Beretta M1951
Encyclopedia
The M 1951 is a 9 mm
semi-automatic pistol, developed during the late 1940s and early 1950s by Pietro Beretta S.p.A.
of Italy
. The pistol was produced strictly for military use and was introduced into service with the Italian Army
and security forces as the Modello 1951 (M 1951), replacing the 9 mm Modello 1934
pistol, chambered for the 9x17mm Short (.380 ACP)
cartridge.
frame with a steel
frame, lengthening the slide and moving the magazine release lever from the heel of the pistol grip
to the right side of the grip. Serial production was then initiated in 1955. The M 1951 is no longer produced in Italy, and was never adopted by the Italian Army
, which kept the .380 ACP
Beretta M 1934 in service until the adoption of the 9 mm Beretta 92
; the M 1951 was instead adopted by the Italian Navy
, the Carabinieri
and the Italian national Traffic Police
; it has been replaced in all services with the adoption of the above-mentioned Beretta 92, in 1977. Other military forces to have adopted the M 1951 include Egypt
(where it has been produced by the local firm Maadi as the "Helwan"), Israel
, Iraq
(license-built as the "Tariq"), Nigeria
and Tunisia
; in most of these countries, the pistol is now out of service. The pistol is known as the M951 "Brigadier" on the civilian market. After 1968, in the United States
, it was briefly referred to as the 104 in promotional literature.
-operated, locked breech pistol with a vertically falling locking piece and an open top slide (the locking mechanism design was influenced by the Walther P38 pistol). The locking piece, located under the barrel, is unlocked by a sliding pin and locked back into battery by a beveled surface on the pistol's frame. The locking piece features two locking lugs that engage appropriate recesses cut into the slide's internal side surfaces. When the pistol is fired, the locking piece, integral with the slide, goes back together with the barrel which is locked to the slide. After a brief period of unrestricted travel of approx. 13 mm (0.511811023622047 in) the unlocking pin on the rear barrel lug strikes the receiver and stops. As the barrel and slide continue back, the locking piece strikes the stationary plunger and is forced down into recesses in the slide. The barrel comes to rest but the slide continues rearward for a further 50 mm (2 in). Upon forward return, the slide picks up the barrel and the locking piece on the barrel lug is lifted up by the receiver cam to lock the barrel to the slide. The spring-loaded extractor is integrated into the slide, and the fixed-type ejector is integral to the pistol's frame. The pistol has a hammer striking mechanism (with an exposed hammer) and a single-action trigger with a disconnector, which enables semi-automatic fire only. A cross-bolt safety mounted on the weapon's frame (beneath the hammer) provides safe operation with a cartridge introduced into the chamber. In the “weapon safe” position (the safety's button pushed in to the left) the slide catch is disabled.
The M 1951 is fed from an 8-round detachable box magazine. A hold open device will keep the slide locked open after discharging the last cartridge from the magazine. The slide can then be released by depressing the slide release lever located on the left side of the frame. The pistol uses fixed iron sight
s set for engaging targets at 50 m. These consist of a forward blade and rear notch.
The pistol's barrel has a rifled
bore with 6 right-hand grooves and a 1 in 254 mm (1:10 in) twist rate.
The M 1951 pistol is chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge.
An evolutionary development, by the time, of the M 1951 was the 9 mm selective fire
M951R ("R" is short for Raffica or "burst" in Italian
), which was designed and produced during the 1960s in response to a request made by the Italian special forces. The primary difference between the M951R and the original M 1951 lied in the fire selector lever mounted on the right side of the weapon’s frame, enabling either semi-automatic or continuous fire - labelled "SEM" and "AUT", respectively. Additionally, the weapon has a heavier slide, a folding wooden forward grip, the barrel was extended, and so was the magazine, increasing capacity to 10 rounds. The M951R had a rate of fire of approximately 1000 rounds/min. The M951R was issued to several Italian special forces
and to a lesser extent to the Carabinieri
and the Polizia di Stato
all along the 1960s; it had poor success and quickly went out of production, as it was plagued by several defects: the ammunition capacity was low compared to the rate of fire and, with the selector on the "AUT" position, the M951R fired in full-automatic mode rather than by three-rounds bursts as other similar products of the following years; this produced high recoil and resulted in poor controllability and scarce accuracy. Furthermore, with such a high rate of fire, even with extensive training it was impossible for the shooter to produce short and controlled bursts, and as reported by many users the shortest burst one could achieve was five-rounds.
