A BETTER BERETTA?
Recently I had the good fortune to attend the launch of the Beretta 694 in Italy. This was a major event and provided an opportunity not just to test an interesting new gun, but to revisit the Beretta factory and museum and note how the whole impressive operation has evolved.
Beretta are the world’s oldest gunmaker. They have much innovation to their name as well as colossal history – none more significant than the way that they have industrialised, and more recently computerised, sporting gun production. The firm were the first to popularise monobloc manufacture, around 1900. Their over-and-under manufacture has changed a great deal since they first copied a Boss in 1932, creating their own SO sidelock the following year and the ASE model just before WWII; previously they had made side-by-sides in large numbers.
During WWII, Beretta made a 20-bore prototype from Ergal aviation-type alloy that, although it was a sidelock, had some of the features of the mass produced 55 model presented after
