dog doo for chokes you would state that it was the finest gun ever made. Credibility is hard to come by, and for that reason, you don't have much.

 

I have a 20 gauge silver pigeon II with 30" barrels and the safety is a manual safety.

 

This thread is a waste of everyone's time. Beretta field guns have auto safeties for a very good reason. Beretta target guns have manual safeties, again for a very good reason.

The solution to the "problem" is a simple choice, shoot a proper target gun at clays, have the gun converted to manual safety or live with it as it is.

Beretta is by no means the only maker to fit auto safeties on field guns and just because Brownings always have a manual safety it doesn't mean Beretta is at fault. And the argument that an auto safety makes someone less safe because they don't acquire the habit of flicking the safety on manually really isn't valid.

 

I bought the exact same gun this spring - an SP1, 20 gauge, 30 inch barrel and I have been shooting clays with it to get ready for hunting season. Absolutely love the gun and I will never get rid of it. I noticed that I had started to rely on the auto safety rather than apply it myself when I un-shouldered the gun. This was fine until I went back to a non-auto safety gun and realized that the habit formed with the SP was starting to transfer to other guns.

So now I don't rely on the auto-safety any more. I look at it as it is there in case I forget to re-apply the safety as I un-mount the gun. In fact, if I re-apply the safety like I am supposed to, I don't even notice that the gun has an auto-safety. Once I realized this, I quit complaining about it and accept the auto-safety as a fail safe, kind of like a belt and suspenders.

This does beg the question of how someone who does not use the safety when shooting clays adapts to using one when hunting. I get the idea that the best safety is between your ears - but for me the thing between my ears tells me to use it. You never know what could happen to make you accidentally fire the gun, no matter how careful you are.

 

This thread is a waste of everyone's time. Beretta field guns have auto safeties for a very good reason. Beretta target guns have manual safeties, again for a very good reason.

The solution to the "problem" is a simple choice, shoot a proper target gun at clays, have the gun converted to manual safety or live with it as it is.

Beretta is by no means the only maker to fit auto safeties on field guns and just because Brownings always have a manual safety it doesn't mean Beretta is at fault. And the argument that an auto safety makes someone less safe because they don't acquire the habit of flicking the safety on manually really isn't valid.

Who else puts auto safeties on their guns? The only other one I have seen outside of Beretta owned products is on a Ruger. I'm afraid I don't know about Mossbergs and the like. My twelve year old still can't handle a true sporting model, thus the field gun. I will have it removed as does every Beretta shooter I know. The problem with the auto safety is for anyone that shoots another type of gun at any time. If you are lucky enough to shoot nothing but field grade Pigeons then I guess they are okay. Most people aren't.

I never said Beretta is at fault for anything, but they certainly aren't perfect! I did say it was a bad idea. It seems that if someone on this forum favors a certain manufacturer than that company can do no wrong. I like my Brownings but they certainly aren't a perfect company. Their youth models, like the so called Micro Midas Citori, are just cut down, heavy, adult models. The longest barrel you can get is 26 inches. Not good for aspiring target shooters. They are a joke, basically. I suspect my son will be a Beretta shooter for life now and good for them for making a good product.

If you think the thread is a waste of time, don't waste your time on it. It is about opinions , you know.

 

It is about opinions , you know.

Exactly!

You air your opinion (and no one is suggesting you shouldn't have an opinion) so why get snotty with people like Barry who have a different view.

Beretta didn't fit an auto safety to that gun just to piss you off and some people disagreed with you simply because they don't share your opinion. I didn't notice anyone other than you getting chippy about it.

Look up FORUM in the dictionary before responding.

 

"Who else puts auto safeties on their guns?"

Both AYA side by sides I own have automatic safeties as well as a f.lli Rizzini 28 gauge. All are field guns. Must be a trend! Barry might not have the smoothest delivery here but he is right - if you use a field gun for clay targets get used to an automatic safety, have it altered if you can find a gunsmith willing to do it or better yet buy a target gun for target shooting.

 

It is about opinions , you know.

Exactly!

You air your opinion (and no one is suggesting you shouldn't have an opinion) so why get snotty with people like Barry who have a different view.

Beretta didn't fit an auto safety to that gun just to piss you off and some people disagreed with you simply because they don't share your opinion. I didn't notice anyone other than you getting chippy about it.

Look up FORUM in the dictionary before responding.

You are right. I don't think Barry's response made any sense but I should be more polite about it. I took the gun to my gunsmith today. I didn't even have to tell them what I wanted. Sorry guys. I just don't feel that when the only rationalization for something is that is how they do it holds water.

 

You just bought the wrong model. It says right in the specs which has the auto safety and which doesn't.

 

You just bought the wrong model. It says right in the specs which has the auto safety and which doesn't.

I checked my usual sources, the Beretta website and Able Ammo, and I don't see a 20 gauge SP I Sporting. It's not easy to find exactly what you want when you are exchanging guns at Gander Mountain. My point is that the auto safety is a bad idea on field or sporting models. Avoiding the issue by buying the sporting model doesn't fix that.

 

Beretta discontinued exporting the 20g SP1 Sporting to the US. That was a bright move, duh...

 

My last thought on this after reading all the comments is that these things seem to become a matter of brand loyalty. I guarantee that if tomorrow Beretta quit putting the auto safeties on their field guns and Browning started, the Browning fans would say it was a wonderful idea and the Beretta shooters would immediately say how stupid Browning is and they would rather hunt with a stick.

We should probably all be a little more objective and I will put myself at the top of that list.

 

Since you're in Texas , you could go to the Beretta Gallery in Dallas , and I'd bet they'd take the auto safety off for you....and maybe do it free of charge.

 

I'd rather shoot the BOX a Beretta comes in than shoot a Browning!! :s

 

"Who else puts auto safeties on their guns?"

Both AYA side by sides I own have automatic safeties as well as a f.lli Rizzini 28 gauge. All are field guns. Must be a trend! Barry might not have the smoothest delivery here but he is right - if you use a field gun for clay targets get used to an automatic safety, have it altered if you can find a gunsmith willing to do it or better yet buy a target gun for target shooting.

Yep, my AyA has an auto safety, as does my CSMC RBL, and I know my old 311 Stevens did too. My 2 Berettas had them, but since I was planning to shoot them at targets a fair amount, I had them disabled. I think it was about $50 for both of them. For those times I shoot targets with auto safety guns, I just make a conscious effort to remember to push the safety off right before I call for the target. I don't remember it ever interfering with my shooting.