Beretta 682 gold e. 32 Review

“It took me over 10 years to finally buy a 32" Beretta...”

Written on: 02/11/2004 by oldfenners (1 review written)

Good Points
Beautiful balance, beautiful looks, beautiful performance

Bad Points
Not cheap,

General Comments
It took me over 10 years to finally buy a 32" Beretta 682 gold e., from when I first used one back in about 1993 till this august when I eventually plucked up the courage to hand over the plastic and say.."I'll take it."

I'd pondered over the 30" model but decided on the 32", as I'd most recently been shooting a 391 semi auto and I'd got used to using a long gun and quite liked the extra "pointabillity",

Bamfords excellent gunshop at Eccleston in lancs were happy to order in the 32 incher for me to try out as everyone only seemed to stock the shorter barrelled versions, and, as usual, Bamfords offered me the best overall price when I traded in my other gun, it worked out at a cash price of around £1650, however, I paid £1000 plus my 1 year old 391 sporter, at least £100 better than the other local shops.

The gun comes in a rather nice double combination locked case, although I do admit that the only time I'll ever use it is if I ever sell the gun. However, I'm sure many of the the trap shooting types will be delighted to carry out the tedious ritual of assembling their gun on the table of their shooting club after extracting it from it's luxurious locked case.

Now to the serious bit, Beretta claim in their advertising bumf something poetic about from the moment you pick up this gun you'll realise in one quick smooth swing the quality ..blah blah blah.. however, it is totally striking, it actually does feel right, it feels surprisingly lightweight, it isn't, and it's just beautifully balanced.

In the last 3 years I have had a new 686e, a 687 silver pigeon, a lanber and a 391 auto, this gun is head and shoulders above them all.

The wood is a beautiful dark walnut, with laser cut engraving that is exceptionally comfortable to the grip and looks the business to boot, it is also fitted with a leather backed recoil pad which works a treat when shooting from "gun down" position as it doesn't snag on your clothing.

The usual tried and tested and faultless beretta action is engraved in some "modern ellipsis???" graphics which although I have no idea what it means, looks very good.

The broad gold trigger is set to perfection.

The barrels are the excellent "optima" setup with their extended optimachokes and the unseen but vitally important long forcing cones which really do reduce recoil. The difference in recoil between this and my other over-under guns that I have had recently is quite obvious, and I find makes a hell of a difference when you're shooting 100 bird shoots.

Overall this feels like, and infact is, a quality gun, it doesn't come particularly cheap, but it is a class above the other production guns. The next step up in Beretta over unders is the DT10 and you're looking at an extra 1500-2000 quid for that model even though it's got the same optima barrels and chokes.

I think I'll be sticking with this one.