Firearms and ammunition

In the late 30’s Beretta began to study a 9mm Parabellum handgun in order to satisfy the need for a high power gun and to have handguns and submachine guns chambered in the same caliber.
A prototype came out, named Mod. 1938. This gun was no more than an over-sized Mod. 1934.
The blowback action operating system of this prototype was soon found inadequate to support the high pressures generated by the 9 Para ammunition.
After some experiments the like P.38 falling block system was adopted. The Mod. 1951 Brigadier came out. The Mod. 51 was adopted by Italian law-enforcement agencies, the Italian Navy, and the Armies of other countries such as Egypt and Israel.
In Egypt, the Helwan firm began to produce the Mod. 51 under licence also for the civilian market. The Egyptian officer Berhama modified the 51 Helwan in a target gun. This model, named 51/57 Berhama, has a light alloy frame and is very similar to the 7.65 Para Mod. 952 Special manufactured in the Beretta factory at Gardone Val Trompia.
The Italian Army preferred to keep the now obsolete Mod. 34.
In Italy, only two little stocks of the Mod. 51 were manufactured with a light alloy frame: the former was sold to Colombia, the latter was supplied to the Italian police. The pistols for the Italian police, named Mod. 1957, have a heavier and thicker slide. Their serial number has one letter “F” as prefix.
In Italy, since 1963 a limited number of Mod. 51 was sold in the civilian market in 7.65 Para caliber because the Italian law forbids civilians to fire the 9 Para in semiautos. It was a commercial success, but the extreme similarity between the civilian version and the military one induced Beretta to modify the slide of the 7.65 Mod. 51 pistols to prevent the assembling of a 9 Para barrel (as it was possible before). This new pistol was designated Mod. 52.
Beretta also produced a target version of the Mod. 52, named 952 Special, with a 145 mm barrel, adjustable rear sight, and semi-anatomical grips with thumb rest.
From the standard 51 pistol Beretta developed a full-auto version, the 51A, with the following features:

- 125 mm barrel;
- heavier slide (width: 30 mm) in order to reduce the rate of fire (about 1000 r.p.m.);
- bigger and heavier hammer;
- 10 or 15 round single-line magazine;
- weight: 1.270 kg. to 1.330 kg.;
- overall length: 210.5 mm;
- folding fore-grip;
- the fire selector with two positions (AUT and SEM), located above the trigger on the right side of the frame.

The 51A is the first full-auto pistol mass-produced in Italy and is still employed by some special teams of the Italian law-enforcement agencies.
The Mod. 51 is a well-made and accurate gun. Unfortunately, the locking block is somewhat prone to fracture under prolonged fire due its too small size.
The sights are a drift-adjustable rear notch and a fixed blade front, without marks and extremely small.
The manual safety is a button type positioned at the top of the left grip just below the hammer. When pressed right to left, it mechanically blocks the sear and the hammer. The position of the manual safety, requested by military, was criticized by civilian users because it is complicated to operate swiftly. A further safety system is the half-cock position of the hammer. An automatic firing pin safety is absent, so the “condition one” carry is dangerous.
The Mod. 51 is the first Beretta pistol equipped with an external slide-stop lever.
The 8-round single-line magazine features a large window on both sides for a visual counting of cartridges and incorporates a lip that aids in gripping the gun more firmly.

FIELD STRIPPING

1. Make sure the pistol is unloaded. Remove magazine by depressing magazine release button.
2. Hold pistol in the right hand. Retract the slide to the rear with the left hand until the cutout on the slide and the disassembly latch lever are alined.
3. Holding the slide in this position, with the right forefinger rotate the disassembly latch lever counterclockwise until it stops.
4. Pull the slide and barrel assembly forward and remove.
5. Slightly compress recoil spring and spring guide, while at the same time lifting and removing recoil spring and recoil spring guide. Allow the recoil spring to stretch slowly.
6. Take out barrel from slide.

Reassemble following above procedures in reverse order.

Specifications

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