Beretta M1 Garand

[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.

Information

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[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

[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.

[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 ".

[garand1]

FYI I bought two Garand's from Mr. Reese that were not parts guns or refurbished. Both double digit serial numbers. They were part of the bunch found in the Beretta Factory that were bought by Mr. Reese and brought back to the US. They are 100% New manufacture and unfired.

[Bob Seijas]

Would love to see some ipictures!

[mikebaker1129]

Would love to see some ipictures!

Me too !

[bighank]

I have one of those m1,s S/N 042. All BP parts except the SA bolt and it has a PM-59 gas
plug. No barrel markings. Looks new. No stock markings. PB triger group, but safety has HXR. I wonder if this was a complete gun or a parts gun?