Beretta M1 Garand

[bombeiro346]

Does ayone have info on the Beretta M1 Garand in 7.62 Nato.
I'm looking into an unfired M1 Beretta manufactured in Italy in the early 1960's. Supposedly there were only 200 of these rifles manufactured.
A few tings don't sit right with me though:
1. the barrel has no markings whatsoever
2. above the serial number it says 'BERETTA', 'NATO 7,62' and 'ITALY'Now, the M1's I've seen that were manufactured in Italy and sent to Denmark had Beretta Romi and Italia not Italy on the left side of the receiver.
3. the stock has the cartouche 'MT' on butt stock which stands for modified terni. If this is an unfired rifle should the stock not have a serial number?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Badger]

Hi... :)

A good start to see if any of your questions might be answered in the library, would be to check 1955 Danish (Breda) Military Garand (click here) (http://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=121) in the Denmark - Milsurp Knowledge Library (click here) (http://www.milsurps.com/forumdisplay.php?f=27).

Let us know if that helps, particularly the photo montage of all the markings.

Regards,
Badger

[Tom in N.J.]

There were comercial M1 Beretta receivers available from Service Armament / Navy Arms way back in the 60s. They were marked 'Beretta / Gardone Vt / Italy'. I'm sure that they have been used for M1s, BM59s, and shortened 7.62mm M1s in their lifetime.

[smle-man]

There were comercial M1 Beretta receivers available from Service Armament / Navy Arms way back in the 60s. They were marked 'Beretta / Gardone Vt / Italy'. I'm sure that they have been used for M1s, BM59s, and shortened 7.62mm M1s in their lifetime.

The Reese's were selling 7.2mm Beretta M1s not too long ago, maybe it is one of them.

[ltcboy]

I have a regular Beretta and a Breda. Probably won't help you though with what your'e inquiring about.

[Mad_Max]

New Here but not new to Garands....

Here's what I know so far about a small lot of Garands Marked "P. Beretta" and "Made in Italy" Behind the rear sight.

Bob Reese(RSI) was at Beretta a long time ago and he had heard Beretta had built some Garands, The Men in charge said "No", They never made Garands, But Bob was persistent and talked to an older gentleman there whom knew where they were stored, and took Bob down to the "Bowels" of Beretta and showed him a bunch of Beretta Garands...No one knows when they were built, Or how long they were stored there(So far)....180 were entered in RSI's Books in 1990 as "Complete Guns". (This story was relayed to me by Collen Reese)

I was lucky to find one in 99% new Condition with a double digit serial # and so far it has checked out, All parts are marked "PB", Even though Receiver is marked "P. Beretta" it was made by Breda and marked on Leg, Barrel has "No" marking we've seen so far - But "Might" be marked under lower Hand Guard : "B.SID" or "B.M.R" with other #'s or Date, Also another rifle from this lot was seen with an HRA marked Barrel, And another with no Apparent markings....An oddity on mine is Rear Sight Aperture and Trigger are blued steel, But are "PB" marked.

I don't know if these are considered "Collectible" but they are Rare....Hope this helps someone out that may encounter one.

[Maistrac]

Indeed, I served in the Italian army and we shot the first rounds with a M1 Garand ,after we moved on M14 para version(Beretta BM59). Alpine paratrooper 4 Alpini Regiment.
It was heavy and bulky but still a great rifle........
So, Berretta made M1 and M14 garand under license

[bob seijas]

IIRC, Reese bought all the complete guns PB had, but also bought some receivers and parts. When all the rifles were sold, they build guns on the Beretta receivers, using a combination of PB and surplus US parts.

[campperrykid]

FWIW and maybe one small piece of the puzzle:

I have three Italian Typo 2 7.62 conversion Garand stocks -- these are about one half inch shorter than the standard '06 stocks.

All three were brand new (NOS ) and marked MT when I bought them . Two of them were in wrappers that included what I believe to have been the manufacturer's name: Something like " Mechanica Trentino ".

[Angry_American]

Indeed, I served in the Italian army and we shot the first rounds with a M1 Garand ,after we moved on M14 para version(Beretta BM59). Alpine paratrooper 4 Alpini Regiment.
It was heavy and bulky but still a great rifle........
So, Berretta made M1 and M14 garand under license

FYI the Italian M14 type aka the BM59 was not a M14, it was designed and manufactured by the Italians exclusively, it was not a copy of the M14.