The Beretta 1301 took the tactical shotgun world by storm when it was first introduced in 2014. Granted, it built heavily off the earlier TX4 Storm which was pretty good in its own right. In 2018, Beretta introduced the Gen 2 model along with a few more upgrades over the following years. Lately, the only thing they could really find to improve on is upgrading the stock and forend, often from highly respected aftermarket companies. So, when you get this close to perfect, shouldn't you just leave it alone? Langdon Tactical Technology (LTT) thinks there are still some great improvements to be made on this semi-auto 12 gauge powerhouse, and whether you get a fully customized Langdon Tactical Beretta 1301 with an LTT trigger job, or choose to upgrade your gun with his a la carte parts, you will find there are still ways to make the 1301 even better.
Tactical Shotgun Briefing
Getting to test the LTT Beretta 1301 was lot more like fun than work for me. To be honest, I fell in love with the shotgun fairly late in life. I grew up shooting rifles and occasionally a pistol. It wasn’t until I became a firearms instructor for DEA that I started doing a lot of testing and researching to find out what did and didn’t work in the real world.
I set up 3D targets inside of an old car and spent an entire day shooting into the vehicle from different angles with 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, 5.56 Nato, and 12 gauge ammo. I learned all pistol calibers suck equally. Sometimes they penetrate a door, sometimes they don’t.
Rifle rounds are better, but they would often deflect on the structural pillars and steeply angled windshield. Wheels, the engine block and even a full gas tank (no, they don’t explode or catch fire when you shoot them like in the movies) stopped every round. Then I tested 12-gauge slugs, and the winner was clear. It punched through the pillars and even the wheel rims.
The front window penetration was far more consistent and devastating than the rifle or handguns. The 12 gauge ran circles around everything else.
So, I often carried the pump-action Remington 870 shotgun for vehicle assaults, but eventually, DEA was looking for a semi-auto that was reliable. We tested virtually every “tactical” semi-auto and they all proved unreliable with low recoil rounds.
Then, the Beretta TX4 with the B-LINK operating system came out and it was a game changer, but it didn’t have some necessary features you find on a “tactical” shotgun. The TX4 was amazingly reliable, but the sights sat up too high to get a proper cheek weld, there was no good way to mount a light, and the controls were tiny and hard to operate under stress.
Beretta fixed all those problems and re-released the TX4 as the 1301 and a star was born. They have continued to tweak the design through the years and today, there are several different models including pistol grip and adjustable stocks as well as different finishes. It certainly isn’t cheap, but in reliability, ease of use, and design, it blows away every other factory shotgun available today.
The Beretta 1301 Gets the Langdon Tactical Treatment
When Langdon Tactical Technology decided to offer a shotgun package, it was a no brainer. They started with the 1301. Nobody likes to customize and improve their guns like Americans, so LTT just had to find some ways to improve a gun that was pretty amazing right out of the box.
Stock Options
LTT got things started by offering the ability to use a variety of stocks with the 1301. They use a GG&G adapter to install the ultra-popular Magpul shotgun stock made for the 870 and Mossberg 500-series pump guns. I definitely prefer a straight stock over a pistol grip, but the Magpul stock blends the two with a hybrid grip angle that’s similar to a classic pistol-grip shotgun stock, but exaggerated. One thing’s for sure, shotgunners like it.
The Magpul stock fit can be customized to fit the user with spacers that adjust the length of pull and cheek risers to adjust the comb height to get you right on the irons or an optic with a solid cheek weld.
More recently, LTT has also begun offering the Chisel Machining aluminum chassis stocks in folding or fixed style. The company made a splash with its aftermarket aluminum stocks for lever-action rifles and has steadily filled out it’s shotgun-stock category since. These stocks are infinitely adjustable for LOP and comb height, as well as the height of the recoil pad.
The Chisel stock for the 1301 features a mounting plate for a red-dot optic built into it, uses an AR-15 style grip, can hold a side quiver with four or five spare shells, can be set up to fold (and shoot from the folded position), and can be set up for right or left-handed shooters. It is the stock with every bell and whistle and having gotten to shoot it, I was pretty impressed with the quality and design.
Forend Options
The original factory forend was comfortable, but lacked a good way to mount a light. Later, Beretta changed the stock forend to allow lights to be mounted at the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions. By then, there were several excellent after-market forends available that offered a host of M-LOK slots to mount lights, shell holders, and vertical foregrips, if that is your thing. LTT currently offers forends from Midwest Industries and the Magpul Zhukov modified by GG&G, as well as the Beretta Patrol forend.
To Heat Shield, Or Not To Heat Shield
Recently, they began offering these and the factory forend with the option of an LTT Heat Shield sitting on top of it. While I have blistered my hand from a hot shotgun barrel a couple of times, I never really saw the need for a heat shield until I saw Langdon Tactical’s version with the Labyrinth pattern.
The grooves hold the cord that runs from your light to the pressure switch, and the cord’s path can be configured a million different ways to keep it out of the way. They even offer a pressure pad mount that can be clipped into either side as far forward or to the rear as you like.