9 mm caliber
This article lists firearm cartridges which have a bullet in the caliber range. The most prevalent of these rounds is the 9x19mm Parabellum.*Length refers to the cartridge case length.*OAL refers to the overall length of the cartridge....
semi-automatic pistol, developed during the late 1940s and early 1950s by Pietro Beretta S.p.A.
Beretta
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta is an Italian firearms manufacturer. Their firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes. It is also known for manufacturing shooting clothes and accessories. Beretta is the oldest active firearms manufacturer in the...
of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. The pistol was produced strictly for military use and was introduced into service with the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
and security forces as the Modello 1951 (M 1951), replacing the 9 mm Modello 1934
Beretta M1934
The Beretta model 1934 is a compact, semi-automatic pistol which was issued as a standard service firearm to the Italian armed forces beginning in 1934...
pistol, chambered for the 9x17mm Short (.380 ACP)
.380 ACP
The .380 ACP pistol cartridge is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case. It was introduced in 1908 by Colt, and has been a popular self-defense cartridge ever since...
cartridge.
History
The pistol was Beretta's first locked breech design on the market, (previous semi-automatic pistols were all blowback-operated) and was in limited production circa 1953 and in full-scale production in 1956 until 1980. Several changes were incorporated into the pistol’s design after an initial production batch, these included: replacing the lightweight alloyAlloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
frame with a steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
frame, lengthening the slide and moving the magazine release lever from the heel of the pistol grip
Pistol grip
On a firearm or other tool, the pistol grip is that portion of the mechanism that is held by the hand and orients the hand in a forward, vertical orientation, similar to the position one would take with a conventional pistol such as the M1911....
to the right side of the grip. Serial production was then initiated in 1955. The M 1951 is no longer produced in Italy, and was never adopted by the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
, which kept the .380 ACP
.380 ACP
The .380 ACP pistol cartridge is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case. It was introduced in 1908 by Colt, and has been a popular self-defense cartridge ever since...
Beretta M 1934 in service until the adoption of the 9 mm Beretta 92
Beretta 92
The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The model 92 was designed in 1972 and production of many variants in different calibers continues today...
; the M 1951 was instead adopted by the Italian Navy
Marina Militare
The Italian Navy is the navy of the Italian Republic. It is one of the four branches of military forces of Italy; formed in 1946, from what remained of the Regia Marina . As of 2008, the Italian Navy had 35,200 active personnel with 180 commissioned ships, 19 Floating Docks, and 123 aircraft...
, the Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
and the Italian national Traffic Police
Polizia Stradale
The Polizia Stradale is the national Highway patrol of Italy and is a sub-directorate of the Italian State Police.The Polizia Stradale patrols the 7,000 kilometers of motorways in Italy and the main highways and arterial roads outside towns...
; it has been replaced in all services with the adoption of the above-mentioned Beretta 92, in 1977. Other military forces to have adopted the M 1951 include Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
(where it has been produced by the local firm Maadi as the "Helwan"), Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(license-built as the "Tariq"), Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
; in most of these countries, the pistol is now out of service. The pistol is known as the M951 "Brigadier" on the civilian market. After 1968, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, it was briefly referred to as the 104 in promotional literature.
Design details
The M 1951 is a short recoilRecoil operation
Recoil operation is an operating mechanism used in locked-breech, autoloading firearms. As the name implies, these actions use the force of recoil to provide energy to cycle the action...
-operated, locked breech pistol with a vertically falling locking piece and an open top slide (the locking mechanism design was influenced by the Walther P38 pistol). The locking piece, located under the barrel, is unlocked by a sliding pin and locked back into battery by a beveled surface on the pistol's frame. The locking piece features two locking lugs that engage appropriate recesses cut into the slide's internal side surfaces. When the pistol is fired, the locking piece, integral with the slide, goes back together with the barrel which is locked to the slide. After a brief period of unrestricted travel of approx. 13 mm (0.511811023622047 in) the unlocking pin on the rear barrel lug strikes the receiver and stops. As the barrel and slide continue back, the locking piece strikes the stationary plunger and is forced down into recesses in the slide. The barrel comes to rest but the slide continues rearward for a further 50 mm (2 in). Upon forward return, the slide picks up the barrel and the locking piece on the barrel lug is lifted up by the receiver cam to lock the barrel to the slide. The spring-loaded extractor is integrated into the slide, and the fixed-type ejector is integral to the pistol's frame. The pistol has a hammer striking mechanism (with an exposed hammer) and a single-action trigger with a disconnector, which enables semi-automatic fire only. A cross-bolt safety mounted on the weapon's frame (beneath the hammer) provides safe operation with a cartridge introduced into the chamber. In the “weapon safe” position (the safety's button pushed in to the left) the slide catch is disabled.
