Beretta M1915

Tullio Marengoni of Beretta had designed a semi auto pistol in the year 1910. This pistol was called the Beretta M1915. It had a straight blow with a back pistol and with no locking method and also used the same low powered 9mm round back.

That was the first semi-automatic pistol launched by Beretta. This pistol was immediately taken up by the Italian army who were lacking pistols at that time. The Beretta M1915 model pistol had a recoil spring inside it and a heavy sliding while putting the recoil shock absorber on the part where sliding strikes to the frame. It also succeeded in operating at 9mm.

The berretta M1915 has something different in the fact that it had two manual safeties which would operate in the absence of the other. One is a slide stop safety on the left side of the frame. The other is a small lever on the rear of the frame. If one of the safeties is set in the right position, the pistol will not be able to fire. If either safety is set, the pistol will not fire. Later on, Beretta, also manufactured another model on the same lines of Beretta1915, which was a lower scaled model operating on 7.65 mm. this was also given to the Italian army at that time. In addition to being smaller, this new model did not have the manual safety at the rear of the frame.

However, both these models show case a common feature of open slide in the front which is very common with the Beretta Pistols and hand guns. One other model of Beretta 1915 was a Beretta M1915 9mm Glisenti. This piece has the older type recoil spring guide rod and a magazine with the 6 holes, having a serial number below 5,000, the cut off point for these items. The total production for this model was how ever only 15,600, most being made in 1916 & 1918. All these models were given to the Italian army and were not for public use.

The Baretta 1915 has a safety lever which was made small in the rear. When the sledge hammer does not rise in the pistol, it turns to ON, and makes it impossible to pull the sliding to rear, hence halting the ammunition from traveling to the chamber. There is also a switch which locks the set off even on the left side trigger top. As far as the model Beretta 1915 was concerned at that time, it was mass produced specifically for the Italian army.