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HomeItaly

Italy

Bolt Action Rifles

The Italian Workhorse: Carcano M91 Rifle

May 5, 2020 Ian McCollum 55

Today we start a series looking at the evolution of the Carcano series of rifles. Starting with the M91 rifle adopted in 1892, the Carcano would be the workhorse of the Italian military through two […]

Manual Repeater

Pietro Venditti Copies the Volcanic Repeating Pistol

March 25, 2020 Ian McCollum 6

This is lot #11 in the upcoming April 2020 RIA Premier Auction. The Venditti pistols are copies of the Volcanic made in southern Italy in the mid to late 1870s – well after the rocket […]

Semiauto pistol

Military Trials Beretta 34 – Can You Make it More Walther?

March 9, 2020 Ian McCollum 20

When the Italian military was looking for a new sidearm in the early 1930s, they really liked the pistol submitted by Beretta – but they also really liked the Walther PP. During the development process, […]

Select-fire Rifles

Beretta 57: Italy Makes a .30 Carbine SMG for Morocco

January 29, 2020 Ian McCollum 29

The Model 57 is a select-fire carbine made by Beretta around the .30 Carbine cartridge. It uses a newly designed magazine much more durable that the American M1/M2 Carbine magazines, and has a tilting bolt […]

Submachine Guns

Italian Sci-Fi Blaster: The Franchi LF-57

December 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 28

Introduced in 1957, Franchi’s LF-57 submachine gun has a very distinctive sci-fi look to it, but was never able to become a major player in the Cold War arms market. It is in all ways […]

Slow motion

SMG Comparison: Bernardelli VB vs Beretta Model 4

October 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 3

These are Lots 1069 (Bernardelli) and 2034 (Beretta) in the upcoming October 2019 Morphys Extraordinary auction. Yesterday we looked at the short-lived Bernardelli VB submachine gun made a few years after World War 2, and […]

Submachine Guns

Bernardelli VB: Not Actually a Beretta 38 Copy

October 11, 2019 Ian McCollum 24

This is Lot 1069 in the upcoming October 2019 Morphys Extraordinary auction. The Bernardelli company, known mostly for sporting arms, made an effort to break into the law enforcement/military/security market in the year after World […]

Light MGs

WW1 Villar Perosa SMG at the Range

September 28, 2019 Ian McCollum 51

This is lot 1042 in the Morphy Extraordinary Auction on October 22, 2019. Courtesy of the Morphy Auction Company, I am out at the range today with a very rare Italian Villar Perosa machine gun from […]

Shotgun

SPAS-15: Franchi’s Improvement on the SPAS-12

August 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 46

Lot 776  in the September 2019 RIA auction. The SPAS-15 was Franchi’s successor to the SPAS-12, improved with detachable box magazines (6 round capacity) and a construction of simple sheet metal samplings and polymer. Like […]

Semiauto pistol

Armaguerra Last-Ditch M35 Pistol

June 17, 2019 Ian McCollum 24

When Italy signed an armistice with the Allied powers in 1944, the German military took over control of several Italian arms factories still in their geographic control. These included Beretta and Armaguerra, in Cremona. The […]

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