Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/528216
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 3 3 B eretta, the famed Italian gunmaker, requires no introduction to the readers of this column. Beretta bills itself as the oldest gunmaking company in the world, and may well be, since they've been building guns of all kinds since the 1500s. They've made pistols, hunting rifles and shotguns, military guns, and I guess just about anything relating to guns that you could imagine. All of their stuff has been good. In fact, I've never heard any criticism about the quality of any gun made by Beretta. In previous columns I've often expressed my high regard for their semi-auto and over-and-under shotguns. The company also makes absolutely exquisite best-quality over-and-unders and side-by-sides, despite the fact that their bread- and-butter trade has always been "consumer grade" guns. That's my own term for good-quality guns that are affordable for a person of average means. Notice that the word "cheap" hasn't reared its head anywhere in this discussion. The lockwork is carried on the trigger plate. It features a single selective trigger and leaf springs for a cleaner let-off. Mine has a splinter forend and a straight English grip. The gun is constructed using a new barrel-joining system that does away with the unflattering barrel-ring of their previous efforts. The gun has a sleek, voluptuous, round-action body that's as dainty as a wee lass. Trim and nimble, it moves me in a way that Beretta's previous side-by-sides did not. For as long as I can remember, I've been a fan of round-action trigger-plate guns, especially those typified by the MacNaughton, Dickson, and McKay Brown clan of Scottish guns. Absolutely nothing else carries as well in the hand or over the arm. Because the innards are attached to the trigger plate Robert Matthews h o t g u n s S In all the time that I've used Beretta guns, though, I've never really been attracted to their consumer grade side-by-sides. Indeed, I've always thought it odd that Beretta never chose to compete in that market. None of this is meant to denigrate their older side-by-sides, because, like I said, I don't think I've ever even heard a single criticism of their field grade side-bys. If I seem to tread lightly here, it's because I want to praise their new side-by-side but without criticizing their previous efforts. That wouldn't be fair. Sort of a catch-22, damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of predicament. None of their older field guns were bad, mind you. It's just that none of them moved me in the way that a side-by-side should. Which brings us around to the little Beretta double that I'm shooting. Called the 486 Parallelo, it's a 20-bore weighing only six pounds, 3 ounces with 28-inch barrels. It's balanced perfectly on the leading edge of the hinge pin. Rather than giving one of their older models a facelift, Beretta introduced the 486 Parallelo with a redesigned action, springs, and trigger group. It's available in 12 and 20 gauge. Beretta's new round-action 486 Parallelo . . . Could this be the first step in the evolution of a classic?