Premier Guns VIP Experience

As Premier Guns are one of a handful of Beretta Premium Dealers, they are able to offer the complete range of bespoke fitted game and competition guns. The VIP Experience gives the buyer of a Beretta shotgun from Field Guns such as 687 EELL Classic, Jubilee and the SO Series and competition guns such as DT11 L, DT11 EELL and the SO5 a gun uniquely fitted by an expert team, the choice of wood for their stock, style of forend and the opportunity to explore the Beretta factory and the family’s private museum.

Even if you are a die-hard Browning user (which there are understandably many) Beretta is a company which demands respect and you have to appreciate what they have done to become one of the most popular shotgun brands in game shooting worldwide. 

The group selecting the wood for their stocks.

Beretta is often given the title of the oldest company in the world which is still running today and given that it was established in 1526 is probably pretty accurate. The tour around the factory was fascinating; we were shown around by Giuseppe, a retired Beretta employee who had worked for the company for 40 years, before deciding to become a volunteer guide and someone whose knowledge, passion and love for the company became clear very quickly. The operational side of the Beretta factory is hugely impressive: there are 800 employees, they produce 1,200 barrels a day and assemble 1,500 guns a day: it is truly colossal and almost needs seeing to be believed. 

World champion skeet shot Dave Beardsmore in the fitting process.

The fitting process is led by Dave Beardsmore; a multi world-champion clay shot, game shooting instructor and professional gun fitter who has an abundance of knowledge and is incredibly dedicated to each and every client. Dave and the Beretta team checked time and again with emmaculate precision that the gun that was being made for each individual was the correct fit: utilising the underground pattern plate on site and Dave’s trained and experienced eye for detail. 

It was a huge learning curve for me to understand the importance of gun fit: it is often a phrase that we hear thrown about on the gun bus but one you are unsure if people fully understand, yet like Premier Guns explained: ‘the only way to ensure absolute precision when it comes to gun fit is to start from scratch with a solid ‘blank’ of wood. This blank canvas enables the shooter to achieve all the crucially important variables. As a VIP Experience customer you can be assured of gun fit perfection in the following areas: Length of pull, drop at comb, drop at heel, cast, pitch, shape of grip, radius of grip and size of grip’.

A bespoke stock at the end of the fitting process.

Once the fitting process has finished (which can take a little time to perfect) the individuals choose the style of forend that they would like on the gun and any other upgrades which are completed in the factory when they have flown home.

The clients choose their forend style.

Staying in first class hospitality in lakeside accommodation in Brescia and enjoying fantastic food/wine with like-minded people (some of which bring their other-halves along with them) would be an enjoyable experience in itself but add to that wandering around the ultra-impressive Beretta factory and having the opportunity to investigate the Beretta family’s private museum made it a very special trip. They are certainly amazing memories from the trip that I will never forget, however the thing that stuck with me most was the question “if I were buying a Beretta 687 EELL shotgun, why would I not book myself on this experience”.

The Beretta family museum is quite extroadinary with an array of different kinds of firearms, steeped in history.

To me, being part of the building process of your gun, having it made to your bespoke measurements onsite and visiting the place of its creation are all rather special moments, that when you pluck a left and right of pheasants out of the sky on the premier drive of a driven day and somebody asks you what gun you use, you will have the most amazing story to tell as you take it out of its slip at elevenses to show them and with the gun being fitted to you, you will have a greater chance of accomplishing that in the first place. 

A happy team of clients with their custom fitted stocks, before they head off home on the plane and Beretta finish their guns in the factory.

Find out more about the Premier Guns VIP Experience here.