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Mike Yardleys Top Gun Series - Beretta Silver Pigeon

  • Review
Mike Yardleys Top Gun Series - Beretta Silver Pigeon

The Beretta Silver Pigeon/68 series is one of the most popular guns in Britain.Tens of thousands are in use both for game and clay shooting.

I have watched the model evolve and used more of them than I can count. I used them in smaller bore form to teach my kids to shoot, I still cherish a 28 bore, side-plated, 30” barrelled, EELL as one of my favourite guns. Most shooting schools use Silver Pigeons because they are so tough, and if it was one gun on a desert island, it would be a no-brainer, a 12 bore Silver Pigeon. The gun has evolved considerably (see below), the latest basic Silver Pigeon 1 models are even equipped with ‘Opti-bored’barrels and Opti-chokes which I think are a significant advance.

Layout

The typical Silver Pigeon is well balanced, extraordinarily reliable, aesthetically pleasing and, not least important, brilliant value.

It is easy to see why it is such a success. The gun has a very low action profile, made possible by trunnion hinging, bifurcated (split) lumps, and monobloc barrels (a process which Beretta developed more than a hundred years ago and has been copied by many other manufacturers since because it is both cost effective and very strong). I judge Beretta barrels – made from Chrome Moly steel even in the most basic grades of gun – to be amongst the toughest ever made, and they are the product of a lot of scientific research too. Beretta maintain a most impressive laboratory in their main factory – Beretta 1 – in Gardonne, where there is also a branch of the Italian proof house.

Beretta over and under barrels are still put together by traditional methods in the Silver Pigeon, one of the few parts of the production process which cannot easily be automated… yet. Beretta now brand all their shotgun barrels as being of “Steelium” construction, a unique manufacturing process that transforms their special tri-alloy steel into an exceptional barrel through techniques like deep drilling, cold-hammer forging and special vacuum distension.

Beretta maintain a most impressive laboratory in their main factory – Beretta 1 – in Gardonne, where there is also a branch of the Italian proof house. Another feature of the Silver Pigeon is the fact that all the major bearing surfaces – hinge pins, bolts, and in earlier guns, barrel shoulders, are readily interchangeable in oversize specification (rather like the way one may buy new crankshaft bearings and oversize pistons for worn car engines). These guns rarely wear out, but when they do, they are very easily restored because of this clever system.

Beretta have also innovated with decoration on their Silver Pigeon range. They developed clever new mechanical and more recently laser engraving processes in collaboration with Cesare Giovanelli of the famous Creative Arts studio (a master who I have had the pleasure of meeting on several occasions and who once, most kindly, gifted me with a small silver plate with a beautiful hare engraved upon it). Beretta have also been at the forefront of using lasers to accomplish the chequering on their Silver Pigeon guns, a process now becoming much more widely used.

A Little History

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The Silver Pigeon and 68/600 series guns are a development of the very similar 50 series (the models 55,56, 57 and 58) which first appeared in the 1950s. The main difference between the modern Silver Pigeon and the original 50 series, cosmetics apart, is that some of the earlier 50 series guns employed leaf springs to power the action rather than the coil springs that have become the modern standard, the central cocking system was also rather different. Economy models – such as original 55 – were produced as non-ejectors, the 56 ejector model was the next development, then a sideplated 57el model followed as well as other deluxe guns (the modern version being the EELL.)

Where did the original design come from? That is a very good question, and no one has been able to give me a very good answer, so I have done considerable research to pin it down. In the Beretta museum in Brescia, one can see that the firm made a copy of a 12 bore Boss over under, almost an exact one, in 1933. They then came out with their own Boss-inspired sidelock SO in 1934. The non-sidelock ASE, almost an SO with the locks cut off, follows shortly after (this gun has evolved into the modern DT10 and 11). There is, however, another very interesting gun in the museum. A sidelock 20 bore prototype made in Ergal (aluminium alloy) in the mid 1940s. It is a development of the SO but with a new action design looking significantly like our much loved Silver Pigeons in profile.

This prototype never went into production, but led the Beretta design team to create a new short action ‘boxlock’version after WWII. [The 50 and 60 series guns are, not by the way, true boxlocks, because the springs are not contained within the action body.] It became one of the most successful sporting shotgun designs of all time, and has now been the subject of more than half a century of development.

Variations On a Theme

Today we have so many Silver Pigeon and 600 models it would be pointless listing all of them – though a quick visit to the GMK website will give you a good idea of what is on offer. The gun has also inspired some similar but not identical cousins. There was the SV10 chassis seen on Perrenia and Prevail models which did not seem to prove a great success frankly speaking (they shot and shoot perfectly well), and the new, less radically styled 692 – the replacement for the much liked 682 competition model – which looks set to be a world beater, and which I would rate as one of the best Berettas of modern times. That said, I think the latest Silver Pigeon 1 with the Optima barrel modifcations is one of the best buys on the British market and a terrific buy around the £1,500 mark (which, I believe to be an especially good gun in 30” sporter form – and for game as well).

Silver Pigeon 1

OK let’s look a little more deeply at the current Silver Pigeon 1 – which is available as both a 12 and 20 bore. This Beretta, like nearly all the over and under production, is chambered for 3” (76mm) cartridges. Proofing is to the superior Fleurs de Lys standard and thus steel shot compatible with the right choke (less than half). Barrel bores are hard chrome-plated, bores and no signs of rivelling inside or out. The barrels are made of chrome moly steel and fitted with solid side ribs in game models and a ventilated top rib (one area of weakness as it may dent – though it is quite easily fixed with a special lifting tool). I would love to see the firm introduce a solid externally but hollowed internally taper rib to the game guns, as I believe it would be more practical.

What more can be said about the action? Not much, we have said it all before. It is a classic, its stud pin hinging as noted (these bear against bifurcated lumps in the side of the monobloc), conical locking bolts, and dovetailed barrel shoulders. Everything internally is powered by helical springs. It is one of the most reliable designs ever conceived.

My only real gripe concerns the barrel selector on the safety, which I find fiddly to use sometimes. The trigger pulls on the design are not great, but this is not a side-lock with leaf springs – which require less compromise with regard to sear angle – and they are perfectly adequate for nearly all purposes.

The stock of the typical Beretta Silver Pigeon has a fairly open radius, fairly slim, grip that reduces in depth to its front – this seems a design feature that carries on from the shallow action profile, but I opine that a slightly deeper grip might anchor the hand better. Forends on Silver Pigeons may be schnabel or rounded (my preference is the latter because it does not restrict hand position – although I caution against holding too far forward as it may restrict swing). Beretta stocks usually measure about 14 ¾ for length of pull with about 1 3/8 of drop at the front of the comb and 2 1/8” at rear on the sports. The field guns tend to be a little lower but my preference is for the sporting dimensions as a standard measurement for British game shooting as well as clays.

So their you have it, the Beretta Silver Pigeon, a modern classic in all its guises and one of the toughest, most reliable guns that you can buy – with prices starting at around £1600 for a Silver Pigeon 1. For more information on all Beretta guns, visit www.gmk.co.uk

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