It seems that if Browning shotguns suit a shooter then the Beretta line doesn’t “feel” right. Browning/Perazzi and Beretta/Kreighoff. Seems to be the progression.
But for playing? You do you and then come back with a report.

 

Maybe you should go out and rent a 686 at one of your local clubs and see how you like it. Most shooters prefer the gun fit of one line over the other. Browning's always seemed to fit me best out of the box. Others find the Beretta fits them better out of the box. You need to shoot the gun that fits "YOU" Best out of the box. Both Browning's and Beretta's will last you a lifetime. Both models you posted have a proven track record and are solid shotguns. So now pick the one that fits you the best, and don't look back. Good Luck on your Journey!!! break em all jeff

 

When I got back into shooting, the first gun I purchased was a mint 682. It was a beautiful gun that was built like a tank. Problem was I just couldn't shoot it. Then, I stumbled into a deal on a Citori and couldn't believe the difference. The safe is now infested with Citori's and the 682 is long gone (and at a profit).

 

The information I’m looking for is reliability, fit and finish. I clearly understand a gun needing to fit the shooter. Been down that road before. Appreciate all the comments. There is only one that I’m aware of in my rural area and it’s owned by a lady all American. She shoots doubles with it. Her husband said she likes it a lot. Her and her husbands other Guns are Brownings.

 

I never had a minutes trouble with my 682. The fit and finish on it was great. The guy I sold it to shoots it a bunch and he hasn't had problem one. If he had had problems with it I can assure you I'd know about it. The 68X series of Beretta's are a proven design. We have lots of them around our club and I don't hear any more complaints about them than any other gun.

 

My Kid used to have a CX. For $1500 it was chambered in 3" and came with 5 or 6 chokes. You could literally shoot everything from ducks to skeet with it. I regret trading that gun in.

 

Thanks Corey, that’s a pretty good testimonial. Seems like as others have said, it will come down to which one fits and looks better. I like the silver finish and engraving of the Beretta much better than the plain CX, but good looks don’t matter if it doesn’t fit and work best. As soon as I can I’m going to my dealer to look them over.

 

If you've got a couple of thou$and$ "laying around", move fast to get a nice 20 ga! The new "president" has plans for us.

Sorry to be no help otherwise...

 

I've owned 3 Beretta shotguns( 390 super trap, 391 parallel target, and a 682 gold e) all have be great reliable guns. But none worked out for me. They don't fit me and my style of shooting. All had adjustable combs and buttplates. The Browning style just fits and shoots .

 

Hmmm, looks like I may have to stay with my Brownings. Or wait for more guns to look at. I’ve scoured the countryside and found one Beretta. It is close to what I’m looking for, but being a southpaw, I doubt this one would work. The gun shop that has it, said that it has a bit of cast to the stock and that usually does it for me. I’m not about to buy something and have to work on it before I can shoot it. Oh well I’ve got a few 12 gauges I can shoot and lots of ammo so it’s not a bad deal.

 

If you're looking for a 20G O/U for a left-hander I'd give serious consideration to a Beretta 686. Here's what's available in the UK and no doubt the US too.

GMK - Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon I Field

GMK are the UK's leading shooting sports distributor.

www.gmk.co.uk

I won a 686 12G game gun/sporter a few years ago in a competition. It would never have occurred to me to have bought one because these days I only shoot trap and a bit of skeet. I took it to a couple of informal sporting clays events and was amazed how well it fitted me straight out the box and how nice it was to shoot. I've had half a dozen Browning O/Us and (now) 16 Berettas. I've never had a bad one of either brand. The choice is yours. I only own and shoot indestructible Berettas now.

 

Something else to consider is Beretta has not been known for their barrel regulation. Might get a good one, might get a bad one. Lots of threads in the past about that.

Guy at our club went through 3 barrel sets on a Gold E before he found one that would shoot the top and bottom barrel within 1" of each other (left to right) at 10 yards. He no longer own's it.

Browning's barrel regulation has been very good.

 

What's wrong with Benelli?

 

Not a thing wrong with a Benelli. I happen to like them very much. With a semi auto I would include a Remington 1100 completion in with the mix. I have an 870 trap I put together that is very nice.

 

try a 694 sporting

 

If you've got a couple of thousand to spend, I'd go look at the Rock Island Auction website and see what is coming up for auction. I've purchased a number of shotguns from them, including two Belgian Superposed guns. One had never been put together and the other only looked to have been test-fired in the lower barrel. Each time, I had a new Belgian Superposed for less than a new Citori.

There are a lot of guns out there that were purchased many decades ago, many as gifts to a parent or soon to be graduate to commemorate a special occasion, and never shot. A lot of times they end up in an estate sale. I've been lucky enough to have come by a few of those.

I cannot recommend RIA highly enough.

 

I’m looking to add a new gun to the safe to play around with. I have a couple thousand laying around and I figured I would buy a little 20 gauge to play with at the various games and maybe a little upland shooting.

Both Beretta and Browning are great shotgun makers, they all have their loyal followers.

But now you're talking about a 20 gauge for field usage, that make a difference.
Beretta 20 gauge are build on 20 gauge frame, Browning are build on 12 gauge frame (correct me if I'm wrong).

IMO, the only two reasons to shoot any smaller gauges are the weight and size of the gun.
There's no reason to shoulder a bulky 12 gauge gun with small bores on it. Not to mention walking around with it in the field.
Unless you're shooting competition skeet.

 

Beretta 20 gauge are build on 20 gauge frame, Browning are build on 12 gauge frame (correct me if I'm wrong).

