Does anybody know if its safe to use steel shot loads in the 28 gauge version with the more open choke choices like improved cylinder ? Thanks !
Beretta would know. Ask them!
Seriously, call them up and talk to them about it. And don't just take the word of whoever is answering the phones. They don't always know the right answers.
While steel shot is mandated for migratory waterfowl, the 28ga isn't the weapon of choice for dropping ducks and geese. Many places still allow the use of lead shot for upland birds and small game, where the 28 is quite useful, as a light gun.
The thing with choke tubes is that when it comes to steel shot, there is "safe" and then there is "a good idea", and the two aren't always the same.
Safe means the gun (and you) won't be damaged. Always a good thing
A good idea means something else, and it varies. If you are required to use steel for what, and where you are hunting, then you are. Otherwise, I don't think its a good idea. The guns today are made to stand the different stress that steel shot puts on them, and won't "fail" but there can be issues less than a split barrel.
One gunsmith I talked to, (ages ago) was griping about the pain in the butt job he was working on, getting the choke tubes OUT of a double gun.
If I remember right, it was a 12ga (Browning, I think) and the problem was, the owner couldn't get the choke tubes out to change them.
He had, apparently shot a lot of steel through the gun, and never removed the tubes, so while the tubes and barrels were not "damaged" the choke tubes had effectively been "hammer welded" into place. steel doesn't compress through a choke tube like lead does. While this is taken into account, its still a different degree and type of stress that lead shot doesn't create.
A few shots won't matter, a few boxes of steel shouldn't matter. A few dozen boxes of steel, might. Taking the tubes out and reinstalling them every so often might not be a bad idea. using some kind of anti-sieze compound on the threads might not be a bad idea. I can't say for certain, but it makes sense to me.
Beretta would know. Ask them.