Shotguns have always been my hidden love in the firearms training world. Unfortunately, in the early 2000s, many law enforcement agencies eschewed the shotgun for the patrol rifle. There are several reasons for this that I won’t address in this article but suffice to say, a shotgun fills a completely different role than a patrol rifle. A well-trained officer equipped with a reliable shotgun and quality ammunition is a formidable team.
Departments are recognizing their mistake and are starting to shake the dust off their shotgun inventory. Beretta must be seeing this same trend because they have brought us an amazing semiautomatic shotgun whose reliability may rival those faithful old pump guns of yesteryear.
The Beretta 1301 semi-auto 12-gauge shotgun has been on the market for several years and is one of my favorite big-bore beasts. Renowned for being controllable, fast to shoot and utterly reliable, the Beretta 1301 is a popular choice for 3-gun shooters and other tactically oriented shotgunners. However, the retail cost of the Beretta 1301 is over $1,700, which is a bit steep for a department even with all the goodness it brings to the table. In comparison, the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol is a semi-auto 12-gauge with a suggested MSRP of $1,099, but real-world prices can be found for significantly less than $1,000. A much more affordable option indeed, but does it work?
A300 Ultima Patrol
The Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol fits our needs better than any shotgun to date. The A300 Ultima Patrol has a 19” chrome-lined barrel and a 3” chamber that accepts 2 ¾” and 3” shotgun shells. It has an excellent set of sights consisting of a large front sight post with a red fiber-optic insert that is matched to a ghost ring rear sight. These sights are quick to acquire with buckshot while being very accurate with slugs. In front of the ghost ring rear sight, Beretta has equipped the A300 Ultima Patrol with a short section of Picatinny rail to mount optics.
A full-length magazine tube holds a payload of seven 2 ¾” shells. It’s secured to the barrel with a lightweight polymer barrel clamp that includes QD mounting points for a sling and M-LOK slots for accessories. The forend has a tapered shape that is comfortable and secure in the shooter’s hands with additional M-LOK slots.
When you examine the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol, one of the first things you notice is how good it feels in your hands. The texture on the forend and around the grip is aggressively textured, but it’s not overly abrasive during high round count training sessions. Instead, it keeps the A300 Ultima Patrol anchored in your hands making for quick, accurate follow-up shots.
On the range
After giving it a once over, I didn’t even bother to lube it thinking a duty shotgun needs to be able to withstand the abuse of working the street. I figure most law enforcement officers are terrible about lubing and maintaining firearms, so I test potential duty guns under those same conditions. The way it came lubed and packaged from Beretta was the way it was tested and evaluated.
While loading the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol, I immediately noticed some factory improvements over other tactical shotguns. One of the enhancements I typically make to my shotguns is to machine out the area around the loading port to open it up. The A300 Ultima Patrol has a loading port that is nicely beveled across the entire width of the receiver allowing the shooter’s hand to get as close as possible to the magazine. I usually add an aftermarket extended lifter beveled so it doesn’t cut or pinch my fingers when loading under time duress. I was delighted to see the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol included these great upgrades making for great thumb clearance for loading and preventing the pinch caused by other shotguns. Each of these enhancements combined for reloads on par with the times I usually post with my modified 1301.
Initially, I did some patterning with the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol using the excellent Federal LE12700. In many ways, this load has become the industry standard for accuracy in a buckshot load. The 2 ¾” shell is loaded with nine 00 pellets using their proprietary FlightControl wad. The result is an incredibly tight pattern in most shotguns. The Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol was no different. At 10 yards, nine pellets grouped at less than 3 inches. At 20 yards, all nine pellets grouped at less than 6.5” keeping all shots inside the A-zone of a USPSA target. At 35 yards, all pellets stayed within the A- and C-zones of a USPSA target. Put another way, this is the equivalent of nine .33 caliber bullets hitting the target with one shot. For more perspective, a 9mm handgun round is .355 caliber. That’s a lot of power hitting all at once.
Next, I ran a variety of slugs through the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol and found it ate everything I fed it. All of these were accurate beyond 100 yards. Even some cheap slugs I found at a local store were accurate to 75 yards or so. This semiautomatic duty shotgun will reliably feed and accurately shoot anything you load. The Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol even ran reliably when I mixed a bunch of different shells together. Just to see what it did, I loaded a mix of #7 and #8 birdshot, buckshot, and slugs to see if anything could force this shotgun into a malfunction. Nothing fazed it at all. The A300 Ultima Patrol ran flawlessly without a single hiccup.
The single biggest problem most shooters have when running a shotgun is poor fit. Most tactical shotguns come with buttstocks that are too long for tactical applications. This is a carryover from bird hunting where the longer buttstocks help hunters smoothly track birds in flight. But a tactical shotgun with a long stock and a shooter wearing body armor adds another ½” or more of length to the shotgun. It’s no wonder so many officers hated training with shotguns. Officers were getting beat up by shotguns that didn’t fit correctly.
In contrast, the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol comes standard with shorter stock perfectly suited for the tactical environment it’s intended to occupy. With a 13” length of pull, most officers will find this buttstock much more comfortable and controllable than other shotgun stocks. No more having to modify youth stocks for tactical operations. In fact, the stock on the A300 Ultima Patrol is one of the primary reasons this shotgun is so controllable when running it fast.
Ready for duty
Speaking of fast, during this evaluation, I ran it hard and fast to see if it could stand up to the abuse of law enforcement duties. It never disappointed me. In fact, the first day on the range, I ran over 200 shells through it straight from the factory box. I heated the barrel up so much I needed to let it cool because I couldn’t handle it. At the end of this test and evaluation, I had put more than 600 shells through the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol without cleaning or adding oil, and it never skipped a beat. This shotgun will be added to my personal inventory.
Beretta may have the longest history of any firearm manufacturer in the world. Founded in 1526, that’s 497 years ago for the mathematically challenged, Beretta has been in continuous business making firearms and firearm accessories for military and law enforcement use. With the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol on their menu, it looks like Beretta is well-positioned to be producing high-quality firearms for another 500 years.
Visit Beretta at SHOT Show 2024 in booths 13227 and 13838.
