Deep down inside, everyone craves a fresh start. Remember Ebenezer Scrooge, St. Paul and Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life”? They all got the opportunity to re-start their lives with a clean slate. A chance to do all those things that you should have done, yet you never got around to them. The Beretta Xtrema fits into the same mold. It represents Beretta’s attempt to create the ultimate heavy load waterfowling gun from scratch, without being tied to previous Beretta designs. This gun started with a clean slate, and what resulted is the Italian gun company’s vision of duck gun perfection. So what is different about this gun? Did Beretta really achieve duck gun perfection? Most importantly, how did this idealized concept handle in the real word?

The Xtrema represents Beretta’s entry into the big boy world of the 3.5″ 12-gauge magnum shotgun shell. Use of the biggest possible 12-gauge loads subjects a gun to maximum pressures, extreme velocities, heavy payloads, and systematic abuse. Given all that, it is no surprise that the first thing that you will notice about Beretta’s new gun is that it is phenomenally overbuilt. Every thing about the construction of this gun screams “industrial strength!”

The receiver is solid milled steel. No stamped parts or aluminum here. In fact, the receiver is so massive that a 26″ Xtrema is the same length “pad to muzzle” as a 28″ barreled Browning Gold with the same chamber length. The bolt is solid milled stainless steel, and even the barrel tang is oversized. This gun is meant to be rugged, and it succeeds.

In keeping with the “fresh start” design concept of this gun, the operating system is radically different than anything else on the market today. Instead of the typical “straight line” bolt and carrier of most shotguns, this gun borrows the inertial bolt system from the Benelli line of autoloaders, which is also owned by Beretta. The Benelli system has earned high marks from duck hunters for reliability under horrid conditions. On the Xtrema, the bolt, carrier and guide rails are all one unit. Therefore, the gun is lightning fast to disassemble and clean, as well as very easy to reassemble.

However, Beretta did not stop with just borrowing the Benelli bolt. The inertial bolt concept is also given a gas operated assist via a self-cleaning gas system. The attempt is no doubt to merge the reliability of an inertial system with the soft recoil of a gas operated auto loader. I am not exactly sure what to call this operating system. However, it does seem to work. I have yet to have a stovepipe, jam or failure to feed malfunction with this gun. The gun is finicky about locking the bolt back with light one-ounce loads, but it handles the heavy stuff with no problems.

The new bolt set-up on this Beretta design also brings back one of the whispered secrets of the early 3.5″ guns. The early models of the Benelli Super Black Eagle were able to “float” a fourth shell under the bolt if you knew the trick. So, in addition to the two shells in the magazine and the single shell in the chamber, the gun held a “bonus” shell. This allowed a plugged gun to still shoot four shells. The Benelli was subsequently redesigned to eliminate this ability. I can tell you from personal experience that my Xtrema will float a fourth shell, and so will the other Xtremas that I have used to duplicate my “experiment.” Please note that I am not suggesting, encouraging, or condoning the “floating fourth shell.” Rather, I am making you aware that your friendly neighborhood game warden probably knows about this, and you should not try it in the field.

In further breaking from tradition with the Xtrema design, Beretta has removed the gun’s bolt return spring from the stock. The innovative new Xtrema design places the return spring in the fore end, along with a self-cleaning gas piston. This move illustrates again the Xtrema being built from the ground up as a duck and goose gun. The stock spring is one of the most troublesome parts of a gun for hunters that wade. A wading hunter who submerges the stock frequently gets water in the return spring housed in the stock. This causes rust, and if not given proper care, the spring can break from rust. Since this gun arrived on the market two seasons ago, the removal of the return spring from the stock has been widely applauded. It cleverly eliminates one of the most common problems with heavily used duck guns. This design change will no doubt influence other gun manufacturers to shake up the status quo in future designs.

The barrel configuration in this gun also marks a departure from Beretta tradition. The standard bore diameter for a 12-gauge shotgun is .729 of an inch. Beretta guns have always had tighter bores, usually in the area of .722″ or close to it. This is why “back boring” of Beretta shotguns has become all the rage on the clay target circuit. Beretta must have gotten tired of the aftermarket shops honing out their barrels, since this one comes over bored from the factory. The Xtrema was designed with a .735″ over bore, and my gun was right on the money as measured by a barrel reader. This gun also comes with a 5” factory lengthened forcing cone, and extra long choke tubes straight from the factory. Beretta calls these tubes “Optima-Chokes” so they will not be confused with the traditional “Mobil Chokes” used on other Beretta barrels. I have found the Optima-Chokes to give excellent results on the patterning board, although slightly looser than you would expect for a given choke constriction. These chokes pattern well enough across the board that I have not considered after market tubes for this gun.

