Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Beretta Model 1931 & 1937 Experimental Semiauto Rifles" video.

  1. Blueing on case hardened parts. Depending on the composition of steel, some turn reddish with time.
    8
  2. The founders were two businessmen that, until the late '30s had an activity of import of bananas from Somalia (they owned two ships that they used for that). In the late '30s their business was nationalized by the government, and they (that were also two enthusiast hunters) used the indemnity to found, in the city of Cremona, a manufacture of weapons expressely meant for the army, so the name "Armi da guerra - Cremona" (Weapons for war - Cremona) then contracted in "Armaguerra". The manufacture was founded in 1939. The rifle was their first indipendent design, and had been immediatly succesful, winning the competition of Beretta, Breda and Scotti. However, during the war, the Armaguerra mainly produced Carcano rifles and Beretta Model 1934 pistols.
    5
  3. You are welcome. One of the thing that could be of interest, is why the two choose the city of Cremona for the plant. Infact they were both of Genova, and Cremona was then a little, not industrialized, city, famous, like now is, for its luthiers. One can only speculate, but is often said that it was cause Cremona was the city of Roberto Farinacci, one of the leading figures of the fascist party. Building a manifacture there, they thought they could gain public procurements more easily. In the end, it was an excessive caution, as the plant started to work in 1939, and, since 1940, everything that could manufacture a rifle had no shortage of procurements. In the end, in its brief life (the plant made weapons only from 1939 to 1945) the Armaguerra was higly innovative. It not only designed the winning semiauto model for the Italian Army, but also the OG43 and OG44, the first "second generation" SMGs. Although not used productively for decades, the Armaguerra Plant is still existing. Recently the asbestos roof covers had been replaced by photovoltaic panels (even those that are still not covered in the picture, had been later), so it's currently a photovoltaic plant. http://nextia.ch/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/armaguerra-1.2bn.jpg
    5
  4. Bakelite
    3
  5. The Armaguerra 39 was adopted, but too late to be produced in numbers.
    2
  6. Blueing on case hardened parts. Due to the composition of steel, some turn reddish with time.
    2
  7. You are welcome. It would be cool if Ian will manage to test one of those, since they had been really used in combat, altough in limited numbers.
    1
  8. Several, but not all, of the Beretta handguns of those years have the slide (and sometimes the hammer) that turned like that. So we can say that it depends both on the material (otherwise the body and the barrel would have turned the same way) and the composition of the bluing salts (infact it doesn't always happen).
    1
  9. At the beginning of the '30s the Beretta M1931 was tested vs the Scotti Mod. X and the MBT 1929, and the Scotti was the winner. Then, the Italian Army decided to switch to the 7.35 round, and so they did another competition, this time the Beretta M1937 competed against the Breda PG, the Scotti Mod. X in 7.35 and the Armaguerra 39, and the Armaguerra was the winner, but the start of the war prevented it's adoption.
    1
  10. It probably stands for "ripetizione", since the italian for "bolt action" is "ripetizione manuale".
    1
  11. Yeah. They probably tested them and settled on the maximum capacity that could be filled with a standard "thumb push" stripper clip.
    1