Those who go around looking at rifles on the skeet shooting platforms run serious risks of contracting special and hardly curable ailments. His friend Fabio knows something about it, who, while scratching in the magnificent shooting ranges around Rome, has caught an acute form of flatbread with the aggravating circumstance of Berettitis, a rare virulence disease that does not grant remission. Visited by well-known specialists in the sector, he had to adapt to treatments that do not lead to healing, and he would not want it, but they become chronic at the price of attitudes to be taken from time to time to live with the worm that has taken over his mind. Yes, because everything is summed up in a wave of semi-fixed thought and in carrying out periodic visits, at least ebdomadarie, to the aforementioned shooting ranges or to the home of some friend to whom to confide their ambasses, eventually ending up in the Beretta Gallery in Milan when the resurgence of the disease becomes stubborn and obsessive. It so happened that in one of these wanderings we were the ones to receive his thoughts and, swamped if not by doctors who we really are not, at least as shamans we put in his hands a SO 4 from the early 80s, during a race of our very small company. of hunters. We, the good last ones, like the shotgun indescribably even if we are very poor at the clay pigeon and, above all, the setting of the stock clashes with our size: frankly we don't care much because the dominant of the whole is the spirit of collecting so there is no mention of touching the butt of a blonde walnut like a Finnish girl. To say that to our friend Fabio the shotgun seems tailor-made is almost limiting and when we delivered it for a test already in the race, we noticed the lively eyes like those of a ferret becoming almost like bragia with a destructive vein snaking with the speed of a mamba. The clay pigeons leave and the shooter seems to be in a trance state: he settles the butt plate raises the rods, calls the pigeon and the destructive vein materializes in an orange smoke, and repeats itself, and again, and on in short it seems that a certain propensity to saving is now evident considering that the second rods, also deadly, are reduced to a minimum amount on a par with those two or three targets that go away unscathed, as well as those few warriors spared by the winners to tell home about the disasters suffered in defeat.
Beretta SO 4 Trap - The cure
A visit to some trusted gun shops is an obligatory step and Fanfarillo di Alatri (FR) of Beretta SO series knows more than something. The fact is that an SO 4 that is not too used and to which no changes have been made lends itself to satisfying the friend: the stock must be redone, but at Fanfarillo it is a tranquility so that some lines, while delightful to the eyes, take on a new and far more profitable road in use. Here it is certainly a very strong passion for the shotgun itself, but to be lived thoroughly by breaking targets in the best possible way. Let's then examine the stock by highlighting the walnut used, a log of remarkable beauty with a honeyed background color and captivating brown flames arranged in line with the major axis on which the recoil energy is discharged. The shapes may seem redundant and in fact the only part related to a classic stock are the two head edges in which the receiver and the two side panels are recessed: the remaining parts show a pistol with closed arch and bell section to keep the strong hand properly positioned, the one that must also act on the click. The hake is decidedly high, with a large section and highlighted by the two deep lateral scratches; the lines of the back and of the lower part present a limited divergence and the complex shows a substantial thickness because, in addition to providing support to the face, this part enters markedly in the static and dynamic balance of the speargun and a high weight compared to the norm plays his role. The lower barrel responds to similar concepts of volume and size by insisting on the roundness of the section, where the weak hand grasps the gun and directs the shot. Here the brown flames are more dense than in the stock and the arrangement varies from inclined to orthogonal, or almost, and that's fine so not having to counteract the recoil. The knurling you are used to is totally missing, but on the platform it is the shape that maintains its grip and this is determined a moment before calling the target. Finally it should be noted how the casing remains a focal point due to the objective difficulty linked to the locks on long plates: here too the work of a specialist who really knows the trade, indeed the art, is required.
Beretta SO 4 Trap - The rifle technique
Illustrating the Beretta SO 4 may seem pleonastic, but more than forty years have now passed from its first sensational successes and to the younger ones it can be useful to re-observe how this excellence of arms manufacturing was done, not manufactured. Briefly, we will say that in the deep U-shaped action frame and therefore of a particularly suitable shape to withstand efforts, the half-pins and trunnions seals are positioned in such a way as to eliminate most of the forces that, when fired, tend to open the rifle: the mumps obtained in the monobloc at the height of the center line of the lower barrel, they reset the lever arm on the shot of this barrel while the contrast shoulders obtained on the sides of the monobloc and in the upper edge of the receiver are aligned with the second barrel, fully contrasting the forward thrust . The two shelves protrude from the breech of the barrels, with their seat within the face of the action, on which the mobile plug inserted in the left breast and moved by the key is placed: the slightly inclined surfaces automatically recover any play.
The speed of percussion and its energy at the topical moment represent an imperative for all shooters and the leaf springs are a prize on the spiral ones with the contiguity of a fine and precise adjustment of the shots. At the time, the locks with double safety rods mounted on plates were the optimal solution including that non-negligible part represented by aesthetic refinement. Beretta applies its own peculiar patent to this shotgun and some models are equipped with the manual disassembly system: for those who want to avoid retiring from a competition due to the remote breakage of a spring, they can equip themselves with a second pair of locks that can be replaced in the field and without tools in less than a minute. Barrels have always been a source of pride for all Beretta shotguns and it is easy to imagine how the specific barrels can be for platform shotguns, at the top of the technology for the steel used, here the Böhler Antinit, for the drilling process and for the progress of the sections, the slopes of the connection cones and those of the bottlenecks. From what was heard by the insiders on the shooting ranges, it was possible to collect the concept, extremely synthesized, that the stupendous SO 4 is a shotgun capable of absolutely top performance, but with a temper to indulge punctually, under penalty of bitter disappointments, those highlighted by the treacherous bell of the race director. A certain ease is attributed to the over-and-under in making it too far in the crosspieces, let's say to exemplify the idea, and therefore the dominance by the shooter must always be punctual and millimeter: the DT 11 that has taken its place at the top has brought as an important variation the increase of the main section of the action by centralizing a greater mass between the hands of the shooter.
Beretta SO 4 Trap - To conclude
The technique takes its steps fomented and directed by scientific research and therefore the becoming is the specific fruit of this sector of knowledge whose aim is very clear: to win. Beauty is a separate chapter and, as Goethe stated, it is a purpose that contains no end: that of the SO 4 over-and-under, even after several decades, it remains superb, intact and unscratchable.
Data Sheet
Manufacturer: Pietro Beretta SPA Arms Factory - via Pietro Beretta, 18 - 25063 Gardone VT (BS) - Tel. 030 83411 - Fax 030 8341399 - www.beretta.com
Model: SO 4
Type: trap shotgun with two smooth overlapping barrels
CALIBRO: 12/70
operation: swinging barrels
Weighing machine: in alloy steel machined on the tool
Locks: double temple on long plates with V springs
Cane: 75 cm long with drilling at 18,4 mm - steel Böhler Antinit - junction with breech monobloc
Chokes: fixed 2 ** and 1 *
Triggering device: direct with inertial single trigger
Extractors / ejectors: automatic with mechanics inserted in the shaft
Line of sight: shaded ventilated 10 mm flat rib - intermediate front sight in brass and apex sight in translucent red synthetic material
Safety: button on the upper side of the receiver
Stocking: in two pieces - high class walnut woods with oil finish - pistol grip and shaped shaft - orange rubber buttplate
Finishes: polished finish of the receiver with refined and contained engravings - burnished barrels
Weight :: Approx. 3.600 g
Good evening, my name is Fabio, I don't know if it's the right place, but I have a so4 Trap to sell. If anyone is interested could contact me.