Italy - Forgotten Weapons

SPAS-12: Franchi’s Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun

November 6, 2024 Ian McCollum 10

Enter to win this iconic SPAS-12! https://www.fanathem.com/forgottenweapons Deadline to enter is 11/22/24 @11:59 PM PST Franchi introduced the Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun (SPAS-12) for Italian military and police agencies in 1979 and it quickly because […]

Beretta M38A vs Suomi kp/31 (w/ John Keene)

November 4, 2024 Ian McCollum 64

If you had to pick one, would you take an early Beretta 38A (with bayonet), or a Finnish kp/31 Suomi? Both have semiauto selectors, although the Beretta’s its easier to use. The Suomi has a […]

Arsenal Strike One: Russian Police Pistol Comes to the West

May 27, 2024 Ian McCollum 21

The Strike One pistol originated around 2011 as a collaboration between Nicola Bandini and Dimitry Streshinskiy as a pistol to replace the Makarov in Russian police use. By 2014 is was progressing very successfully through […]

Armi Jager AP85: An Italian .22 Rimfire Faux-MAS

February 16, 2024 Ian McCollum 28

Armi Jager was an Italian arms-making company that was created in the early 1950s by Armando Piscetta. He initially made .22 rimfire sporting rifles, then transitioned into making Old West style revolvers, and in the […]

Breda 37: Italy’s Forgotten Heavy Machine Gun

November 11, 2023 Ian McCollum 40

The Breda Model 37 was Italy’s standard heavy machine gun (which meant a rifle-caliber gun fired only from a tripod) during World War Two. It was chambered for the 8x59mm cartridge, as Italy used a […]

Mateba Unica 6: A Semiauto Revolver in .44 Magnum

September 9, 2023 Ian McCollum 7

The Mateba 6 Unica is the culmination of a series of revolver development by Italian designer Emilio Ghisoni (1937-2008). The Unica 6 is one of only a few self-cocking revolvers to see commercial production and […]

Spectre SMG at the Range

July 29, 2023 Ian McCollum 18

The SITES Spectre was imported into the US primarily as a semiautomatic pistol – but it was really designed to be an SMG. It has an interesting closed-bolt fire control system, and in SMG for […]

Hipster 2-Gun: Beretta AR-70/90 & Bernardelli P018S

July 8, 2023 Ian McCollum 0

We took a look at both of these guns individually this past week, and now it’s time to try them both out on the clock… While I like the Bernardelli quite a lot, it had […]

Italian GWOT Steel: the Beretta AR-70/90

July 7, 2023 Ian McCollum 12

While the Italian military did adopt the AR-70, it did not actually issue them to all troops. Most continued to use the 7.62mm BM-59 until 1990 when the Beretta AR-70/90 was adopted. This rifle was […]

Bernardelli P018S: A Hipster’s Service Pistol

July 5, 2023 Ian McCollum 23

Bernardelli is (was) an Italian firearms manufacturer in the Val Tromp dating back to the 1600s…but whom few people have ever heard of. They produced 1889 Bodeo revolvers between the World Wars, and after World […]