The world’s oldest firearm company, Beretta is well-known for both its handguns and shotguns. Not content to rest on its history and heritage, the company is still innovating in the firearms field five centuries on. The latest proof is its new-for-2025 AX800 Suprema, which the company touts as "the future of hunting shotguns."
Since the 1960s, Beretta’s famous over-under shotguns have been complemented by a line of semi-automatics, including the current A400 and 1301 series. The AX800 is a clean-slate design tailored specifically to waterfowl hunting.
The AX800 is designed around a rotating bolt and Beretta’s new B-Link Pro gas system, which the company claims runs “36 percent faster and 46 percent cleaner than prior Beretta gas systems” and results in a softer shooting, more reliable and lower maintenance gun. A redesigned trigger group uses a flat-faced trigger that is optimized for a crisp 20 percent reduced pull weight and a short reset.
Drawing from Beretta's competition models, the AX800 uses a Steelium Pro “tri-alloy” cold hammer-forged barrel with a 17.7-inch forcing cone for more consistent patterns and downrange energy, a 7x7 step rib and the Optima HP choke system. The barrel rib also has the provision for attaching an optics mount that cantilevers over the receiver.
To save weight and lower maintenance, the AX800 receiver is made of polymer, a feature proven with Beretta subsidiary Benelli’s Nova line of pump shotguns, and is optics ready.
With weight whittled down to about 7.5 lbs. combined with a 3.5-inch, 12-ga. chamber, the shotgun incorporates the Kick-Off Pro Recoil Reduction system, that uses hydraulic buffers and claims to reduce recoil by 70 percent, along with a newly designed rubber recoil pad.
After a three-year process, the finished design was put through military-style mud, sand and ice testing and a 10,000 round endurance test.
Like all modern firearms designs, the AX800 is ergonomic and adjustable. The safety, bolt handle and release are oversized, as are the trigger guard and ejection port, for ease of use with gloves. Borrowed from the company’s tactical shotguns, the Pro-Lifter system is also incorporated to aid in loading.
Rubberized panels add grip to the polymer furniture, including the thinner and narrower fore-end. The buttstock has interchangeable pistol grips (with three size options), an interchangeable cheekpiece and an adjustable length-of-pull, cast and drop for a customizable fit.
Both buttstock and fore-end have quick-detachable sling swivel mounts in the conventional positions, as well as QD cups on both the right and left sides of the buttstock and fore-end. A quick-release B-Lok magazine cap aids in disassembly.
The AX800 Suprema is offered with seven finish options. These include all black or camouflage, in the patterns of Optifade Timber, Optifade Marsh, Mossy Oak Original Shadow Grass, Mossy Oak Original Bottomland, Mossy Oak Bottomland, and Realtree Max-7. Each is available with a 26-, 28-, or 30-inch barrel. The all-black finish models have an MSRP of $2,399, while those with a camouflage finish are $2,499. For more information, see the company’s website.
