Do we know it's actually his house? I always assumed it was of one rich collector of handguns. The videos filmed there always seem to be relatively comprehensive collections of handgun types, rather than one off rifles etc.
Here's a translation of what the catalogue page says, from left column to right column, from top to bottom: *ballistic data* Detected at the Test Bench at Gardone V.T. with Fiocchi M. 38/1950 and Fiocchi Parabellum cartridges. Initial velocity in minutes per second [???] with M. 38 cartridge mt. [meters/second, I suppose] 350 Initial velocity in minutes per second with Parabellum cartridge mt. 350 Penetration in a poplar board: cartridge M. 38 from 30 m. [meters] mm. [millimeters] 185 50 m. mm. 173 cartridge Parabellum from 30 m. mm. 160 50 m. mm. 140 *automatic pistol* *Bernardelli* *caliber 9 long* [black square] *recommended ammunition* Considering the high power of the cartridges cal. 9 Long, our expertise suggests to advise the use, in our pistols, of cartridges cal 9 PARABELLUM, for a more reliable operation of the guns. [END OF COLUMN] *general characteristics* Total length mm. 175 Total height mm. 135 Barrel length mm. 100 Weight of the gun with magazine gr. [grams] 920 Weight of the magazine gr. 80 Magazine capacity 8 Cartridges: cal. 9 long M. 38 or cal. 9 long Parabellum This automatic pistol made both for cartridge 9 long 38 and for Parabellum, has a particular structural strength derived from the specially selected material and from the proportion of the masses studied to sustain the specific purpose. BARREL - Is housed in a particular adjunct of the body through means of cotter pin; the mounting system forms unique block with the body ensuring the highest precision. SAFETIES - A normal one mounted on the sear [I suppose, it's not clear] and engaged externally through the dedicated lever that marks the position of fire (red dot) and safe (S). BUFFERS - For the perfect balance during fire, a dedicated buffer system mitigates the strike between slide and body; the absorption is progressive. COCKING INDICATOR - Through this device a visible and detectable through touch indicator protrudes from the guide block when the striker is cocked. TRIGGER GROUP - The movements between sear and sear are coordinated on rounded surfaces and the trigger pull results particularly docile. MATERIAL EMPLOYED - High resistance selected steel , heat treated in the most solicited parts. FINISH - Burnished [not sure] - special contoured wooden grip plates with chequering.
"Sticks to the wall" I'm Italian and I find the repeated use of this barbarian way of testing whether or not Pasta is al dente in the context of a video about Italian guns offensive :P No, seriously, thanks Ian. Great video as usual :D
Is it offensive that I work in an Italian restaurant and I still thought he was making a reference to children throwing balls of wet toilet paper and being disappointed when they don't stick
Thank you Ian for bringing back fond memories. A striker fired .32 was my first pistol, a gift from my father when I turned 21. Bernardellis were extremely simple and reliable. I never had a misfeed. Only hitch was that striker springs used to lose tension after 500 or so shots. But these were very simple coils springs.
Ye olde italian gun manufacturers - You gotta love them. I shouldn't be surprised if there's the 12-barreled gun invented by Da Vinci somewhere out there - failed to get a military contract ,too...
I have a Bernadelli Model 80 .380 ACP... it was my dads. He bought it at a pawn shop in about 1987.... He never shot it much. But I'd take it out every once in a while and run a few rounds through it, and give it a periodic cleaning. My dad even got to the point that his severe arthritis prevented him from even holding the gun, and he still wouldn't let that gun go. About two a year and half ago he finally let me have it. Its a great gun in most respects. Its single action only with two safety's (hammer and trigger). The main draw back is the heel mag release. Aside from the the action of actuating that release, the mag is slightly snug and stiff...and does not just drop out. You have to put a little work into getting it out. Its a 6 round mag, and I only have one...so there's really no need for a tactical reload anyway. I live in Texas.... and in the extreme heat of the summer... carrying full-size can be difficult to conceal, due to light clothing. So this little .380 comes in handy. Its good for running Saturday errands around the neighborhood, shopping, etc... Two and three years ago I would see these Model 80s for about $140 on various websites... Now I'm seeing them creep into the high $400s, and low $500s. Its very similar to all the Euro-PPK-Clones, One unique feature is an almost 1911 style straight pull trigger. I dont see that on a lot of the other clones. Its a good trigger, very crisp, although the reset is just a bit longer than I'd like...still pretty good though. When my dad bought the gun, he wasn't even there to get a gun, he just saw it thought it looked cool.... very James Bond of course. So there is that cool factor as well. Its a very smooth and tight gun. The fit and finish is really nice. I searched on the web years ago and found someone who'd worked out the serial numbers. I think mine was made in 1966. The bluing is still in pretty good shape, with a bit of fade to it. But its a dependable gun, its never once failed to fire on me. Its fun to shoot, and it stays in a regular rotation along with my other carry guns. I'm a 1911 guy... so whenever possible (usually in the winter with heavier clothing, or as a car gun) i carry that. I also have higher capacity polymer guns in the rotation as well. Just kinda depends on where I'm going and what I'm doing. The Model 60 is very similar. If you can find a decent deal on either, I'd recommend them...if you're a fan of the PPK type clones.
