Beretta M1 Garand

[roktory]

this is what i found out so far about the beretta Garands

Bob Reese formally of Springfield armory was at Beretta factory in Italy a long time ago. There he meet an older gentleman who remembered where some M1 Garands were stored, this gentleman took Bob down into the "Bowels" of Beretta factory and showed Bob these Beretta Made M1 Garands in 308 that had been in storage.

Bob Reese purchased them, (some say it was 180 others say it was 200) the Rifles were entered into Springfield armory Books in 1990.

Springfield did not want to sell Beretta marked Garands so they stayed in the vault until Bob gave/sold Springfield armory to his sons.

When Bob left he took a bunch of the oddball stuff with him including the (180 or 200 )Garands in question. Bob then sold the guns through Reese surplus. When they first went for sale the lower the serial #s seemed to be cleaner and Reese charged more for them. Reese's website is gone and I have not seen these up for sale much.

In a nut shell that's all I have gotten from various sources off the web I'm not sure if its all accurate or not. I do know i have seen pictures of 3 digit Serial # Beretta M-1 Garands,
and I would love to know:

When they were built?
How long they sat almost forgotten in Beretta storage?
Are there only 180 of them or is it 200 or More?

[bearhunter]

I was under the impression that the rest of the production went into BM59 rifles. The Italians made a lot of those.

[Mad_Max]

I originally corresponded with Colleen Reese about these Garands and origins, when I purchased mine back in 2008/09, according to her the story I posted on another thread here :

Bob Reese was on a buying trip at Beretta/Italy, bought 180 complete P. Beretta rifles and imported them onto their books around 1990 is the short answer, the longer answer is he was "Probably" buying receivers, parts, tooling or anything else he could get....

According to Colleen mine #055 was imported as one of the complete rifles if I read her old email correctly, Every part is marked "PB", EXCEPT barrel and stock has NO markings whatsoever, receiver is marked "BMR" under woodline on right side, heel marked "P. Beretta", "Made in Italy", "055". "CAL .30 M1". interesting tid bit is sight apeture and trigger are a high polished blue, but still marked "PB". Barrel was chambered 7.62 by cutting back chamber/threads at rear area of a 30.06 barrel, then rethreaded, Op Rod marked "7.62mm/2", so stock/handguard were all shortened by a 1/2 or so, has a block in clip well marked "BR".

So far I've encountered 2 others, serial "020" that had Yemen markings on stock, and unmarked barrel as well, "086" the same as mine EXCEPT had SA Bolt and TRW hammer, gas plug marked "PB" "BM59". when I chatted with Colleen they still had 2 "PB" rifles in stock, one with no barrel markings, and one marked HRA on barrel...So my guess is they imported some rifles(180), and built some from parts.

So long way around getting to questions of : Why were they built? When were they built? How long in storage?

I can only guess based on a couple of hypothesis came up with, maybe around the late 50's or sometime 1960's, I found no record that Beretta officially made M1 Garands, it was Breda(BMR) making them for export to the Danish, so my guess is Breda made some receivers for Beretta, these 180 complete rifles found at Beretta "Could" have been built for some trial run, maybe a military contract, or comercial sales that never materialized. during that time newer rifles were coming out like the HK and FAL, also don't forget the BM59/62 and M14, so the Garand would have been considered outdated for the times. So my guess is they sat stored and forgotten until Bob Reese found and imported them in 1990, and possibly enough parts to build 20 more, bringing the number up to the 200 mark some say.....Remember I'm just guessing here, I have found so little info, and trying to fill in blanks.

[purple]

It appears that this rifle is similar to the Italian Tipo2 7.62NATO conversions that were made up for the Italian army. These rifles are made from standard Garand parts with the exception of the following components which are 1/2 inch shorter; barrel, op rod, rear handguard, and stock.
The Tipo 2 conversions appear to have been done on any make of Garand receiver which belonged to the Italian military. The Tipo 2 barrels that I have are standard SA 1963 vintage barrels which were shortened at the breach end and rechambered for 7.62. My Tipo 2 op rods are a shortened IHC and a scarce SA revision 13. Both are stamped "7.62mm/2" on the outside of the handle. One of the shortened stocks is stamped MT and the other is unmarked. The 7.62 mag spacers which I have are both stamped "BR", which I understand to be a Beretta marking. I built 2 rifles on ex-Danish Breda receivers using these components and they both function and shoot very well.
Both Breda and Beretta made rifles for sale to the Danes. The Breda rifles are stamped with the Danish Crown/FKF/Nr/BMR +sn on the receiver heel and Breda/Meccanica Romana/Italia on the left rear face of the receiver. Beretta rifles follow the same marking convention with Danish Crown/FKF/Nr/PB+sn on the heel and Beretta-Armi/Roma-Italia on the left side.
Incidentally the Numrich website is now flogging stubs of the Italian Tipo 2 receivers made by Breda, IHC, and HRA. All are marked 7.62-2 behind the rear sight.

[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?

[FlightRN]

Good Day,
It seems when Italy adopted the NATO standard cartridge, rifles that were in stores were returned for conversion. New (shortened and rechambered) barrels, 1/2-inch shortened op rods (marked 7.62-2) and production stocks/handguards were installed. The receiver banner stamps were also modified by removing the "CAL.30" reference and "7.62-2" stamped on the ledge just aft of the rear sight base.

Few military rifles have surfaced but I've noticed that the font and markings of the 'earlier' banner stamp is slightly different. The one in the middle still includes "US RIFLE" with what can be assumed to be "CAL 30 M1" under it. The other ones show no signs of ever having "US RIFLE" roll stamped. It is conjecture on my part, but maybe different production timeframes saw different banners?

I'm also including a picture of one of the Indonesian contract BM-59's. I went through the Die Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung in Koblenz, Germany. It is an outstanding German military museum that is full of small arms from around the world. I was unable to determine if it was made by Breda or Beretta.

Best Always,
Michael

[Bob Seijas]

There must be a dozen different logo styles found on the conversions.