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Please tell me your tales of owning and/or shooting a Beretta BL4.
Reliability, ect.
Thanks and best,
John

Have owned a couple John, and a dear friend of my father's shot one in the salt marsh of South Louisiana for thirty years (lots of high pressure loads). They all performed, and I suspect are still performing, exactly as advertised. They are very light, very quick, and have some of the plainest wood ever put on an Italian gun of any type. They seem to be something of a steal on the used market.

I have had a bl 5, 20 ga, 28 inch, briley choked, sweet heart for many years. It is the go to, always come back to, over and under of the many in my safe. I did have one ejector drag until I cleaned out the cheat grass from between the ejector and the frame. It handles great and kills as well as the shooter allows it to.
It is one of those "if I had to use just one non side by".

Besides I like the engraving.

John,

The first guns we saw here of that design were marketed as either Silver Snipe[NE] or Golden Snipe [AE]. Both of those models had minimal 'engraving' as in essentially none. Europe used dif model nomenclature and their predecessor of the Garcia era BL-4 was the S56E, essentially the same gun, but oft with a bit better wood and slightly dif forearm & buttstock grip shape & configuration. When I say better wood, not speaking of figure, rather the color and the finish were both generally much darker. Some early BL-4's were still marked internally as S56E's and they will generally have the S56E wood as well. S56E's & BL-4's are both much nicer finished guns than the original Golden Snipe and have engraved receivers at roughly the half fine level. Most had auto safeties. The guns tend to be light in weight as far as box locks go and while that can be fine in a 20 for carrying about, it can also thump you after a while if you are going to do a lot of shooting, e.g., sporting clay use or if you are bent toward the 1oz 20ga. loads or the 3" 1.125oz blasters. I'm sure they would be fine over a dog for a few pheasant, but I wouldn't wish to shoot any more than necessary, personally. The 12's simply kick, if you are shooting much of a payload or even a light one at high speed, so be forewarned. It is a simple function of gun weight, not faulting the gun or stock dimensions/configuration. The guns are dead reliable, lock up is simple/solid & seemingly remains tight forever and they are well assembled & fit from high quality materials. Their bores tend to be minimal sized with .721~.722 being about the norm for a 12ga. and many are chromed. Forcing cones are abrupt, i.e., <13mm or 1/2". Triggers are reliable & crisp out of the box and I have never had need to have one serviced nor do I know of anyone else that has. To my knowledge all BL's imported, with the exception of the short lived BL-2S, had single triggers. BL-4's were selective. Europe had double triggered versions available and some of those guns are around, but they are few and far between and likely the result of some individual bringing one back for their own use. Some of those have the front trigger articulated.

My first O/U was a 28" bbl'd M/F 12ga. Golden Snipe that I ultimately had made into a straight grip gun [had the pistol grip cut off and the chequering blended/recut for the straight config]. I shot that gun extensively through the late 60's, inclusive of a lot of 3&1/4de 1 & 1/4oz flyer loads. It was never any the worse for wear, but I frequently was. A friend owns it today & to him it is the finest shotgun in the world & the only one that he shoots. He takes a couple of limits of dove w/it each year and brags profusely about the gun's magic. It used to routinely cut my cheek;-) .. but it also killed birds.

John, back in 1970 bought my wife a BL-4 28 ga for skeet shooting. 26" barrels, imp.cyl./mod. She shot it some, I shot it a lot more and really liked it. Used it for stocked pheasants and did well with it. Still own it, and it is still in like new condition.
I do believe it was imported by Garcia out of Teaneck, N.J. Nicely made gun for under $300.00 back then. A little more engraving and ejectors compared to the BL-3.

Love mine. Wouldn't sell it.

If they stand up like the BL-3s they are great guns. My 12 ga. is over 35 yrs. old, bought it in the late 60s or early 70s, don't know how old the 20 is bought used.

John, my first "real" shotgun was a S57E 12 bore I bought in 1971 for app. USD 240.-
Regret selling to this day!

JC

Here's the story.
About a year ago I visited my favorite store and saw a gun that was unfamiliar to me. As you know, I am a SxS man. This was an O/U that was in the white. The wood was very figured and the gun was marked Pedersen Gun Co.
Many questions later and a good bit of research, I determined that Pedersen was a small company that Mossberg had bought out in the early 70's. They contracted with Beretta to ship in the white BL4 that were customized at the small shop Mossberg set up at their main plant. They only lasted for tqo years for as the Mossberg historian told me, no one wanted to pay a few grand for a Mossberg no matter the name.:}
This gun is a 12 gauge, never engraved or colored or blued. It has been fired but I think not more than a half dozen rounds.
I have made a cursory inquiry of Ken Hurst and Rex Pedersen about engraving the gun. I am thinking of a future present for my son, that might be passed to my grandson.
Before I spend that much money on the gun, I wanted to be assured that it is worth it.We are talking maybe 3K.
I fully know that the gun will never be worth that but it is a personal thing and almost like a bespoke gun for me. I can't buy anything that would equal what I will have for that.
Thanks to all for assuring me that the gun is a good one.
Best,
John

John, there is information about the BL4 in an article called "Beretta's Field Grade Doubles"
by John R. Tassini in the Summer 2001 issue of DGJ (Volume 12 Issue 2).

JC