Beretta Blog

Most of my friends enjoy shooting, and when they are not on the range, they are probably talking about their favorite sport in one way or another.  I think once you start shooting, it gets in your blood, becomes part of who you are and never quite goes away.  My affliction started when I was just a young boy, and I’ve been hooked ever since.  My first rifle was a semi-auto .22LR.  My first handgun was a Beretta 92F.  The rifle was a tool to me; it went wherever I went (I spent almost all of my time trekking through the woods close to my home).  I remember the rifle for the memories that I made while carrying it.  My Beretta 92 left a different sort of impression.  If anyone could be said to be in love with an object, this gun held my affection.

With just five days until departure to New Zealand, for a Bull Tahr hunt, a story appeared in my mailbox. It was from Midway USA’s Larry Potterfield. It seems he’s always out and about living my dream hunts and, here again, just days before I was to embark on a dream, he tells a story about his experience hunting chamois and tahr in New Zealand.

A dream hunt is about more than the harvest. When you’re planning, think past the kill shot. There’s an array of legwork and budgeting needed to ensure you have extraordinary memories when you get home. 

Also read: Questions You Should Ask When Booking A Guided Hunt (Part 1)

My partner and I responded to a domestic disturbance in one of the local neighborhood.  We pulled up next to the suburban, middle-class home and approached the door not knowing what the situation was.  The door opened, and we were met by a young woman of about 35 and what appeared to be her son of about 15.  She frantically waved for us to come in and was  repeatedly said, “Hurry, he’s going to kill her…he’s going to kill her!” She led us to a closed bedroom door through which we could hear muffled, angry voices and rustling from some commotion.  As she opened the door, I’ll never forget the scene…

I’ve been testing out a new product from Mesa Tactical for my Beretta 1301 Tactical shotgun: The SureShell Aluminum Shotshell Carrier. Called a side-saddle by some, this piece of gear allows you to carry extra shells on the side of the receiver for quick access.

At this point, you might be thinking, “He's using the words precise AND shotgun in the same sentence? Is this guy nuts?”

Well, that depends. I’m talking about whether a shotgun can be “precise” or not. We won’t discuss my sanity just yet. The potential precision of your shotgun depends on careful matching of your particular gun, choke tube (if applicable) and ammunition. And when I say careful matching, I’m not talking about specifying a brand of ammunition. I’m talking about specifying a brand, shot size, shell length, and velocity / power factor - basically all the things that uniquely define a particular box of shotgun shells.

I look up through the tree branches to see bulbous bodies silhouetted against the forest scenery. The chilly air bites at my cheeks. Slowly the sky lightens, and the figures begin to take shape. Then hen those figures begin to move. A shiver of excitement runs through my body as I see one puff and fan its tail. I know it’s a gobbler.

In my 20 years of travels around the world learning, teaching and engaging in the martial art of gunfighting, I see and hear many theories about shooting.  Some of these are valid and have been proven over and over in lethal encounters.  A great many teaching points and drills I see, however, are mere shadows of the real purpose of whatever skill was originally intended to be taught, or are based on the purely academic knowledge base of an instructor.

I was very fortunate to be invited to participate in Beretta’s 1^st Tactical Summit held at the elite Academi training facility in Moyock NC. Top gun industry writers from all over the country attended to get hands on training with the full line of Beretta tactical firearms. Just getting the chance to learn about these combat guns from the team from Beretta would have been amazing in itself, but in an effort to make this a fully experiential opportunity, Beretta brought in an exceptional team of top tactical instructors from all over the country to put us, and the equipment through the paces.  The result? An over the top, in depth, hands on full immersion into the nooks and crannies of these guns, the depths of real tactical training and the core of Beretta’s mission and values.

As a firearms instructor, I wonder about some of the things that are taught on the range; trigger reset is one of them. 

While going through Firearms Instructor school and the related armorer’s class, I was introduced to trigger reset. (It’s amazing how many years I had been shooting without knowing this bit of information). For those who are not familiar, trigger reset refers to releasing the trigger just enough after a shot has been fired for the sear to re-engage with the hammer or striker. At this point, the shooter can press the trigger again for a follow-up shot. In the class, we were instructed to fire a shot and to hold the trigger all the way to the rear afterwards. We were then told to slowly release the trigger until such time as we heard the “click” and felt it in our trigger finger. When that happened, we knew that the sear had reset, and another shot could be fired by pulling the trigger to the rear again.