Hi Guys,

I've had a Beretta 471 Silver Hawk in 20/76 that started having a hard time ejecting cases after a few hundred shots. With various makes of rounds, and both with 70mm and 76mm cases. So I started checking it over, and eventually saw that there is a gap in the action where the water table meets the standing breech (as seen where the red ring is in the picture below). If you hold it up to the light, you can see straight thru to the other side. No other shotgun I own, or have owned have ever had such a gap. To me, this looks like it's "off face". And as the gun has had a total of maybe around 800 rounds thru it, there's no way it should be like this as far as I can tell.


The gun was sent in to the importer, who then sent it in to their gunsmith. The gunsmith told them that it should be sent down to Beretta in Italy for fixing, or replacing.

Eventually though, the importer decided that instead of me having to wait, they'd give me a new gun. And while going thru their inventory to find me one with a nice stock, they saw that all their 471 Silver Hawks in stock have the same gap. So now the importer's saying that the 471 is made this way intentionally...

This may be correct, but I thought I'd check around with Silver Hawk owners in other countries to see if theirs has the same little gap. If so, I guess it's supposed to be so. If not, I have to wonder if our Importer got a shipment of lemons???

Also, if this gap is standard, we'll then have to find out why cases have begun to become sticky when being ejected.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

I think it's common for some break open breach guns to not fit tight on the radius between the watertable and the standing breach.

You're probably dealing with two unrelated situations.

While I don't own a Beretta SxS, I've worn out several O/U's made by them. Mine seem to hate Fiocchi and Estate ammo and some other brands don't always eject either. Most likely due to variations in size. Have you noticed that it's brand specific in your gun too?

Ejectors can come out of "tune" but I doubt you would cause any significant wear in that few shots.

Hopefully Beretta will take care of you.

Kyler

Kyler,

Thanks for your input.

I've used quite a lot of various makes; Federal, Remington, Eley, Norma and others. There seems to be no difference in which eject and which don't. The strange thing is of course that it ejected fine to begin with, but gradually got worse.

And yes, I make sure the chambers are cleaned properly!

The importer is sending it off to a second gunsmith, and it'll be interesting to see what he was to say about it.

I've had some expensive o/u's and sxs's that hated Fiocchi shells. That being said, when having problems with a Beretta, Cole Gunsmithing in Harpswell, ME is the guy to talk to. He is a Beretta trained armorer, is fair and reasonable, and is a very capable gunsmith.

I've trusted him with my Perazzi, and the gun is always repaired correctly.

Bob

Erik,

It sounds as maybe something (e.g. tip of the ejector) was tempered correctly and has worn prematurely. Hopefully they'll figure it out.

Bob,

I've always heard great things about Rich Cole and tried them out for the first time this past summer (after having a couple bad experiences with Beretta's smiths [sorry Erik]). Cole couldn't get the primary problem fixed on the first try and insisted nothing was wrong with the gun. On the second try they still insisted there was nothing wrong with it but magically it came back fully repaired. It could have been an honest mistake but it seemed a little strange.

I've had awfully good luck with Briley so they may get to do the next rebuild/fix. They did a heck of a job on an OLD SxS project I've been playing with. It's a different project, I'll post photos sometime.

Take care,
Kyler