The Cirori 20 gauge is built on the smaller frame, the same one as the 28 gauge and .410.

 

Both Berretta and the Browning are great guns, but from a pure value perspective, the CX line is just too good of a deal for the quality that you're getting. While the Beretta 686 is close price wise, I just feel the Browning is more durable and better value per $. I have owned and shot both, only the CX is still in the safe.

 

Well let’s see here Steve, the Browning 725 is built on a slimmer frame. Not skinny mind you, but slimmer. Now I had a white lightning that was a very small frame, like a 20 gauge would be. I think the 725 frame would be a small amount larger than the lightning, but smaller than the average 12. Now keep in mind I’m not talking about walking the furrowed fields of Kansas, but sitting on a bucket in a dove field behind the farm house. Not much carrying involved.

As for shooting a smaller tube in a 12 gauge frame, remember this is just something to play with. I currently have a Briley tubed 12 with 20 gauge tubes in it. It is a bit weighty but fun on the skeet field or short walks. The tubes add 14 ounces. About the weight of my trap guns. I was thinking I had rather have a 20 and do away with the tubes. I found a left handed Beretta in my price range, but if there is a problem with barrel regulation I’m not going that route. I can’t try it out first, and if it’s off, then I’ll have to send it back and I’d rather not do that. Not dissing idustem, but if there is a barrel problem, then why are they so popular? Decisions, decisions.

 

Many people never test their equipment properly, we don't have anywhere near to an accurate figure how many guns have regulation issues. Browning is known for being dead on, but how many people will know if their Browning or Beretta is a few inches off either in left to right or height dimensions?

I figure the accepted pattern of 30" is rather large so I might not notice a very small regulation issue since I'd probably chalk it up to pointing errors. I bet we only hear about the basket cases where the regulation is so far off that it affects scores.

A friend bought a new 687. It's regulation testing done to the late Neil Winston's standards was 1 inch left bottom, top bang on. Would you even notice that? Now, if you tested it would it get into your head?

How far off does barrel reg have to be before Beretta and Browning will fix it?

 

The Berettas has trunnion pins whereas the Browning has a full length hinge pin. Although both of these parts are replaceable. The Browning's full length hinge pin will wear a lot longer before the gun feels loose versus the Beretta's trunnion pins which have a much smaller surface area and will wear significantly more. I know this from experience as I've had a Beretta 682X (trigger broke), a Beretta 687EELL combo (rib separated from barrel), several Browning BT99's and a Browning 725. Another factor is service. Almost any reputable gunsmith can repair a Browning but the number of factory approved Beretta gunsmiths is limited. I haven't had what I'd consider good factory service from either.

 

I know where there are a couple of Brownings, so that might be what I need to do. I don’t like a loose gun and things do definitely get in my head. A road trip to my not too far distant gun shop may be in order tomorrow. Thanks for the replies.

 

Consider this:

CAESAR GUERINI SUMMIT SPORTING LEFT-HAND 20 GA 30" MULTICHOKE​

Jaquas

 

In the sub gauge shotguns I prefer the brownings over the beretta options. The beretta sub gauges tend to be too light and whippy for clay target games for me.

Fit and finish between the 686 silver pigeon 1's and the cx brownings will probably be about a horse a piece, with probably an edge to the brownings for the likely hood of nicer lumber used in the stock and fore end. at least of the ones I have seen.

I have owned both in 20 gauge. the browning is still here the beretta went down the road not long after it arrived too light and whippy. .

 

Beretta's other than their semi auto models have always seemed to have harsh recoil compared to the Brownings. I am sure this is due to gunfit not gun design but that is what I have experienced .

 

The few Berettas I’ve seen, looked kind of cheap like an Instinct or a Franchi, but I’ve been trying hard to get that feeling out of my mind. Reading you guys comments is not helping. Laughing here. I keep going back to my Brownings. I have 3 now. I wanted something different, but different is not always good. If it weren’t for the limited budget, I might expand into CG, Perazzi, or Krieghoff.

 

I had failed to mention some other significant problems I'd had with Berettas. After the trigger broke on the 682X I traded it in for the 687EELL combo. Within 6 months of shooting, the rib separated from the top single barrel. I sent it back to the factory thinking they would repair it as it was an engraved match with the OU barrel. They sent me back a plain jane barrel. When I inquired they said they didn't repair barrels. The shoulder where the chokes seated on the new barrel was chewed up from apparently a dull cutter. I had to return it and the gun again. Finally after 6 months I received it back. After 3 months or so I started having trouble with the second barrel not firing regardless of which barrel was fired first. I wasn't "trapping" the trigger as others who shot the gun had the same problem. After investigating this I discovered this was a well known issue. I didn't want to wait another 3-4 months or longer getting this addressed from the factory so I brought it to a local gunsmith. After several failed attempts he was unable to rectify this problem. Keep in mind at the time this gun was at the top of their line. So I traded it in for the Browning 725 and took a BIG loss!

Now as I understand it Beretta doesn't do factory service but has authorized gunsmiths such as Cole's that does their work. Perhaps this is better. But I am forever sworn off to Berettas due to my experiences.

 

You could find a nice Winchester M12 20 gauge for way less than a grand. Mine is a joy to carry and shoot. It's my go to bird gun.

 

Thanks Travis and Corey. I know where there are some CX 20 very reasonable. I might as well go with one of them. Out of 10 Brownings I have owned, I’ve had zero issues. I just wondered about Berettas but I’ve heard enough to scare me off.