Trigger and Sight Improvements on the Langdon Tactical Beretta 1301
LTT also includes their trigger job on the Beretta semi-flat trigger, and their steel Super Duty Shotgun Sight that replaces the front sight with a lower profile sight and a notch for accurate slug shooting. The optional LTT Fastback Optic Mount allows for mounting a red dot as far back as possible to keep it out of the way of the ejection port in case you need to use it for a loading port, while providing a BUIS that co-witnesses with the red dot.
The Beretta Pro Lifter, which keeps the lifting gate up out of the way during loading, also comes standard. Other accoutrements, like side saddles and different red dot mounts, can all be added on when ordering the Langdon Tactical Beretta 1301 on the LTT website.
More Features
The Beretta Pro Lifter, which keeps the lifting gate up out of the way during loading, also comes standard, as does the factory barrel, which takes Beretta’s Optima choke system. Other accoutrements like side saddles and different red-dot mounts can all be added on when ordering the gun on their website. The Beretta seven-round, extended magazine tube, which stopped being available on 1301’s bought directly from Beretta last year, is also standard on the LTT gun, and it also comes with a hard case.
Testing the Langdon Tactical Beretta 1301 Shotgun
The gun I got for testing came in LTT Bronze, and was outfitted with the Magpul shotgun stock, a Beretta Patrol Forend with the LTT Heat SHield, and a Holosun Model HE509T reflex sight on an LTT Fastback mount.
I removed the buttpad spacer from the Magpul stock and probably would add a cheek spacer to bring my face up a little higher.
Range time is always the fun time. I used to think tactical shotguns should have fixed chokes (one less thing to have to adjust or lose), but I have slowly come around to liking the ability to switch them out depending on whether I am running slugs or buckshot.
I brought an Improved Modified choke to the range, but the LTT gun patterned so well, I didn’t bother using it. I own a stock 1301 Tactical that needs the IM choke to get a tight group with slugs.
For the accuracy test, I used a variety of 1-ounce 12-gauge slugs. The higher velocity rounds had noticeably more recoil. I enjoy shooting and moving, but in all honestly, sitting at the bench doing slow fire, making sure every shot is a surprise, is punishing. It is also slower to test, because I need a traditional chronograph; Doppler radar units get confused because the slug and the wad are travelling at different speeds.
I’ll admit, I cheat when I am running drills for tactical shotguns. I don’t just use buckshot and slugs. First, slugs and buckshot are expensive and I can’t get thousands of them. So, I run everything. Buckshot, birdshot, low recoil, 3-inchers, bismuth, goose loads, target loads, and anything else I have sitting around.
In cheaper semi-autos, the low recoils stuff is what always fails to cycle. Sometimes, they’ll also balk at 3-inch shells if they have a tiny ejection port. I have tested the 1301 in different iterations for years and it cycles everything, every time.
I didn’t keep track of how many boxes of shells I went through, but every time I made a mistake, I did the drill over and over again until I was smooth and stopped fumbling. There is something very satisfying about running a 12 gauge fast and smooth. Shooting the LTT 1301 was the nicest version of the gun I have ever handled.
| Load | Velocity Average | Grouping Average | Grouping Best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Truball 1-ounce Low Recoil Rifled Slug HP | 1231 | 2.54" | 1.93" |
| Federal 1-ounce Classic Rifled Hollow Point Slug | 1446 | 2.47" | 1.90" |
| Remington 1-ounce Slugger Rifled Slug | 1394 | 1.80" | 1.44" |
| Winchester 1-ounce Rifled Hollow Point Slug | 1398 | 2.27" | 2.09" |
Projectile weight measured in ounces, velocity in fps15 feet from the muzzle by an Oehler 35P chronograph, and accuracy measured in inches for three, five-shot groups at 25 yards.
Comparing the LTT 1301 to a Stock Beretta 1301
I decided to bring my personal 1301 which is stock (except for adding the Pro Lifter) out to the range for a side-by-side comparison.
I definitely prefer LTT’s lower profile sights and the red-dot mount that lets you move the red-dot farther to the rear instead of being positioned directly over the ejection port; it’s a no-brainer for me. The available folding stock from Chisel lets you get the red dot off the receiver entirely.
I know many will disagree, but I prefer the factory stock over the Magpul shotgun stock. Maybe it is just years of familiarity.
The trigger is definitely better on the LTT gun (it averaged 3 pounds 15 ounces vs. 4 pounds 10 ounces on my Lyman trigger gauge), but I prefer the traditional curved trigger to the Beretta semi-flat.
The LTT Beretta 1301 has better accuracy, no doubt, but that may just be luck of the draw; a choke change made my stock gun pattern almost as tight. I’ve said many times the Beretta 1301 is the best tactical shotgun made today. What Langdon Tactical does here is provide you with a bevy of options to make it even better.
Langdon Tactical Beretta 1301 Shotgun Specs
- Barrel Length: 18 inches
- Overall Length: 37.5 inches
- Chamber: 3 inches
- Choke: Cylinder and Improved Cylinder included
- Gauge: 12
- Receiver: Aluminum
- MSRP: $2,510
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