#12gauge

I will be the absolute first one to say that I am indeed NOT shotgun guy. Quite the opposite. Other than the little bit of hunting I’ve done over the years with a shotgun, I’m just not that guy. They always seemed to be too much with little to gain. Capacity limitations, much greater recoil than a rifle as well as such a variety of shells… I just never really went down that road. A couple of years back I got a Charles Daly AR-12 which is basically a 12 gauge shotgun that’s patterned roughly after an AR-15. It take detachable mags. I wasn’t sure if I was going to care for it, but it’s turned out to be one fun shotgun! Fast forward to this year, I had been looking heavily at adding a purpose use tactical shotgun to my collection. Not that the AR-12 isn’t already, but it’s truly not meant for hard use. I wanted something with a proven track record. Enter Beretta and their tactical shotguns. They had the 1301 Tactical for a while and recently introduced a cheaper tactical shotgun, the Ultima A300 Patrol. I went back and forth on both of these, but ended up going with the Beretta 1301 Tactical from Brownells. I opted for the only version they had in stock at the time. This version comes with the Mesa Tactical stock and pistol grip which is what all tactical shotguns should have in my opinion.

First impressions of the Beretta 1301 Tactical after it had arrived to my FFL was just how lightweight it was. I do own a few shotguns in total, a Remington Pre-Model 11, an 1187 Sportsman and that Charles Daly AR-12. All of these, especially the Remingtons seem much heftier than the newly acquired Beretta tactical blaster. Knowing what I know about recoil, weight is your friend, but not in a tactical environment when you’re carrying your firearm and needing to wield it in different directions. The Beretta 1301 Tactical is quite handy with it’s 18.5” barrel. My first trip to the range to see how it runs was quite the success too. I anticipated much more perceived recoil, but was pleasantly surprised when shooting game loads and a couple different types of defensive 00 buckshot loads from Hornady and Winchester. One of the other attributes that Beretta touts that makes this shotgun stand on top of the heap of other tactical shotguns is their blink recoil system. It’s a gas operated recoil system with a rotating bolt and Beretta’s claim of 33% faster than other semi auto shotguns seems to hold water in my experience thus far. It’s a fast shooting shotgun!

So even though I’m just now touching my toes into the water of the tactical shotgun world, the Beretta 1301 Tactical has me very excited so far! Glad it happened to come in stock over at Brownells just in time for me to snatch it up and see what this thing is all about. I’ve already started adding a few things like a sling, red dot and some shell holders. Really looking forward to where this will take me.