They're a nice shotgun, which is saying something since I'm a die hard Benelli fanboy. Only ammo I've found mine isn't reliable with was done 1145fps low recoil slugs from fiocchi. The casings dribbled out of the gun if I kept it tight to my shoulder but would hang up if holding the gun loose.

same experience with the same ammo.  Glad to know it's not me.  I friggin love those slugs out of my 870s.

I was disappointed because they were accurate and very soft shooting. I tried some Hornady American Gunner low recoil slugs that are 1300fps and they work good (ejection is a little weak but I could not induce a failure at all) and are soft shooting but they are not as accurate past 40yds like the Federal I normally use. Might still get some more just because I can get them for $4/box and it's cheap practice.

Anyone using a different weapon light besides Surefire?  
Wondering how Streamlight or Fenix weapon lights compare.  

I'm using the TLR 1, because I had it. Zero issues during firing.

No issues with the WML

In the short term you won't see much of a difference.

It's in the longer term with a lot of shooting that a difference emerges.

Firstly and most importantly, if you want the light mounted to your shotgun to work properly for a long time you should take the batteries out of it when you shoot the gun. The batteries have their own inertia and under recoil they end up being slammed into the electrical contacts in the light with significant force. Everything attached to a 12 gauge takes a beating during recoil.

Some lights will handle this abuse better than others. I my main home defense gun is a Beretta 1301 with a Surefire X300 mounted to it. The X300 stays on the gun through all my teaching and training. It has been subjected to thousands of full power 12 gauge shells. All of that shooting has been done with the batteries in it. (For me, it's a business expense...if I break it I just buy another one with money I don't have to pay taxes on)

The consequence of all that shooting with the batteries in it so far is that the pin holding the backplate onto the light will back out and need to be tapped back into place occasionally.

I will eventually kill the light with that kind of abuse. But the entire point is that the X300 has proven incredibly durable on the shotgun. Crucially, it has also proven to actually stay on the gun despite suffering all that recoil.

I cannot say the same for a lot of the other options on the market.

I've seen practically everything else other than a Surefire weapon light of some sort die in class. I've seen practically every mounting method fail, usually because the fasteners holding it to the gun worked loose. (I see slide mounted red dot mounts fail pretty regularly for the same reasons) Someone gets an ordinarily pretty good light, mounts it to their shotgun and halfway through a day of training their light yeets in the middle of a string of fire and is left dangling by the cord to the remote switch. Sometime they are using a short barreled shotgun and in the yeeting the light ends up out in front of the muzzle and gets caught by a portion of the payload coming out of the barrel and then the light breaks the surly bonds of earth to try and touch the face of God.

So my advice would be:

- If you want a light that will withstand living on a 12 gauge that gets shot a fair bit, the Surefire X300 works very well. But all lights will die at some point if you shoot your gun enough while they have batteries installed.
- Whatever light you get, take the batteries out when you shoot it unless you don't care if it breaks.
- Whatever mount you use, if there are fasteners involved make damn certain you install them with good threadlocker and good procedures to ensure the thread locker works. (I use Vibra-Tite VC3 on my guns and on lots of client guns and so far so good. Optics mounts, light mounts, you name it are all working just fine)
- If your mount involves fasteners, you should check them every time you start a range session and every time you end one. Witness mark your fasteners so you can see if they're moving on you.

So I took my own advice. I epoxied (JB Weld original) a Harris Engineering #2 bipod adapter inside my 1301 stock and attached a Grovtec 1" swivel to it. It works well and cheek weld isn't affected. I don't see any reason this couldn't be done on the A300 Patrol. I'm not positive but I think the A300 Patrol has the same stock insert as the 1301. It has to be removed to properly locate the #2 adapter. There's not much room to work in there if you don't.

Attached File


Picked one up last weekend, just in time to get diagnosed with a nerve problem in my c7 vertebrae...

So no shooting for a few weeks while I undergo some PT, but at least it's nice to look at!

I would like to pick up a tube spring just to keep in the parts bin. Seems like the most common failure point.

Would this the the one I want from Nordic?

