Beretta M1951 - Variants

Variants

A commercial version of the M1951 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). The "Target" version of the 952 incorporated modifications to the grips, sights and barrel that had originally been introduced on the "Berhama" target-shooting model of the 9mm 951 made specially for the Egyptians.

An evolutionary development, by the time, of the M1951 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 M1951 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.