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Marc Newson Designs Follow-Up to Beretta's 486 Parallelo Shotgun

By Rain Noe - November 25, 2014

in Object Culture

When shotguns fire "shot"—a multitude of small pellets as opposed to a singular slug—the wielder gets "a good spread" with a single pull of the trigger. Depending on what your priorities are, this may or may not make it a good weapon for home defense; in the words of comedian Bill Burr, "I don't want to have to do a bunch of drywall work [after repelling an invader]."

But that "spread" is what a particular type of shotgun—originally called a "fowling piece"—was designed to produce, and specifically for hunting birds. Beretta's updated 486 shotgun, designed by Marc Newson, pays homage to this with artsy patterns on the laser-engraved receiver.

The engraving is a clear homage to Asia as the homeland of the pheasant. This unique design is made possible by the high-tech laser technology used in the manufacturing process. This ensures the best texture wrap over the entire surface of the receiver and also allows for a deep contrast and sharp resolution in all the details of the engraving.

The receiver is edgeless, following the current trend in "round body" shotgun designs enabled by precision machinery. But in terms of original flair, the sexy opening lever is pretty Newsonesque:

Rather than having the trigger guard clunkily screwed into the bottom of the receiver in an exposed way, the latter is milled out to seamlessly accept the former. You can just about make out the reveal in the photo below (which is a bottom view of how the pieces come together).

You can get a better look in this close-up:

The forend has been designed to taper down to almost nothing, which gives the gun a decidedly un-shotgun-like look (at least to this city boy; I'm used to seeing those chunky forends on the shotguns that riot cops carry).

Admittedly, some of the broad strokes of this gun's design aesthetic aren't solely Newson's work: The predecessor to his design was Beretta's 486 Parallelo (photos below), which also has engraving on the receiver, bears a similar profile with the forend, and features similar joinery where the trigger guard meets the receiver.

The 486 Parallelo retails for about US $6,000. Newson's design, unveiled in London earlier this month, didn't have a price attached at press time.

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Ken J

10 years ago

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Look at those seams!!! They even got the screw to line up!

This is a masterpiece of tolerances
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Scott W

10 years ago

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The stock and Forearm look pulled straight from the old 486 so, I wouldn't blame Newson for that, though maybe Beretta could be called to task on it.

The smooth contours, the 'edgeless' qualities of the design, are what make it for me. The laser-etched patterns are neat but also lacks a certain amount of 'warmth' that goes with hand chased engraving... so I see it at a strange place between carrying 'designer' appeal and being somewhat 'artificial' compared to a well made traditional piece that might carry a bit more cachet

Again, the fact that it was likely run through a 5-axis CNC program and 3D surfaced to very fine levels is what gives it a form worth looking at. It's hard to argue with those curves.
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Rob Wilkey

10 years ago

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It is an undeniably cool-looking shotgun, but straight grips like that disappeared a long time ago for a reason. It could have really benefited from a modern grip.
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bepster

10 years ago

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Not much for guns but this one is beautiful.
Really digging the balance between the classic and the new.
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Adam

10 years ago

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That 'forend' is pretty typical for a side by side shotgun (two barrels, two shots). The kind riot cops use are pump action (single barrel, multiple shots).

I really struggle to see anything newsonesque about this at all. It just looks like an ornate version of a very standard shotgun. Would be interested to know what his role was.
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