Spring

Regular? HD?

I got the regular and it's been working fine. You can tell the difference in tension between the factory spring and the Nordic.

One option for those of you wanting to push a Surefire scout light forward on the gun is the Trex light bar scout mount. They also make a Pro version as well in Mlok. That is what I am using on my 1301.

https://www.trex-arms.com/store/Lightbar-Scout-Mount/

https://www.trex-arms.com/store/T-REX-Lightbar-PRO-Mount/

For just an mlok extended pic mount, ergo makes this

cheapest price anyone has seen for a gray model?

Yeah I have no idea why beretta put such a shitty magazine tube spring in there.  Leaving mine loaded for one week was enough to cause failure to push the shell from the tube onto the lifter on the last round.  

Replaced it with a Wolff spring that I had to trim and that was that.  Works perfect now.

Mine was 999 a while ago.

So dumb question, but will the A300 generally shoot el cheapo birdshot stuff from walmart?
I want a tactical shotgun but don't shoot shotguns much and I don't always want to shoot the good stuff.
Buddy has an 1187P that isn't really supposed to shoot that stuff, but his does for the most part.

Thanks

Mine shot Estate #9 birdshot, #4 bird[turkey] , #6 bird[pheasant] all without issues

Federal, Remington and others are good to go. Avoid the cheap Winchester ammo that has the silver metal rim and ribbed hull, that stuff is a problem in many guns.

I've seen eight A300UP's in class so far. They run with most bulk ammo I've seen.

Of all the major manufacturers right now, the shells I see causing the most problems are Rio or Winchester's bulk stuff. I've shot a bunch of Winchester bulk stuff over the years but it's gotten worse since the pandemic. I mostly stick to Federal if I can.

The 300UP is tuned to run with Federal Flight Control low-recoil loads, so it will cycle reliably with mild loads. If you try and shoot break-action only clay loads it won't run.

Cool thanks.
Looks like I need to start saving up.

I grabbed one at the local gun show for 925. How could I say no?

Now to get the accessory train rolling. Light, sling, and tritium front sight if I can ever find one.

Anyone know for sure what the finish is on the gray receiver model? Wondering if it is anodized gray or painted?

I took a shotgun class this weekend with my a300 and my cheap Winchesters had the primers coming out.

Mine is a Cerakote-like material.
It is NOT anodizing.

Thanks!

Typical, unfortunately.

I've shot a boatload of Winchester bulk ammo over the years, but it's gotten worse. I mainly stick with Federal now.

This might have been said already, but will the A300 be able to use the magpul shotgun stock?

No

(Nordic Components):

Beretta 1301 Tactical Aluminum Retaining Nut & Clamp Upgrade Kit


Anyone know if this fits the A300UP? It's not mentioned on their page but it looks like it would.


ETA:

YES the Nordic cap/clamp kit does work with the A300 Ultima Patrol

Search thru this thread---
I remember reading that it would/might.
GG&G offers one as well.

I'm not sure if it's well known yet but aftermarket 1301 front sights do not work on the A300 Ultima Patrol.

I ordered a XS Big Dot front sight and once it arrived I quickly realized that it's annoyingly not compatible with my A300UP. I think what Beretta did was just use the same fiber optic front sight post they use on their hunting line of A300s. The post is very short compared to the 1301 front sight that has a much longer and larger threaded shank on it. I'm sure the A300UP fromt sight base could be drilled and tapped to accept the 1301 sights easy enough though.

Now I just want to figure out how to replace the rear sight with one that's metal and adjustable. Any ideas?

ETA after looking a little more I found the Aridus CROM RMR mount for the 1301T. It has an all metal adjustable rear sight and will accept RMR pattern optics. I think that's the way I'll go if I can get confirmation that it's compatible with the A300UP and is the same height as the factory sights. I emailed Aridus so hopefully they'll respond soon.

1301 CROM fits the a300 ultima patrol

Perfect! That's all i need to hear, thank you.

It's true.