The M 1951 is fed from an 8-round detachable box magazine. A hold open device will keep the slide locked open after discharging the last cartridge from the magazine. The slide can then be released by depressing the slide release lever located on the left side of the frame. The pistol uses fixed iron sight
Iron sight
Iron sights are a system of shaped alignment markers used as a sighting device to assist in the aiming of a device such as a firearm, crossbow, or telescope, and exclude the use of optics as in telescopic sights or reflector sights...
s set for engaging targets at 50 m. These consist of a forward blade and rear notch.
The pistol's barrel has a rifled
Rifling
Rifling is the process of making helical grooves in the barrel of a gun or firearm, which imparts a spin to a projectile around its long axis...
bore with 6 right-hand grooves and a 1 in 254 mm (1:10 in) twist rate.
The M 1951 pistol is chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge.
Variants
A commercial version of the M 1951 chambered in 7.65x22mm Parabellum was also produced for sales to sport shooters in Italy in order to comply with restrictions forbidding ownership of military caliber pistols; this model was designated the Modello 952 (also available in two sporting variants: the “Target” and “Special” models).An evolutionary development, by the time, of the M 1951 was the 9 mm selective fire
Selective fire
A selective fire firearm has at least one semi–automatic and one automatic mode, which is activated by means of a selector which varies depending on the weapon's design. Some selective fire weapons utilize burst fire mechanisms to limit the maximum or total number of shots fired automatically in...
M951R ("R" is short for Raffica or "burst" in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
), which was designed and produced during the 1960s in response to a request made by the Italian special forces. The primary difference between the M951R and the original M 1951 lied in the fire selector lever mounted on the right side of the weapon’s frame, enabling either semi-automatic or continuous fire - labelled "SEM" and "AUT", respectively. Additionally, the weapon has a heavier slide, a folding wooden forward grip, the barrel was extended, and so was the magazine, increasing capacity to 10 rounds. The M951R had a rate of fire of approximately 1000 rounds/min. The M951R was issued to several Italian special forces
Italian special forces
The Italian Special Forces include special forces units from several branches of the Italian Military: the Esercito Italiano or Army, the Marina Militare or Navy, the Aeronautica Militare or Air force and l'Arma dei Carabinieri...
and to a lesser extent to the Carabinieri
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri is the national gendarmerie of Italy, policing both military and civilian populations, and is a branch of the armed forces.-Early history:...
and the Polizia di Stato
Polizia di Stato
The Polizia di Stato is one of the national police forces of Italy.It is the main police force for providing police duties and it is also responsible for patrolling motorways , railways , airports , customs as well as certain waterways, and assisting the local police...
all along the 1960s; it had poor success and quickly went out of production, as it was plagued by several defects: the ammunition capacity was low compared to the rate of fire and, with the selector on the "AUT" position, the M951R fired in full-automatic mode rather than by three-rounds bursts as other similar products of the following years; this produced high recoil and resulted in poor controllability and scarce accuracy. Furthermore, with such a high rate of fire, even with extensive training it was impossible for the shooter to produce short and controlled bursts, and as reported by many users the shortest burst one could achieve was five-rounds.
Users
- Produced by Maadi as the Helwan.: Manufactured under license as the Tariq by Al-Qādisiyyah Establishments. The internal design appears identical to the original pistols, and the primary external differences are the ArabicArabic languageArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
stamping on the slide and the warrior emblem (the medieval Arab warrior Tariq ibn Ziyad—who invaded SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 711 A.D.) on the grip. Gold-plated guns were produced for presentation and some pistols have special inscriptions. The Tariq pistol is currently in service with the Iraqi PoliceIraqi PoliceThe Iraqi Police Service are the uniformed Territorial police force responsible for the enforcement of civil law within Iraq.The current organisation, structure and recruitment practice was guided by the Coalition Provisional Authority following the 2003 invasion of Iraq...
, and was in service with the standard pistol Iraqi Armed Forces and the Republican Guard; pistols issued to Saddam Hussein's Private Police have a special marking on the frame.