What is interesting is that the striker fired version really is just a blown up version of their post WWII .32 VB Pistol. That hammer-fired version would get scaled back down to make their Model 60 pistol starting in 1959. If you compare a Model 60 to the hammer fired prototype there, you can see the exact same take down method, body shape, hammer shape, and manual safety. These features were carried over into their post 1968 GCA pocket pistol, the Model 80. While they are usually well built pistols, with good fit and finish, they are doomed to be the also-ran of Italian handguns. Where you have hundreds of websites covering Berettas through the years, Bernardelli barely gets a mention anywhere online.
Both Colt and Beretta, when they experimented their 9mm blowbacks, noticed that the hammer was a weak point of the system. The very fast recoil of the slide tended to break it. Maybe Bernardelli had the same experience and decided to go for the striker.
Idk if anyone will ever see this comment BUT the striker and locking piece design was used recently by Walther in their CCP pistol. The upgraded M2 has a disassembly lever and lock just like the striker-fired Bernadelli, and the firing pins look almost identical.
Bernardelli died once they made a joint venture with IMI for the production, in Italy, of the Galil for the trials for the italian army next assault rifle.
Yeah, the Bernardelli VB. There's around 150 of them, and it would be a neat Forgotten Weapon to take a look at. Also Bernardelli did some weirdo stuff like a SVT-patterned shotgun (because it's easier to copy, I guess). Probably the failure in the late 80ies trials were the death knell of the company, but as mediocre the 70/90 may have been Beretta had the contract in the pocket from the start. Pity, small Bernardelli .22s are still a common sight in ita firing ranges.
@@RandomUser-cx9kn In the post-war years Bernardelli had a lot of know-how on making guns, but only of estabilished patterns, while the market required something new. Unfortunately the small company had not experience in designing new weapons and, as an engineer that worked there at that time recalled, even the access to specialised literature was very limited, especially in foreign languages. So they simply copied what they could put their hands on. They put their hands on a SVT and "oh, whe can make a shotgun out of this". Later the situation was different. Thus not being Beretta, The Bernardelli 60 had been quite a success, and the P0.18 too. Unfortunately the company invested heavily in the Italian Army AR trial, but it had not been the only one. Franchi did it too with the 641 (derived from the H&K G41), and SOCIMI with the ambitious 871 (piston driven, reciprocating charging handle AR15). The P.One evolution of the P0.18 was an exceptional firearm, that today would probably have it's place in the market exactly for it's "classic" features (all forged steel slide and frame, 1911 style safety but with a decocker too, like modern CZ and Taurus), unfortunately it was released in the worst possible moment for an all-steel pistol.
@@mordechaimordechai That's the thing, the 70/90 was never a Cold War service rifle. Behind the curve for all reasons. It's like the ARX platform: mediocre if compared to every other option, and exists mostly because Beretta is Italian and Not Invented Here rule.
Random User1893 The ARX isnt that bad when you consider it's meant to have a grenade launcher attached. It does too much. The switching of ejection is unnecessary. It's not behind the curve at all, unless we're already past things like switching ejection being a good thing(we should be, but we're not).
Shotguns of course, I remember a big push on those in the early 80s in the UK. They looked very nice, intricate pattern engraving, but I don't recall ever firing one.
Couple of those look a bit like a PPK... except prettier. 10:45 disassembly looks like the Walther CCP... somewhat, and I can't help but look for the gas delay piston instead of the bumper springs.
Oh God, I’m having Berardelli Model 80 rebuild flashbacks. Rebuilt one that I had acquired as Hurricane Harvey salvage. Just for the experience I took it on as a restore project. Tough to get parts.
You should do a segment on the model 60 and 80 bernardelli. . It was available in 22lr, 7.65 (.32), 9 short(.380), also in an American version/model. Thanx, love your channel very informative and in depth! Keep up the phenomenal work! By the way I think u have the best and or dream job!
He should really do a segment on the Bernardelli Semiautomatico shotgun of 1949. That design was phenomenal. It's like if Baldassarre Belleri (the designer of the action patents.google.com/patent/US2622359 ) had seen a SVT-40 and thought "oh, nice rifle, it could be a great shotgun, but that gas piston is completely useless" and redone it as a delayed blowback action only changing the inclination of the locking surface. And it worked flawlessly. www.armeriasebina.it/uploads/2013/06/Fucile-Semiautomatico-BERNARDELLI-.jpg
I have a Bernadelli 22lr pistols (Bernadelli model 60) that looks like a Walther PP. The inside and controls are basically the same as the hammer fired pistol 9mm Bernadelli you showed here.
Whew, another great video from gun Jesus. After yesterday I was starting to go into withdrawals, a day without gun Jesus is like a day without sunshine lol.
The tapered slide front looks like a Makarov (or Walther PP) while the rear is more like a Stechkin. Sometimes wood grips positively adds to the feel, sure.
