I am a huge fan of Pietro Beretta guns, of almost any age, function, caliber, whatever. One of my all-time favorite .22 pistols is the Modelo 75, for example:
…which I think is easily one of the most beautiful handguns ever — almost Art Deco, with that slim frame and those flowing lines — and (coincidentally) the Beretta gun which I’ve fired the most, it being the pistol with which I learned to shoot handguns.
However: like its major competitor Browning, Beretta guns have always been just on the slightly-unacceptable side of affordable. I know, quality, value, workmanship etc. etc. aren’t free; but still, they’re always a priced a leeetle more than I want to spend on a gun.
And here’s the subject of today’s GGP: the lovely Berette 486 side-by-side in 20ga, as listed by Collector’s:
…and only the lack of a second trigger makes this an “Oooooh Kimmy wants!” object of desire.
That, and the price thereof: $6,850 (!!!!!)
Okay, maybe I’m getting jaded. But let’s be honest: with the improvements made in manufacturing by CNC and so on — i.e. churned out of some (admittedly high quality) production line — would it be too much to ask that this gun be priced at the $5,500 point? That would make it still expensive, but still maintain its premium well above Winchester, CZ, Mossberg and Browning, for example, and competitive with, say, an upper-end Fausti.
Because right now, if I were looking at buying a decent shotgun as specified above, the Fausti would get my order despite my reverence for Beretta. Fausti offers a drop-in double trigger for a few dollars extra, which Beretta doesn’t — not for a “few dollars extra”, that is — and having handled several Fausti guns in the past, I believe their quality is on a par with Beretta.
All thoughts are welcome in Comments, as always.
