The Beretta AL391 Teknys sports a nickel-finished receiver and Beretta's striking X-TRA Wood stock finish.

We were shooting at such rapid pace that heat migrating from the barrel, through the receiver and into the trigger, would force us to stop shooting. On several occasions we had to set the guns aside long enough for their triggers to cool down a bit. Then it was back to shooting until the triggers again became too hot to touch. In less than a couple of hours we put hundreds upon hundreds of rounds through those three guns without experiencing a single malfunction.

The AL391 has also proven that a shotgun with a modern look will sell like hotcakes to today's hunters and shooters. During its design stages, Beretta enlisted the creative input of Italian industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro who is known for his styling work on a number of successful automobiles such as the Lamborghini Miuara and the Volkswagen Golf. My wife Phyllis often accuses me of being a bit too far on the conservative side in my tastes, but I still like the looks of the AL391. Or maybe I shoot it so well I could care less about its racy styling.

Overbored barrels (called Optima-Bore) were introduced to the AL391 in 2001, and about a year later the Xtrema 3.5 version capable of handling the 31/2-inch 12-gauge shell joined the Beretta lineup.

New for 2005 Beretta has replaced the Xtrema 3.5 with the Xtrema2 3.5. I will detail the Xtrema2 3.5 in a future installment, but briefly it has a new redesigned grip and forend, an improved trigger, and a new optional kickoff recoil reduction system that features two hydraulic recoil dampeners incorporated into the stock "spacer" unit. You have a number of options to choose from in the Xtrema2 3.5.

During autumn of 2002 I used one of the first A391 Xtremas to come off the assembly line while hunting near Stuttgart, Arkansas. After a hunt for nonexistent ducks finally ended, Nick Sisley, several other writers, and I subjected seven of the guns to a high-volume test on the local five-stand course. The Xtrema was designed to handle just about any 2 3/4-, 3-, and 3 1/2-inch recipe, ranging from light target loads to shoulder-pounding waterfowl and turkey loads, and it most certainly lived up to its billing.

54 BOXES OF AMMO & NO MALFUNCTIONS

I long ago discovered that a properly maintained autoloading shotgun of good quality is quite reliable, but I had never found out first-hand just how many rounds could be fired in one without cleaning before it began to malfunction. Argentina is a good place to perform such an experiment simply because the millions of doves residing there are considered pests by farmers and the government. Crop damage is so extensive that the season is never closed, and even though the birds have been shot year-round for a couple of decades, their numbers never seem to dwindle. During my most recent adventure there we also shot ducks over decoys and hunted perdiz with pointing dogs. I used the same 20-gauge AL391 for everything, and the target-rich environment enabled me to find out in a very short time how long it would endure total neglect before letting me know it needed cleaning. I knew I was shooting a reliable shotgun once I reached 50 boxes of ammunition with not a single malfunction. But I also knew that the fun and games could not possibly go on forever, and I was right. At only three shells shy of 54 boxes (1347 rounds), bolt travel of the AL391 became a bit sluggish. The gun did not malfunction, but I knew it was about to, so I stopped shooting. Mountie Mizer of Beretta who was with me field-stripped the gun. We were shooting ammunition loaded in Argentina, and though its performance is quite good, it does seem to leave more propellant fouling behind than ammo loaded in the U.S. So it came as no surprise that the innards of the gun had become rather dirty. But a lack of lubrication and not crud is what slowed everything down. We didn't have a bottle of oil on hand, but Mountie found just a trace on the inside of the magazine cap. Using a finger, he transferred it to the operating rod. The amount of oil he found was hardly enough to dampen the end of the finger, but it was enough to get the AL391 shooting again. That night the gun received a well-deserved cleaning and lube job. Most gun owners would never allow their shotguns to go so long without cleaning--and neither would I except under special circumstances. I clean my shotguns after each shooting session, be it bird hunt or clay target shoot. The Beretta owner's manual breaks down AL391 maintenance program into three segments. First comes a basic cleaning procedure to be performed after each shooting session until about the 500-round mark is reached. Somewhere around 500 to 1000 rounds (depending on how clean or dirty your ammo is) a few more steps are added to the basic procedure. Then at 3000 to 5000 rounds a few more steps are added. After that you back up and start all over with the 500-round program. Step by step directions in the owner's manual make keeping the AL391 running smoothly easier than it might sound. One other note: During all that shooting in Argentina, I wore nothing up top except a light cotton shirt and not once did my shoulder turn purple or become the least bit sore. The 20-gauge AL391 is a very soft-shooting shotgun. I did wear leather gloves to protect my hands from the hot barrel and to prevent blisters on my fingers from pushing all those shells into the magazine.

We had a generous supply of Federal ammo on hand and after shooting up our remaining supply of heavy steel shot loads, we started to work on Gold Medal trap loads with 1 1/8 ounces of No. 7 1/2 shot. Within less than two hours, 3000 empty hulls were resting in the Arkansas mud.

I tried my best to make the gun I was shooting malfunction and even went so far as to put several rounds through it while holding it upside down, right side down, and left side down. It never missed a lick. Two of the other guns had one malfunction each, and those may have been due to shooter error rather than any fault of the guns. This is quite remarkable when you consider that we mostly shot light target loads in guns designed to handle extremely heavy hunting loads.