Probably not rare but I've got a Bernardelli 25acp, only holds 5 rounds. Pretty neat little gun. had to clean it up real good, it was sticky with what looked like cosmaline but I'm not sure. It functions fine and fires well, looks old though or very well worn.
Did you ever do a video or study on all the Bernardelli pistols? I'm am looking for some info on the model BV in 32 ACP and striker fired. Will a magazine from a Model 60 or 80 fit it?
It's not from the '80s, it's from the '50s. In the '80s Bernardelli produced the very good P0.18 ( www.gunstorebunker.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BERNARDELLI-P018-MIL-1.jpg ).
A nice thing about fixed barrel blowbacks is you're not going to get a slide in the face with hot ammunition. Like you (Theoretically) could with titling barrel short recoil pistols like Browning actions. (It almost never happens, if they're properly taken care of. Even like the 9mm Lungo in a Browning HiPower would have to shear off the assembly/shackle pin, and it's probably going to fail somewhere else before that, but the Fixed Barrel makes it almost impossible.)
One possible reason to chose Striker fired over Hammer Fired is Trigger Pull. I never heard of these before, much less handled, or fired both models, but you're there to at least dry-fire them. A blowback hammer fired gun with a grip magazine well is a lot like a bulpup, in the transfer bar you need to release the trigger, and a Single/Double action can be pretty hard to balance both styles of firing. So, the single/self loading trigger can be "Mushy" compared with the sear release of a striker, or open bolt system. (In an Open Bolt SMG, the Bolt is also the Striker.) I have no way of knowing whether they took advantage of this to give the Striker fired ones a crisper release, in fact you'd have to take off the grip panels to show me if the transfer bars around the magazine well are any different, but that's one reason they Might have done it. If the striker release is functionally the same as the Hammer release, there's no real benefit. Just personal preferrence/throwing both against the Market to see what sticks. (The Spaghetti method.)
One of the main things I always hated about the 1911 is the semi-bulpup style trigger, and hammer spring design. There's ways you can polish it, and make it better, but that only goes so far without making it unsafe to carry. That, and the backstrap/grip safety tends to slip around if you're not too careful with your pull. Fine on the range, not great for accurate fire under pressure. (Not to mention low capacity, so misses are potentially even more deadly.) I get a much better grip-weld out of the High Power, and I feel safer carrying it chambered than a polished 1911 "Race Gun" cocked and locked. (Not to mention higher capacity/Lower recoil, so misses are potentially less catastrophic in a shoot or be shot situation.) You just have to look at all the .45 caliber holes in every USMC guard shack of the era to see what I'm talking about. That design needs a de-cocker in the worst kind of way.
@@Psiberzerker Probably the best trigger design is in the Glisenti 1910, where the sear is directly above the trigger. Unfortunately in that pistol the recoil spring doubles as striker spring, so the trigger has to fight vs the recoil spring to release the sear, that way that the trigger is really crisp, but hard. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NplYrBFTWrA.html
Hello Ian. Do you have a video on any of the Taurus S/S revolvers? My favorite is in .44 Special. It really has no model designation, I don`t think. It`s only nomenclature is on the frame under the cylinder crane and on the inside surface of the crane itself. They actually face one another when you close the crane. Any chance you can put out a video on these apparently uncommon revolvers? Thanks. Joe in Pennsyltucky
Query: being Italian and designed for 9mm L as well as 9mm P, would they Also work with 9mm Glisenti or is the main spring too powerful for this round?
I wonder what the first guns to use those disassembly methods. The hammer fired guns come apart just like an Ortgies and the striker fired guns come apart like Sterling Arms pocket pistols.
Managing to make a blowback pistol work for 9mm +p is neat, it solves the problem 9mm blowback have of needing to check ammo carefully, and that locking striker is clever, I guess one problem the gun had is no one trusted it to handle the hot load. Cool pistol, I'd have bought one.
Unfortunately in Europe there was only a limited market for 9mm Para pistols at the time. Or you managed to get a public contract (army, police forces...) or the model was doomed, regardless of the quality.
@@Matt_The_Hugenot Unfortunately the Italian competitor in the market was the Beretta M1951, a really good pistol. But in a small semi-artigianal company like Bernardelli at the time, there was simply A LOT of people that knew how to assemble an handgun, starting out of nothing but using existing solutions (nothing in that pistols is really new, they are assemblies of well estabilished ideas) without a blueprint. Probably someone simply said "why don't we try to produce a 9mm para pistol?" and the answer was "why not? Maybe something good can came out of it".
According to the Bernardelli paper, the 9mm Lungo had 164 ft/s more velocity than the Parabellum. However the Parabellum velocity is only 984 ft/s. They don't mention the weight of the bullet, I wonder if they were 147gr?
I used to have a Sterling .22LR pistol which was designed almost exactly like that only much smaller and in stainless. I shot her so much that I wore her out, loved the little .22.
It's a "foolproof" safety. For those that think to have unloaded the gun by removing the magazine, and forget the round in the chamber (any gunsmith can provide dozens of samples).