We have been able to find very little information on the Vitali 1910 automatic pistol, but we did have the opportunity to take a look at one recently. It is very clearly marked Vitali 1910 Terni, but bears no other markings whatsoever. The gun is much more typical of its era than the Hino-Komuro, with a C96 Mauser-type recoil operated mechanism. The slide and barrel recoil together for a short distance before the slide unlocks and continues backwards from inertia to eject the empty case and load a new cartridge. The design uses a large external hammer, which is hidden between the sides of the slide, probably to prevent it from snagging on holsters or clothing.
The Vitali 1910 is chambered for 9mm Glisenti, and feeds from a blind internal magazine that is reloaded using stripper clips. There is a large manual slide holdopen to allow the shooter to prevent the slide from attempting to close while the gun is being reloaded, which is a nice feature. Disassembly is also very simple, as loosening a single captive screw allows the upper and lower assemblies to separate and gives easy access to the pistol’s internal parts. We should note that this particular example of the Vitali is missing its firing pin, which is evident is several of our photos.
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I saw a picture of this gun a couple of years ago in an old magazine and I’ve been trying to find out about this gun ever since. What is the magazine capacity on that gun? Thanks, Hardrada55
http://luger.gunboards.com/showthread.php?3882-Vitali-1910-experimental-service-pistol&highlight=vitali
Any information on magazine capacity?
Very interesting pistol and seems like having a double action triger. Its
outside hammer should permit to manualy decock the gun for safe carry. It ıs
a pistol of 1910,thus having very vauable innovation for such kind of trigger
work at that era and being even before amountly produced “Tomiska” which known
as first at double action pistols field.
Ian Another great find. Did I see 2 captive recoil springs one on each side of the hammer? Kind of a forerunner of the AR 180 or Nanbu system. Also I would love to congratulate you or whoever has the desk in back of you it is the first desk that is a bigger mess than my desk. Bob
Had one years ago, it had 6 cartridges in the magazin and one in the chamber
I sure enjoy reading this article about the Vitali 1910.