I have been shooting a 687EELL 12 ga. Sporting at skeet and clays for about 15 years. It is a great gun and handles well for me.
The "engraving" on these guns is not hand engraved but rather impressed with roll dies. My Diamond Pigeon is a very early one and the scenes on the sideplates are hand engraved. The more recent ones that I have examined are impressed. All of these guns are signed Bottega C. Giovanelli. The Bottega Cesere Giovanelli in Gardone, V.T. is both a school for hand engravers and a design studio that does contract work for Beretta and other Italian makers. Beretta guns that are embellished are decorated with the most sophisticated die work that I have ever examined. In many cases, if I were not an engraver, I could not tell the difference between their die work and hand engraving (especially with the really small scroll) except that you can see several on a sale rack and they are identical.
I mention all of this, not to dissuade your purchase but so that you have a full understanding of the gun's decoration.
Regards,
Roger
