Seeing the 'Beretta Shooters' thread I decided to do some independant testing on my own a few days ago. The A400 is new to me - so I wanted to see how it performed.

I'll link it on ^^ that thread.

Heres the conditions:

At a local range - "The Bunker" 20ft walls either side - 1 mph wind at the most.

All shots were done from a table with the gun resting on sandbags to ensure the gun was locked in the same place for each shot.

I noticed it shot a bit high from the bead - but the results were pretty good.

Steel Shot 3" Kents, Experts, and Federal Bluebox

the results:

A400 with factory IC at 25yds:
3" #4 Kent 1-1/4oz = 74% pellets on a 4x4" board
3" #4 Win Expert 1-1/4oz = 69% ^^ - lots of clusters.
3'' #4 Federal Blue 1-1/4oz = 74% ^^

A400 with Factory MOD at 40yds:
3" #4 Kent 1-1/4oz = 77% pellets on a 4x4' board
3" #4 Win Expert 1-1/4oz = 71% ^^
3'' #4 Federal Blue 1-1/4oz = 80% ^^ - pretty happy with this one.

A400 with Kicks HF MOD at 40yds: - a MUCH more uniformed pattern for all shots.
3" #4 Kent 1-1/4oz = 80% pellets on a 4x4' board
3" #4 Win Expert 1-1/4oz = 71% ^^
3'' #4 Federal Blue 1-1/4oz = 83% ^^ - this was a nice uniform pattern - looked great on the paper.

A400 with Kicks HF FULL at 40yds:
3" #4 Kent 1-1/4oz = 85% pellets on a 4x4' board - great pattern
3" #4 Win Expert 1-1/4oz = 76% ^^
3'' #4 Federal Blue 1-1/4oz = 89% ^^ - great pattern - not as uniformed as with MOD - few clusters



That was a fun day at the range - this^^ took me almost 6 hours.

Counting holes and comparing it to the shells holdings.

I'd be interested if someone else had done something similair - post up if you did.

Well, so from the Kicks chokes at 40 yards, do you like the MOD or the FULL?

Personally - I like the MOD.

The full was pretty good but the MOD just looked better all around.

Great work, a good pattern beats a tight pattern any day. Too full and steel shot bounces off each other throwing an irregular pattern.

Do I think the kicks is significantly better than factory?

Yes. - But I can only compare the MOD vs MOD Kicks.

The Factory IC worked fairly good itself.

The patterns the Kicks MOD threw were quite uniform - little to no clusters - which is what you want =)

@ 3CK

I think i'll be using Federal Blue box from now on. They seem to pattern quite well.

I'm going to test Challengers by end month.

I wonder if this would be comparable on shells like black clouds, hevi-metal, etc?

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so what im gaining from all of this... Kent is the best shell for the money?

I always shot well with the cheap federals, but they were so damn dirty. I'm on Kent's this year.

I have to say,,,,The kicks is something you can feel confident buying and it works as intended.

I had pretty close to the same results on my SX3 with kicks full. I will be switching to modified though, as i never usually shoot full choke. I may do a comparison from kicks full to modified.

Quick question, so that is pattern percentages from a 4x4' sheet of paper not what's inside a 30" circle on the paper?

Blackcloud 3.5 #4s cover a entire 40" circle at 40 yards


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So did Challenger #2 and #4 today.

When I count them I'll let you guys know the results. They look pretty good!

KCCO

So to bump this with my end season Canada results:

I killed 96 ducks this season. A personal best. My boat saw a total of 177.

The A400 is by far my favorite shotgun I have ever used.

The Kicks HF MOD with kent and Speed shock were outstanding but my lean mean diver killer loads were the Kicks high flyer FULL with 3" 1-3/8oz Challengers.

13 species of ducks for me

And thus concludes my Canada season.

See you guys in Florida next week =)

#2's challengers^

Maybe good place to post but my A400 is starting to have problems. Shot about 2 cases throw it now. It will fire eject load and fail to fire again sometime on the 2nd shell. I tore whole gun down and clean it spotless and did it again yesterday. Anyone had this problem and came up with a cure?

If it's failling to fully chamber the 2nd round then its hanging up on the ejector. Its got a rough cast finish and catches the rim of shell. Remove and polish it. They also have an updated follower for them. Usually only happens with 3 1/2" shells

0 problems with mine