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The 694 Black DLC is the latest in a long line of Beretta target guns. Seventy years ago, Italy’s Galliano Rossini became the first of many shooters to win Olympic gold with a Beretta. The win established Beretta’s reputation as a maker of target shotguns. Galliano’s gun was a high-end SO model. Beretta still makes not only high-end target guns, but also guns for regular club shooters.
The 694 is the successor to the 682, which bridges the gap between weekend warriors and league shooters on the one hand, and serious competitors on the other. With removable trunnions and barrel shoulders, you can tighten the gun up if you ever manage to shoot it loose. It’s twice as much as some entry-level O/Us, but half the price of a high-end gun. The newest version of the 694 boasts a high-tech coating and improved barrel boring. I had the chance to test the 694 Black DLC this summer. Here’s how it performed.
Quick Overview
Beretta 694 Black DLC
Pros
- Corrosion-resistant receiver finish
- Durable and rebuildable
- Handsome wood
Cons
- Expensive (but a good value compared to high-end guns)
- Acid green highlights aren’t for everyone
- Barrel weights sold separately
Specs
- Gauge: 3-inch 12-gauge
- Barrels: 30- and 32-inch (tested), extended Optima HP chokes
- Action: Break-action
- Trigger: Single selective, 4-pound pull
- Metal Finish: Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) receiver and trigger, blued barrels, stock and forearm grade 2.5 walnut, pistol grip with RH palm-swell and adjustable comb, rounded forend
- LOP: 14.75 inches, extra, thicker pad included
- Weight: 8.75 pounds with 32-inch barrels (tested) and 4-ounce stock weights installed. Additional, optional barrel weights increase weight by 3 ounces
- Price: $6599
Built around the familiar low-profile Beretta O/U action, the 694 is beefed up to competition weight. It differs from the existing 694 with its DLC coating and Steelium Pro barrels. My sample gun weighed 8 ¾ pounds with four ounces of removable weights installed in the stock. The receiver is finished in Beretta’s “Diamond-Like Carbon” (DLC), a rust- and abrasion-resistant coating that greatly increases durability and longevity of the black finish. The highlights are bright acid green, which would not have been my first color choice.
The stock is grade 2.5 dark walnut finished in glossy oil that brings out the wood’s figure. It has a palm swell, an adjustable comb, and comes with two Microcore recoil pads of differing thickness so you can change the length of pull somewhat. The barrels have a vent rib and a mid-rib, and beneath the forend there are milled recesses to take optional barrel weights should you wish to add up to three ounces to the front end. The top rib has a tramline, a recess down the middle running the length of the rib from just ahead of the monoblock. The recess creates shadows, increasing visibility so there’s a line pointing at the target in your peripheral vision. Inside the barrel is bored to Beretta’s Steelium Pro dimensions. “Steelium” is not a metal, but Beretta’s term for internal barrel dimensions, which start at plain “Steelium” and progress through “Plus,” “Pro,” and “Pro2.” Steelium Pro barrels have a 17.5-inch forcing cone/overbored section to reduce recoil and improve patterns. The five Optima HP extended chokes included with the gun are black, to match its overall dark aesthetic.
Test Results
Because I like a fairly flat view down the rib, I lowered the B-Fast comb first, which gave me time to look over the B-Fast adjustable hardware. It was painless to set up the comb to my dimensions. From a solid rest, the gun printed just a hair below my point of aim, which I suspect had to do with me bearing down hard on the comb. I’d call it a flat-shooting gun. Both barrels shot to almost exactly the same place at 25 yards, indicating very good barrel regulation. Patterns with Federal’s Top Gun 1 1/8-ounce loads of 7 ½ shot at 1145 fps printed 72 percent patterns through the Improved Modified choke, which is good performance for an IM, if not earth-shaking.
Shooting low-gun skeet with the 694 Black DLC, I was impressed by how soft-shooting it seemed to be through a combination of weight, the Micropad, and the magical internal dimensions of the Steelium Pro barrels. I cannot say which among those three was the leading cause of lack of recoil, but I felt it with a variety of loads. I liked the gun. It was the first I had shot with a tramline, and I liked it enough I could imagine removing the bead as some shooters do, and shooting a plain, tram-lined rib. I could have shot it better when I tried 100 sporting targets, but that was more my fault. After handling the gun, which balances at the back of the hinge pin with the stock weights installed, I would either remove those or spend an extra $250 (yes, it’s a lot) for three ounces of barrel weights.
Final Thoughts
At $6,599, this is not a cheap gun… until you compare it to a Perazzi, a Kolar, Blaser, Krieghoff, or a Beretta DT-11. And yet, this is a gun that, in the right hands, has run with those big dogs. The 694’s predecessor, the 682, won Olympic medals, and the 694s have established a solid competition record since their introduction in 2019. The Beretta 694 Black DLC builds on that record. This is a fine gun if you shoot the occasional tournament or your club’s 5-stand league and have prioritized your life to include $6500 shotguns. The barrels, with their fancy Steelium Pro internals and cool tramline, deliver solid breaks, and the Beretta action has long since proved itself to be up for the rigors of any kind of shooting.
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