Can someone tell me a little about this Beretta?

On a whim, I bought a Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon Top single Trap gun (I think) on a local online auction that was selling cheap. It's marked Silver Pigeon, and that's pretty much it on the receiver, and X-trap on the barrel, so I'm just guessing on the 686. I know practically nothing about the 680 series Beretta shotguns. Question is, do Beretta barrels interchange, and more importantly as this is configured top single, the barrel selector is set in one position and "pinned" with a little set screw that I have not messed with. Do you think this receiver has the lower barrel trigger group in it to, just blocked off? Just daydreaming about finding a double barrel for it, or perhaps an unsingle.

Thanks for your help,

 

The first 680 series Beretta was called a 680 which was my first Beretta Trap Gun, then they made a 682X that I got right off the boat and I still have it and is my go to gun if I ever shoot trap anymore and have shot over 300,000 rounds out of, I also have a 687 that has fake side lock plates and. Beretta also made a 685 that didn't have ejectors on it and a bunch of 686 models.

Saying all this I think of the Beretta 680 series of guns like an Ford F series truck, lots of variants but the same basic gun. I switched bbls from one frame to the other all the time. 680 to 2 different 682's to 687 and back. The ejectors might not work perfect and if they didn't close I wouldn't do it but most of the time they worked. I never messed with your model set up specifically.

Beretta 680's can be switched to which ever BBL you want to fire first, so you need to see which one it is if you have an O/U or combo, if it is a top single it should be OK to go from the factory. To me the 680 series are by far the best gun Beretta has ever made.

I was with Beretta for about twenty years and I have about a half dozen 680 guns, some I got when I worked there and some I bought after leaving. I think they are the best pointing and lasting Trap Gun out there,

 

Thank you for the response Mr. Dysinger, the info is much appreciated. Makes me feel even better about the buy and next day on the range.

 

Agreed with Brad,

But I have a question Brad, I have owned the 686 model and I have always wondered about the ASE 90,
I thought they might rate higher on a scale for a Beretta person.

Do you have any thought on the ASE 90?

 

I have always loved Beretta! My first o/u was a White Wing field gun. Still use it for hunting. Started trap shooting in November, and a month later treated myself to a 682LTD Trap o/u. LOVE IT!

 

I had an ASE 90 when they first came out and it was a very good gun. The one I had was a full and full and I shot it mainly for live birds but also doubles. The week I got it was in January and I can't remember the year (probably 1990) and I wanted to shoot it so I went to a club in Delaware with E.G. Adams I can't remember the name of the club now but I shot a couple hundred doubles targets and I broke 198 out of those 2 hundred so I could shoot the gun.

The only problem I had with it was it shot too flat for me at birds. I shot it a couple of years for doubles but I couldn't justify that expensive of a gun just for doubles. It was a very strong action and I think Leo was shooting one when he died. Another very fine Beretta gun. If you found one you could shoot go for it, I wouldn't hesitate to if I was still shooting.

The only thing is I wouldn't shoot is an un single. I shot a 680 un single for a couple of years and shot great 16's but very inconstant handicap scores. We could have a whole talk about that sometime.

Talking about Beretta guns I have a 302 that I got off the boat when Beretta first brought them in, they replaced the 301, that I've shot trap with, hunted with and shot live birds with. I'm always changing a stock and bbl on the same action. I hate to think how many rounds it has fired.

Beretta makes great shotguns, good pistols, but I'd stay away from Italian rifles. You know the saying like new, never fired, only dropped once.

 

If you remove that little screw in the safety/barrel selector, you can set the gun to fire whichever barrel first that you want. That selector/safety just determines which barrel is fired first. That's the way my 682 Gold E Trap X combo works.

 

When you buy a combo, if an unsingle or just unsingle, it is set to fire bottom barrel first, so no mistake at singles forgetting to manually set after doubles or accidently set and a loss target. Same same for top combo, or single. All the guts are there. Always liked the unsingles.