BERETTA 686 From Ejector to Extractor….EASY!

I recently purchased a Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon Sporting…..Have lusted after one for years and finally fulfilled a bucket list item!

Everything about the shotgun is great….Except the EJECTION …..The spings Beretta used will launch a shell upon opening the action into the next county! And if you actually use your hand to capture the shells, after a while it HURTS!

I tried everything that I read on the internet about shortening the factory springs and changing springs to a weaker version. In both cases if I had a slightly oversized shell the underpowered springs simply wouldn’t move the shell out of the chamber.

A bit more research brought me to COLE GUNSMITHING in Harpswell Maine. https://colegun.com/

I was told they will modify your Beretta to extract only if you send them the forend. Seems they modify the “Front Iron Levers” that are in the forend and control ejection.

Well, being a DO IT YOURSELFER gunsmith, I didn’t want to send them my forend so I called them and asked if I could just purchase two modified
Front Iron Levers and I’d install them myself.

“Not a problem” I was told by a very helpful Cole employee.

As of this writing, the irons cost $15.20 each and $40.00 for the Cole gunsmith to modify them. Total of $80.40 and in two days I had them!

Now the fun begins. How hard could it be to remove two small screws and swap out a couple pieces of steel…..Stay Tuned!

First, here is what the modified irons look like compared to the original irons.

As you can see, the end is now rounded off and will no longer stop the extractors from moving until the shotgun is totally open. Really pretty simple modification.

Here is a picture showing the amount and where material will be removed

To replace the irons, first you need to remove the forend metal by taking out two small screws

With the forend metal removed you will see where the “irons” live

Now for some fun….

In the forend metal there are two incredibly tiny screws that hold the pivot pins that the irons move on. Hard to see in this photo but they are there

No matter what I did, I could not remove these screws. I tried heat, I tried overnight Kroil oil, I reground a screw driver to fit the tiny slot better. No Way, No How was these screws turning!

PLAN B….

Since I plan on keeping this gun for the rest of my life and I never want to return to Ejectors, I decided on another plan of attack that will cost me nothing and I don’t need to ship my forend anywhere.

I realized I could use the irons I bought as a template and simply grind the existing irons in place.

If for some unknown reason I ever wanted to go back to Ejectors, I’d have to send the forend metal to Coles for them to get those darn blasted screws out!

I locked the new and the old iron together in a vise

And using a Dremel Tool with a 1/4″ grinding wheel

I reshaped the existing Iron to match the one sent by Cole.

Took all of ten minutes to reshape both irons. Actually there is very little metal to remove

Reassemble the forend, test and works perfectly! Couldn’t be more pleased!

In hind sight, you could easily accomplish this without having modified irons in hand as a template. I doesn’t appear the metal removed or the final shape is critical. Simply getting the “iron” to not contact the extractor is all that is needed.

But if someone wants to borrow these modified irons I now have so you can perform the same on your Beretta, send me an email and we’ll work out a loan arrangement.

rvb100@comcast.net

Thanks!…Hope this was helpful