Beretta 694 Problem

[TK421]

Ive owned 4 DT11’s in total. First a 2015 sporter, never let me down once.
then 3 others all brand new 2022 guns, DT11 10th Anniversary, rusted, top lever issues and finish issues. Returned 4 times to GMK, eventually Refunded. Next up DT11EELL, loose fore end and trigger set, plus stiff top lever. Returned after 3 visits back to GMK, replaced with another direct from factory. This one, once assembled you couldn’t open, locked in position, fore end loose again… returned, refunded and K80 purchased. Lost an entire year of shooting. My thoughts on this and having spoken to many others was pre covid beretta guns, brilliant. Post covid, many issues with WC from factor, leaving GMK to mop up the issues if picked up on by customer. Such a shame

 

[Luke_(NL)]

I can only agree that a demo-gun of any brand should be in pristine working order. Any idea what the cause may have been? May simple be a matter of lube or other maintenance, but certainly not okay to be sent round a course with any issues present.

As for the 694, I do think there was a redesign to the way the forend locks compared to previous iterations, but cracking would be a matter of the wood and fit around the barrels. After replacement, is the gun now holding its own? I'd still prefer one to a used Miroku, but at the end of the day it's personal preference and being lucky enough not to run into monday-morning-specs.

 

[ColinD]

You wouldn't expect that sort of problem with the DT's as they are put together in Beretta's custom shop as with all of their top end shotguns. The 694's are assembled in the other part of the factory.

 

[MartynB]

Just my humble opinion on 694s. Beretta guns in the mid range deteriorated after the 682 Gold ( not the Gold E ) the last gun in its price range that saw the competition department I do believe . There is a very interesting article in The Field this month , Mike Yardley reviewing a MK38 Gd3 sporter . He has been to both the Miroku and Beretta factories , and comments on how much hand finishing Miroku still do on their standard guns whereas Beretta is more a production engineering set up . Certainly Beretta subcontract major components like barrels on their ‘ cooking ‘ range of guns . We like to think a £3000 gun is a precision instrument but when you break it all down to costs there’s probably not £500 including overheads in the action and barrels .

 

[Paul120]

Just my humble opinion on 694s. Beretta guns in the mid range deteriorated after the 682 Gold ( not the Gold E ) the last gun in its price range that saw the competition department I do believe . There is a very interesting article in The Field this month , Mike Yardley reviewing a MK38 Gd3 sporter . He has been to both the Miroku and Beretta factories , and comments on how much hand finishing Miroku still do on their standard guns whereas Beretta is more a production engineering set up . Certainly Beretta subcontract major components like barrels on their ‘ cooking ‘ range of guns . We like to think a £3000 gun is a precision instrument but when you break it all down to costs there’s probably not £500 including overheads in the action and barrels .

Watch from 8:45

 

[Westward]

Just my humble opinion on 694s. Beretta guns in the mid range deteriorated after the 682 Gold ( not the Gold E ) the last gun in its price range that saw the competition department I do believe . There is a very interesting article in The Field this month , Mike Yardley reviewing a MK38 Gd3 sporter . He has been to both the Miroku and Beretta factories , and comments on how much hand finishing Miroku still do on their standard guns whereas Beretta is more a production engineering set up . Certainly Beretta subcontract major components like barrels on their ‘ cooking ‘ range of guns . We like to think a £3000 gun is a precision instrument but when you break it all down to costs there’s probably not £500 including overheads in the action and barrels .

I'm pretty sure that one of the cost cutting decisions around 2010 was to bring everything they could in house.

I'm not sure what you mean by cooking guns, maybe the semis, but AFAIK the O/U barrel sets have always been produced in house and for many years they've used their automated cold forging machines.

My experience with 2 new Berettas and one of 1991 vintage is that the quality problems were very apparent by 2011. Ask anyone who bought an early model 692 or in my case an SV10. Perhaps it was just coincidence that these issues came along right after they brought everything in house.

Beretta may still be a major player in the shotgun business but they lost a lot of market share over the 692 fiasco and if they continue to have unnecessary quality problems they won't be a major player for much longer. And it's not 2001 anymore when the 682 Gold E was unchallenged. Nowadays there are several very good alternatives around the 694 price level and none of them has a history of iffy quality.

 

[Paul120]

What alternatives around the 694 price point are you thinking of? I bet a pound to a pinch they have all had quality issues of some sort in their history.

 

[Westward]

What alternatives around the 694 price point are you thinking of? I bet a pound to a pinch they have all had quality issues of some sort in their history.

I'm sure you know as well as me what the alternatives are. 2 or 3 from Browning alone, plus Miroku, Blaser, CG etc but none that I can think of have had this type of issue to any extent over at least the last 10 years.

What irked me and put off Beretta for life is that they not only keep releasing guns with too higher rate of quality issues, but also they don't sort the problems quickly. For example the well documented ejector problems was known about as early as 2009 and was clearly a design fault, yet they released the 692 with a known fault and then tried to solve it with several different bodges for about 10 years before finally giving in and designing it properly. That, along with the upper tang screw breakages - also a design fault - which they tried to fix with Loctite, has cost them dearly in terms of customer loyalty.

The 694 and DT11 had to be at least as solid, well screwed together and reliable as the 682s and DT10s from 20 years ago. Does anyone think they're anywhere near achieving that?

 

[Steve1970]

After moving from a white onyx to a silver pig and finally a 694 over 35 years I can honestly say I've never had a problem and still have confidence in the brand.while admitting there has been problems surely any company that has been going almost 500 years must be doing something right. Could quality control be improved without raising prices ?

 

[JohnoT]

I had a Browning new version 525 and the ejector kicker pin came out after a few shots. Apparently it's quite a common thing. The top lever had a definite resistance to "crack" when opening the gun, happens on lots of them according to a gunsmith friend of mine and the top rib had a really sharp edge to it. My goodness Browning quality control has gone downhill lately..

 

[Luke_(NL)]

I'm sure you know as well as me what the alternatives are. 2 or 3 from Browning alone, plus Miroku, Blaser, CG etc but none that I can think of have had this type of issue to any extent over at least the last 10 years.

Apart from Browning, the 'numbers in the field' aren't really a comparison. More Beretta's in people's hands than any other brand so you will hear about a Beretta with an issue way sooner than say, a Blaser (as has been brought up previously). I'd love to see the actual numbers of RMA's of say GMK for each of the brands they carry (better yet, to see each manufacturers numbers worldwide) but I doubt anyone would be willing to share those.

As a personal aside, I can't even think of anyone who has owned a Blaser shotgun (or CG for that matter) for over ten years. I've only shot two Blaser OU's in my life, and while one worked perfectly fine after the owner had some work done to it, the other (an F3 I believe) double discharged repeatedly on its' first outing. Can I now infer something about Blaser as a whole, say 50% of their guns having quality issues?

 

[ColinD]

As with the majority of any products out there you only hear about them when they go wrong.
Then you get ' a friend of mine etc etc '