Safety issue with the Beretta 391 Optima

[CWPINST]

This post is not meant to be a slam on the 391. In fact, I think that the 391 is one of the best gas auto's out there. I own two and love em. One of them is used almost exclusively for the clays range. The other is for hunting......oh well, on with the story. Over Thanksgiving I took my field 391 duck hunting for the first time. After a short time standing around in the pond, I found that the safety was "off". I thought that I must have somehow forgot to put it back on after a shot. This bothered me because I am pretty anal rentative about keeping the safety on. Anyhow, to make a long story short, twice more that morning I found the safety to be in the "off" position. I knew something was not right, so when I got home I started experimenting with various carry positions. Sure enough I found that when I held or carried the gun resting on my shoulder, breech side down, the radius of my shoulder would depress the safety and move it to the "off" position easily. I had always noticed that the safety on the 391 is rather long, but it wasn't until that duck hunt, that I realized it was a problem.

I called Beretta the next working day. The guy that I spoke with said that he had never heard of that before and asked that I write a letter explaining the situation. I did, but have not heard back from them yet.

FWIW, I tried the same experiment with an 11-87 and did not have a problem. I could not make it go "off" safety.

For those of you who own a 391, have you ever had this happen to you? If you get a chance, try it (unloaded of course) and see if yours does it too. There was nothing wrong with the spring tension or any other thing that I could tell. It is simply a function of the safety's design.

[ziggy]

my brother's got a 391, i prefer benelli. but no he has never had this problem and i have never heard of this happening

[CWPINST]

Ziggy,
If you get a chance, try laying it accross your shoulder with the safety resting on the radius of your shoulder. Move it around a bit and see if it does the same thing. Mine will do it easily and and will do it every time.

[ziggy]

CW, i just called him and told him to lay it across his shoulder like you said and he said that there wasn't a problem. the safety had to much friction agaisnt it to go to the off position.

[CWPINST]

Mine does it when I apparently move the gun back and forth a little. If it just sits on the safety, it usually won't knock it off. I am not sure if all 391's have the same type safety though.

[ziggy]

on his the safety is in front of the trigger. i dont know about yours thought

[ziggy]

how old is your gun

[rp]

Just comparing a safety on varios guns, that is one reason I prefer my 870 over my Nova. I have grwon up and become older with the Remington safety placement and my finger just seems to go there. I suppose that this os one of those "fit" things.

[CWPINST]

The date code on one of them is "BS", the other one is "BT". I believe this translates to an 03 and an 04, but I could be off by a year. The older gun probably has less than 10 boxes throught it. The new one has about 5000 rounds through it. There are a lot of 391's at the range that I shoot at. I have held and shot a number of them. I did not see anything remarkably different than mine, but of course the safety issue was not on my "screen" until last week. You can bet that I will be looking at this from here on out. To be honest, I really don't want to hunt with either gun until this situation is rectified. Clays is another matter though, because the gun is never loaded until you are on station, and the safety is really never engaged anyway.

FWIW, Both of these guns have the safety that can be switched from right to left.

[ziggy]

it might be that the pin in there is worn out. a gunsmith can fix that if that's what it is. sorry i can't be of more help.

[CWPINST]

Nothing worn out that I can tell. It is a design issue. I shot some clays today. While I was at the range, I showed a few folks how your shoulder could knock off the safety. It opened some eyes.

[Ring King]

I tried it with my Extrema II today and couldn't get it to budge. Maybe it's an isolated problem? I sure hope so!

[CWPINST]

Judging from pictures, it looks like the Ex2 may have a different safety design. It looked a little shorter than the 391 Urika. If it is, it would stick out less and probably be less prone to getting accidently disengaged. I have held one of these before, but I don't remember looking specifically at the safety.

As you can probably tell, I am pretty darned concerned about this issue. Safety design analysis is part of what I do at work, so this issue hits pretty close to home. One of my 391's is a clays gun, so the safety design is really a non-issue, but the other one is a hunting gun. I will not hunt with a gun that might cause an AD. I do not plan on using it again until this issue is resolved or I sell the gun. It would be a shame because the field gun has really nice wood and looks brand new.

[DRDUCK]

Would you sell a gun that you deem unsafe? [img]graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Swamp Rat]

I haven't tried it with mine - will tomorrow.

I usually sling mine, so I haven't had the occassion to have it happen.

[CWPINST]

RK,
I looked at an Ex2 this evening. Its safety is a different and better (IMHO) design than the 391. It is shorter and looks to be less prone to disengagement. It was when I did the "shoulder" test anyway.

DrD. Yep I would have no reservations about selling it, but I would tell the person why. It is NO different than any other 391. Darn, I wish that Beretta would fix the design, because I really love the gun. If the safety was a little shorter and a LOT stiffer, it would probably work.

[burdhunter]

I just tried my Urika, because this post concerned me also. No problems with the safety.

[CWPINST]

Put the gun across the round part of your left shoulder (bolt side down) at about a 30-45 degree angle and move the trigger guard across your shoulder, front to back a few times. Mine will disengage nearly time.

The "flat" part of your shoulder (collar bone) will not normally disengage the safety but the round part (rotator cuff) can easily knock it off.

I wish that I could take a picture or a video of this to post. It has opened a few eyes at the clays range.

FWIW, I tried this on a new Tekneys in the gun shop the other day. It would disengage just like mine.