Written by Irwin Greenstein

The saying “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” is a long-standing belief in the automotive industry. It captures the view that winning a race, especially a prominent one, can boost sales and buff up the entire brand. In essence, taking the checkered flag becomes an adverting campaign that fuels demand by everyday drivers looking to capture some of the glory and performance. 

We see it all the time from Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac and Audi, among others. For them, race cars also serve as rolling laboratories. Features we take for granted including disk brakes, fuel injection, turbochargers, aerodynamics, active suspensions and paddle shifters started at grueling races such as the 24 hours of Le Mans, 24 hours of Sebring and Daytona 500 to eventually make their way into their bread-and-butter cars and trucks.

And if you think about it, the same can be true of the Beretta 688 Performance Sporting over/under with an MSRP of $3,599. It runs in the crowded field of $3,000 to $3,500 sporters. A sampling of competitors includes the Fausti Caledon L4, Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon, Browning Citori, Rizzini BR110, Caesar Guerini Summit Sporting and Fabarm LS4. 

Walk into your local gun store looking for a new clays over/under with a budget of around $3,500. Some of the shotguns on the shelves may be more appealing, fit better and make you feel like your scores will automatically jump from 60 to 90. But with all things being equal among your top choices, here’s one thing to bear in mind: Beretta stands alone by winning 71 Olympic medals as of the 2024 Paris Olympics. In Paris, Beretta’s DT11 and SL2 shooters won 14 medals out of the 15 available in clays competitions. 

Although the DT11, 694 and SL2 certainly cost more than $3,500, the research and development gleaned from competitions trickles down through Beretta’s entire family of clays guns – enhancing your own experience through greater reliability, recoil absorption, target acquisition, trigger technology, and balance and handling. 

Beretta will tell you that the 688 Performance Sporting was designed with beginner shooters in mind, although after analyzing the shotgun’s specs that marketing spin actually seems counterintuitive. Realistically, the Beretta 688 Performance Sporting is like a mid-priced baby DT11 for weekend warriors. It’s easy to see that some attributes of the Olympic-grade DT11 such as weight, balance, recoil management and technology are in the DNA of the 688 Performance Sporting (“Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday”).

At about 8.3 pounds, the 688 Performance Sporting falls between the approximate 7½ pounds of the classic Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon Sporting  and the DT11’s 8½ pounds. Beretta says that compared to the 686 the extra weight is there intentionally to help absorb recoil, but it’s certainly not heavy enough to pump up those biceps. In fact, the weight of the 688 Performance Sporting is more attuned to winner circle regulars from Beretta, Perazzi and Krieghoff, which can cost three times more than Beretta’s 688 Performance Sporting. 

The 688 Performance Sporting receiver is 1.65 inches wide – straddling the width of the Beretta 686 family of 1.52 inches or 1.69 inches for the DT11. It’s heavier and wider than the standard Beretta 686 series for improved control and ideal hinge-pin balancing. The steel receiver’s matte-black finish doesn’t detract the eye from the target and cuts glare over the coin finishing of the classic Silver Pigeon series. Beretta touts their new the top-lever design as easier to operate – reducing hand fatigue that can promote stamina in marathon shooting.

Like Beretta’s Olympic winners, the 688 Performance Sporting barrels are made from Steelium, which is Beretta’s patented alloy of nickel, chromium, and molybdenum. The Steelium rod stock is processed using techniques like deep drilling, cold hammer forging and vacuum distension to achieve “superior performance,” says Beretta. The shotgun’s Optima-Choke High Performance (OCHP) chokes are made especially for Steelium Barrels to deliver superior patterning for high-pressure, high-performance loads.  The barrels are three-inch chambered with a 18.6mm bore diameter while its top rib measures 10x8mm. Our shotgun had 32-inch barrels, although 30-inch barrels are available.

Open the blue plastic gun case and you’ll find a box containing three of the five extended color-coded chokes that come with the gun: cylinder, skeet, improved cylinder, modified and improved modified (along with a few tools and comb-adjustment washers).

You may also be surprised at Beretta’s choice of wood: laminated ebony-colored birch with streaks of gray and black. Heavier than standard Turkish walnut, it’s Beretta’s way of adding recoil-management weight while maintaining balance and improving durability. The company says that the laminated wood reduces handling marks, scratches, and general wear and tear over time (those beginner clays shooters can sure be tough in their new 688). The adjustable comb incorporates Beretta’s B-Fast technology for quick and accurate alterations, although I would prefer set screws over their washers for true granular fine tuning of height. The stock features ambidextrous palm swells and a length-of-pull of 14.75 inches. The wood-to-metal fitment and inletting was flawless – an indicator of overall quality.

The laminated birch is a full design departure from the classic 686 family, and in fact most other shotguns. Beretta has always been on the cutting edge of shotgun and accessory design. Mated to the 688 Performance Sporting black receiver emblazoned with minimalistic clays-orange branding, the laminated birch comes across as a piece of modern furniture that you’ll either love or hate (personally I liked it). 

The 688 Performance Sporting drew my admiration for Beretta’s industrial aesthetic that relies on the definitive Italian design philosophy of marrying classic elements with a cutting edge vision to achieve the integration of modern industrial art and functionality. You’ll see this school of thought tastefully adopted by other Italian shotgun makers such as Perazzi, Cosmi and Benelli. 

When it came to the adjustable trigger, though, Beretta opted for price point by using inertia over mechanical, but in fairness Beretta says the 688 Performance Sporting is mostly for new shooters probably not too worried about burning through 1,000 shells in a weekend. We found the trigger pull to be about 5.5 pounds, inching more towards the weight of a field gun. Regardless, the trigger on the 688 Performance Sporting felt really sweet with confidence-building zero creep and impeccable feel.

On the five-stand at Shotgun Life’s home course at the Ranges at Oakfield in Thomasville, Georgia, we loaded the 688 Performance Sporting with Fiocchi Target Max loads packing 1⅛ ounce of #8 pellets exiting the gun at 1165 fps. There was virtually no felt recoil.

The right-hand palm swell might feet a bit small to shooters with bigger hands, but it did enhance control as we discovered; the shotgun swung in a predictable manner. 

Beretta’s 688 Performance Sporting, at about 8.3 pounds, felt easier to shoot from the pre-mounted or off-the-shoulder positions. Shooting it from the low-gun stance, the shotgun seemed slower to start a swing by comparison. 

The double-beaded rib offered excellent sight pictures on long incoming targets and jumpy rabbits in particular. 

At the end of the day, Beretta’s 688 Performance Sporting exuded quality and performance in a crowded field of mid-priced sporters.

Irwin Greenstein is the publisher of Shotgun Life. You can reach him via the Shotgun Life Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/shotgunlife.

Useful resources:

The 688 Performance Sporting page on the Beretta web site

Irwin Greenstein

Irwin Greenstein is Publisher of Shotgun Life. Please send your comments to letters@shotgunlife.com.

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