Finally got a sling mounted up proper. I used an mlok mount that I found on Amazon, coupled with a heavily modified T-nut from the hardware store on the backside of the handguard. There is very little clearance on the back of the handguard, so typical mlok hardware is a no go. Buttstock is just a grovtech.

I haven't done it yet but I may buy a XS Big Dot M4/1301 front sight and a 1301 front sight nut ($5 at Midwest Gun Works), then drill my A300UP front sight base to install the new sight. Other than that, there aren't many options for aftermarket front sights.

Did you have to cut it and if so, how many coils did you remove?

Was looking for a A300UP the last couple days since we have a lot of local shops including a PSA.  No luck but I could have bought 7-8 1301’s.
   I came close to buying a 1301 I just didn’t feel like it was $600 more worth of shotgun for my purposes.

A smattering:

guns.com

   Got up early and found one locally
Gray receiver version for $990   Just a heads up to anyone in the SC upstate they have a few more in both gray and black.  I have a mixed bag of slugs buckshot turkey and birdshot shells.
Wife decided to help me clean up my old reloading room. She tossed those and several partial “ bulk boxes of .22 into zip locks.   I lover her so no harm, but the mixed .22 is some cheap federal and Lapua
Anyway I think I’ll shoot the mixed bag of shotgun shells to see how it functions.
    Attached File

I have the grey.
Love the color combo.

Got home a bit late and couldn’t find my mixed bag.  I did have some federal blue box slugs.  The 15 rd box ones Wally World sells.  I shot 20 of those and a box of #7 federal game shot.   Both 2-3/4
   Very accurate for a smooth bore.  At 50 yards with the factory ghost rings all the rounds were in a clover shooting plates.  I didn’t have time for anything else but great first impression.
   I threw a Surefire scout light on it along with a amerglow dot as a placeholder.   Probably going to put a arco on it
Attached File

After owning my A300UP and loving it for a few months, I actually wish I had went with the 1301T now. There are a few things like the chromed bore & bolt and adjustable sights that I like more. It's a much smoother shotgun in my limited experience too but I've only handled the 1301T, not shot it. The A300UP definitely has the better loading port and stock handguard although the handguard is easily changed.

IMO...

1301T = best tactical shotgun

A300UP = best bang for your buck tactical shotgun

I'll probably end up with both

GG&G finally got the MLOK clamp out for their aluminum magazine tube cover.  Now all I'm waiting on is the MatchSaverz, and then I'm through tinkering with it.

    The 1301 is definitely the best of the bunch ,but I don’t think the a300 should be described as best bang for the buck.  It’s not quite as refined but it’s definitely as capable just a .10 of a second slower lol.  Smoother maybe a bit but not much
Billing it as a budget shotgun is pretty misleading vs say a Stoger.   Honestly Beretta is their own biggest challenger between the two.      

FYI the barrel and chamber are chrome lined

I can talk about this now:

https://www.beretta.com/en-us/product/1301-tactical-mod--2-black-syn-FA0115

I was at the Beretta USA factory in Tennessee a couple of weeks ago to meet with some of the engineers and this was one of the things in R&D that we saw. They had racks of them awaiting inspection.

Highlights:

- A300UP forend with an adapter. This was always planned to go on the 1301, too, but Beretta was quiet about it.[/li]
- Updated magazine tube cover
- Updated magazine tube clamp
- The combination of those two are intended to prevent the walking that's common on the older style clamp and tube cover.
- All the units I saw had the Mesa Urbino stocks on them, but more interestingly all of them had the pro-lifter installed at the factory. I have no use for the pro-lifter personally because I use good technique to
 avoid pinching, but people seem to want it so Beretta is putting it in them.
- The updated forend, mag tube cover, and mag clamp are supposed to eventually be available for purchase and will retrofit onto older guns...but expect production of complete guns to be prioritized so you
 might not see them out there for a bit. But they are coming.
- Updated bolt release latch with a rubber cover that holds on much better.
- Flat-faced trigger

Thanks for the info

Looking forward to being able to mount a light on my gen 2 1301. Not a fan of the Zhukov forend.

Ditto! Looking forward to swapping mine out in favor of the Mod.2