Beretta 1301 Tactical

[Dave J]

Hi

Just received my 1301 yesterday. I read the manual and I understand that I need to chamber a round before I can load the tube.
I wish to store my shotgun "safely, ie nothing in the chamber, uncocked" but with shells preloaded in the tube. Then when needed
I wish to start firing without manually putting one in the chamber first.

Can I achieve this and what would be the procedure?

Regards
Alwyn Kruger

I’m not quite sure what you mean by, “start firing without manually putting one in the chamber first,” but I’d recommend the following procedure for the 1301:

With the bolt closed on an empty chamber, load the magazine tube to capacity. Then, push the carrier catch plunger (the little silver tab in front of the trigger housing) rearward. This will move one round from the mag tube to the lifter. From that condition, if you wanted to place the gun into action, all you would need to do is to pull the charging handle to chamber that shell “floating” on the lifter.

I prefer to have the trigger safety on “safe” throughout all of the above.

I’d also suggest you use dummy cartridges to get comfortable and familiar with the action,vs. going straight to live ammo.

[GJM]

New 1301 Comp model:

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...n-pro-shotgun/

[HCM]

Rather than wade through 321 pages, for those running RDS what distances are you zeroing the RDS ? 25 yards ? 50 yards ?

[jwperry]

Rather than wade through 321 pages, for those running RDS what distances are you zeroing the RDS ? 25 yards ? 50 yards ?

I did mine at 25 yards.

9 pellet 00 Buck Federal flitecontrol

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[GJM]

Rather than wade through 321 pages, for those running RDS what distances are you zeroing the RDS ? 25 yards ? 50 yards ?

I zero my shotguns and PCC carbines at 25, which puts them slightly high at 50, and on again around 75 (assuming some dot/barrel offset).

[HCM]

I zero my shotguns and PCC carbines at 25, which puts them slightly high at 50, and on again around 75 (assuming some dot/barrel offset).

Thanks

[TCinVA]

Hi

Just received my 1301 yesterday. I read the manual and I understand that I need to chamber a round before I can load the tube.

That's not true. You can load the magazine to full capacity without putting a shell in the chamber.

I wish to store my shotgun "safely, ie nothing in the chamber, uncocked" but with shells preloaded in the tube. Then when needed
I wish to start firing without manually putting one in the chamber first.

Can I achieve this and what would be the procedure?

Regards
Alwyn Kruger

You don't want to store the gun with the hammer down on a semi-auto as that complicates the process of loading the gun. You use hammer down with a pump gun because that leaves the action unlocked so you can just run the pump and get the gun into action. Dropping the hammer on an empty chamber with a semi-auto does precisely the opposite: It locks the action.

Let me walk you through how I set up my 1301 for home defense:

1. Ensure the weapon is unloaded by physically and visually inspecting the chamber and magazine.

2. One at a time, load six shells of your preferred buckshot into the magazine of the shotgun.

3. Once all six shells have been loaded into the magazine, press the shell release button at the base of the lifter to drop a shell on the lifter.

By using this process you have set the shotgun up with an empty chamber, but all you need to do to charge the weapon is run the bolt and it is ready to shoot.

[TCinVA]

Rather than wade through 321 pages, for those running RDS what distances are you zeroing the RDS ? 25 yards ? 50 yards ?

Zero it for your primary application.

I zero mine for my buckshot at 25 yards. I use slugs that give me the same POI as my buckshot loads (FFC buckshot and Federal's Tru-Ball slugs hit to the same point of impact in my guns) so I don't have to worry about it.

If you find yourself facing a need to use slugs at greater distances, by all means set your optic up for that.

I'm a big fan of having the gun set up for the most likely use case you are facing and then using practice and training to help you with those things that fall outside your expected envelope of using the gun.

[SpyderMan2k4]

Rather than wade through 321 pages, for those running RDS what distances are you zeroing the RDS ? 25 yards ? 50 yards ?

I've done 25 yards with federal truball. It basically ends up giving the same point of impact with 8 pellet flight control. Since I really only is slugs in classes, having good, consistent aiming with buckshot is good.

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[GearFondler]

New guy here, but mostly thanks to this thread I am a new owner of a 1301T Gen 2.
Picked it up yesterday and tried it out a bit today. Ran almost 100 rounds of assorted bird, 00, and some 1oz slugs... zero malfunctions right out of the case. I did check for lube but everything looked wet so I just ran it... I am pleased with the results, to say the least.

I do have a couple of small gripes, though... My 1301 came with that fully threaded extended breacher-adapter choke which just looks hideous and I have no use for. I'll call BUSA on Monday and see if they can take care of that for me.
And the front sight is slightly crooked. Not a huge deal but I'll need to locate a tiny wrench to fix it... from previous posts it looks to be a 7/32" nut.

I definitely want an RDS on this bad boy... the irons are fine but it's hard not to want a dot when your other firearms sport them. And it's the best night sight option going. I think the CROM with the RMR base is what I'll get but I may try the Holosun HS507C on it instead... I'm hearing good things about it and a circle dot reticle makes a lot of sense to me on a shotgun.

I also definitely want an SGA stock but the Aridus Adapter is currently out of stock... I've no idea how long that wait might be.

And of course I jumped in just in time for the Nordic +2 extensions to all be out of stock with no more expected. Sigh. I wonder what BUSA is going to do in the future for the 1301LE model? I know Briley makes a +2 for the 1301 but I don't see anyone using it and I suspect it sticks out past the barrel quite a bit which explains its lack of popularity.

Thank you to everyone here for their contributions to this thread over the years... It's a metric shit-ton of posts to wade through but there are nuggets of gold all the way through.