The radical nature of this gun continues with a radical stock as well. At the time of this review, the Xtrema is only offered in synthetic stocked configurations. The gun comes with rubber “inserts” on the pistol grip and the side of the fore end. The rubber inserts enable a firm grip on the stock even with it sopping wet. Hunters either love or hate the inserts. I personally like them, and would like to see other manufactures pick up on this design.

The Xtrema also has a true pistol grip, which is more like that of a target gun. It is a very upright grip, and tends to cause the shooter’s wrist to cock upwards slightly. This configuration gives great control of the gun. However, it may take some getting used to for hunters who are not familiar with target gun stock geometry. The stock on this gun is very long for a hunting gun, with an almost 15″ length of pull. So many hunters complained about the length of pull that Beretta has this week made available a one inch shorter stock that accepts the same recoil pad. Unfortunately, this replacement stock will cost you another $97 and only comes in black synthetic. If you want it in a camouflage pattern to match the rest of your gun, you will have to send the replacement stock off and have it dipped. Hopefully, Beretta will offer the “short stock” as one of the standard configurations of this gun next year.

Beretta also has not tapped the stock with a stud for a swivel. They send you the post, but you will have to drill the hole yourself in your nice new gun stock. The magazine cap is not tapped for a swivel, either. However, Beretta does provide a slip on hanger to attach a sling to the fore end. The drill-it-yourself swivel post is an amazing oversight by the manufacturer for a $1,000 gun built as a duck-hunting tool.

The primary complaint that I had with this gun was the trigger. Like everything else about this gun, it is overbuilt, but with only one hammer brace. I own multiple other Beretta shotguns, and all of them have excellent, crisp triggers. A crisp trigger that breaks suddenly like a glass rod is a joy to shoot. A mushy, creepy trigger is like pulling on a wedge of wet spam.

The trigger on my Xtrema had so much creep it surprised everyone who shot it. In fact, there was so much travel before the trigger firmed up that many folks who picked it up to shoot it thought the trigger spring was broken. The trigger was also set at about nine pounds, which was very heavy. I could not believe Beretta let this get out of the factory with such a trigger. Then I discovered that others had had the same problem with triggers on their guns, so it appeared to by a design issue.

In order to get the trigger in line with my other guns, I contacted both Alan Timney and Rich Cole, two of the foremost trigger specialists in the United States. Both told me the same amazing thing: they won’t work on Xtrema triggers. Wow! I finally found Keith Anderson of Anderson Custom Shotguns, who was willing to work on the trigger. Anderson was up front, telling me, “I have done several of these, and I can’t get all that creep out.” However, he got pretty close, and set it to a reasonable four pound pull weight.

I was recently assured by a Beretta representative that the issues with the Xtrema’s trigger have been fixed. However, if I were in the market for this gun, I would check the trigger in the store like a flinty-eyed hawk for creep, over travel and pull weight before I purchased the gun. People have said to me, “I have never missed a duck because of a bad trigger.” I respond, “My friend, you only believe that because you have never shot a gun with a really good trigger!”

My criticisms of the trigger aside, this gun otherwise handled like a champion in the duck blind and in the gumbo mud of the goose field. Even in wet conditions and temperatures in the low teens the gun crunched ducks and cycled like clockwork. It has lively balance for an eight-pound gun, swings easily, and is not excessively hard on the shoulder. The rubber inserts give a very solid and confident feel to the gun. You certainly won’t look like every other guy in the camp if you show up with this gun.

I have put about 2,500 rounds through my gun, both heavy steel and target loads. So far, so good. I have no reason to believe that the Xtrema will not approach the same legendary reliability as the Beretta 390 and 391 have shown, since the design has been created from scratch to handle the ferocious recoil of 3.5″ shells.

If you are looking for a no-nonsense, mud-crawling weapon, the Xtrema is worth a look. This is especially true if you are a fan of the Benelli inertial bolt system, but want a softer shooting gun. If Beretta will fine tune the trigger, offer a shorter stock option and address the sling issue, this gun could be a real winner. It has a lot to offer the hardcore duck and goose hunter once these points are addressed.

The Xtrema is available from local gun shops in this area for $1,100. It comes in 26”, 28” or 30” barrel lengths; in a hard case with 4 Optima choke tubes, a choke tube wrench, and a bottle of Beretta oil. The gun is available in black synthetic, and camouflage patterns of Advantage Wetlands, Hardwoods, and Timber. For more information, contact Beretta at Beretta.