SG bead

A

andhen2003

New member
I was shooting trap this weekend (first time actually, lots of fun!) and the bead fell off of my Beretta AL 391 and disappeared. I've seen that replacement beads are sold by Midway etc., but I'm wondering if they are all standard sized threads. Or does Beretta have its own sized bead? I wish I'd known the darn things screw on - I would have been tightening it before heading out to shoot.

I didn't really notice any difference shooting without the bead though. I guess you're not supposed to be looking at the bead anyway, just the target!

EDIT -- nevermind. Beretta said they'd send me a new one at no cost. That's just darn good customer service on their part!
 
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OR.........................

focus on the target and not the bead and therefore do not worry about it for now. Try it and see how you do before buying another one just for grins and giggles. If your gun fits you properly and you know how to point your gun and focus on the target, you will be surprised how well you do without having a bead to distract you.

If you get chance to handle a British Best gun, you'll see they have swamped ribs and a small brass bead - the idea being that you should be looking at the bird and nothing else and your eyes and hands work in concert to bring the gun to the proper spot where you pull the trigger
 
While I certainly do understand wanting to "put the gun back to right.", BigD_in_FL is exactly right also. Before buying my first over / under, I rented a Beretta 686 at the gun range to shoot a round of sporting clays with. I believe I was on station 7, and doing quite well I might add, when I happened to notice that the front bead was missing from the shotgun. It didn't make one whit of difference, and because I had learned not to look at beads and glow worms and such, I didn't even notice that it wasn't there.
 
While I fully understand the bead or no bead argument, I am of the thought that if you are doing it right and not easily distracted, you don't notice the bead either way...

I use my bead for slug hunting and my savage SXS is cut back and only has the tiny white mid barrel bead but it works fine for slugs...

But what many seem to have missed is that the OP edited his thread days ago stating that Beretta is sending a new one at no charge so he will get his gun back to original if he wishes at no cost...

Good customer service like I get with Mossberg...

Brent
 
Yup, I didn't really notice a difference when shooting without the bead. If anything, it forced me to look at the target a bit more consistently. It was my first time shooting trap and I shot a 19 my last round, without the bead, which my brother said was pretty darn good!

Hey while we're at it though, I have noticed a number of shooters with the fiber optic shotgun sites. If you're really supposed to be looking at the target, I'm not sure I get how a more noticeable bead is supposed to help. Is there anyone who finds these helpful? I also met another left-eye-dominant shooter who had a fiber optic site for left-eye-dominant shooters! Does that really make a difference? I've just been squinting my left eye and it seems to work okay...
 
When I first started getting into serious sporting clays a few years ago, I tried everything. Those long ones with the tube so the weak side eye couldn't see it, the glow worms, etc. As I progressed, I realized that wasn't really where my focus should be. My thinking is that while your brain doesn't notice it, because your concentration is on the target, you still see it. The gun I use exclusively for sporting clays now, a Browning Cynergy came with a "green worm" front bead. I also have a Beretta AL390 with a plain bead that I shoot almost as well with. So, I don't think it makes much of a difference, but while I don't realize that I am seeing it, I know that I actually am. The problem is that most new shooters have shot rifles and they think that they need to focus on that front bead and what they really need to do is ignore it. I do have an issue with eye dominance, and like the late Dave McCracken, I have learned to call for the target with both eyes open and just before I trigger my shot I wink my left eye. It took some work, but now it just comes naturally.

I know that there are some teaching techniques that utilize a BB gun with the front sight removed. Learning to hit targets with no front sight reference would certainly teach you to ignore it.
 
Those glow worm light pipes are a bane for anyone using a shotgun for dynamic targets - if you are using it like a rifle on static targets, that is one thing - but if you're swinging on feathers or clays, your focus is now NOT on the moving target, which means your on-board computer and your hands are not working in sync..............
 
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+ BigDinFl on the glowworm. I would take mine off of my Citori, but because the fixture holding the light pipe doesn't come off of the barrel that easy, I have done that next thing to removing it. Replace the green light stick with the opaque white bead/stick. You can go a step further and darken its end with a black magic marker.
 
i use the so called glow worms on my shotguns and have shot many 25-25,s and 50-50,s. no 100-100,s yet, but have had many 95-97-100. but my misses are due largly to fatique at 70 i just get tired close to the end. with my shotguns shooting 70-30 when the clay and the glow worm seem to merge i let the shot go. there are many top shooter who shoot both ways, to each his own and what ever works for you,there is no wrong or right way. eastbank.
 
About 2 months ago I chopped my Westernfield/Mossberg M550AD to 19" to make a Project HD 12 Ga Shotgun for myself. I still haven;t replaced the front bead and am hitting pretty well without it.
I saved the 12 1/2" of chopped brrel along with the old bead for later replacement.
My Shotgun has a large flat atop the reciever, and it really aids aligning the sight picture alignment. I'll replace the bead one day as I want to shoot some slugs at long range with it.
At HD ranges sights don't matter a whole lot ass I aim center mass with "00' buckshot!
The natural pointability of the Pumpgun makes the mosing bead easy to work around! I don't want to glue one of those Fiber Optic sights up there , because I hate those bubblegum looking things! They look like they need to be on a plastic BB shooter!

Do you use your front/center beads much?
BPDave
 
no right or wrong way, just what you like. at my age and with eye trouble the small fiber pipes draw light and make it easier for me. last night under the lights(i don,t like shooting under the lights) i shot a 25-25 and a 23-25 and the fiber pipe sure showed up for me. eastbank.
 
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