The Beretta Model 1951 is a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, developed during the late 1940s and early 1950s by Pietro Beretta S.p.A. of Italy.
History[]
The M1951 was the first pistol made by Beretta that has a locked breech system. All others had been blowback operated. The gun was made when Beretta was a competing for the contract of the Egyptian Army’s sidearm. Their competition was the Soviet made Tokarev. Despite Soviet pressure, Egypt chose the M1951 because of its resistance to many problems caused by the desert.
Design[]
The Beretta M1951 is a recoil-operated, breech loading pistol, 9x19mm is the round fired by the M1951, and has an 8 round removable magazine.
Variants[]
Modello 952
Commercial variant of the M1951 chambered in 7.65×21mm, this model was made in order to comply with laws regarding ownership of firearms chambered with military-grade rounds, two subvariants of the Modello 952 were produced as well, the "Target" and "Special" models, the "Target" model has a modified grip, adjustable rear sights and an extended target barrel, these modifications that were introduced in the "Berhama" 9mm model of the M1951 avaliable only in Egypt.
M1951R
The M1951R (also referred as the M1951 Raffica) is a select-fire variant of the M1951, chambered in 9mm, designed and produced in the 1960s, made in response by an request of the Italian Special Forces, the difference between the design of the M1951R is the heavier side, longer barrel, folding wodden grip, fire selector lever on the right side of the frame, which were labeled as "SEM" or "AUT", the M1951R had a rate of fire of 1000 RPM and it was equipped with 10-Round magazines, but propetary 5-Round magazines were compatible as well, as previosly mentioned, it was used by Italian Special Forces and their Internal Troops to an extent, such as the Carabinieri and the Polizia di Stato in the 1960s, due to the fact the extremely high rate of fire, heavier weight, poor accuracy and limited magazine capacity, made the M1951R unsuceesful, even extensive trained troops could only fire in bursts of 5-Rounds, as the M1951 could only fire in full-auto, it was soon phased out of service and quickly put out of production.