Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Bernardelli UB: Hammer and Striker Fired 9mm Blowback" video.

@RandomUser-cx9kn In the post-war years Bernardelli had a lot of know-how on making guns, but only of estabilished patterns, while the market required something new. Unfortunately the small company had not experience in designing new weapons and, as an engineer that worked there at that time recalled, even the access to specialised literature was very limited, especially in foreign languages. So they simply copied what they could put their hands on. They put their hands on a SVT and "oh, whe can make a shotgun out of this". Later the situation was different. Thus not being Beretta, The Bernardelli 60 had been quite a success, and the P0.18 too. Unfortunately the company invested heavily in the Italian Army AR trial, but it had not been the only one. Franchi did it too with the 641 (derived from the H&K G41), and SOCIMI with the ambitious 871 (piston driven, reciprocating charging handle AR15). The P.One evolution of the P0.18 was an exceptional firearm, that today would probably have it's place in the market exactly for it's "classic" features (all forged steel slide and frame, 1911 style safety but with a decocker too, like modern CZ and Taurus), unfortunately it was released in the worst possible moment for an all-steel pistol.
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Both Colt and Beretta, when they experimented their 9mm blowbacks, noticed that the hammer was a weak point of the system. The very fast recoil of the slide tended to break it. Maybe Bernardelli had the same experience and decided to go for the striker.
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@keyhole9601 Breda is a little different, since it's not an old family gun company, but a steelwork company that produces weapons too.
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9mm Largo it's another name of the 9X23mm cartridge. 9mm Lungo is another name or the 9mm M38 cartridge, that's an extra-hot 9x19 mm Parabellum. They are not the same round, and are not compatible in any way.
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Unfortunately in Europe there was only a limited market for 9mm Para pistols at the time. Or you managed to get a public contract (army, police forces...) or the model was doomed, regardless of the quality.
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@Matt_The_Hugenot Unfortunately the Italian competitor in the market was the Beretta M1951, a really good pistol. But in a small semi-artigianal company like Bernardelli at the time, there was simply A LOT of people that knew how to assemble an handgun, starting out of nothing but using existing solutions (nothing in that pistols is really new, they are assemblies of well estabilished ideas) without a blueprint. Probably someone simply said "why don't we try to produce a 9mm para pistol?" and the answer was "why not? Maybe something good can came out of it".
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It's not from the '80s, it's from the '50s. In the '80s Bernardelli produced the very good P0.18 ( https://www.gunstorebunker.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BERNARDELLI-P018-MIL-1.jpg ).
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Unfortunately in Europe there was only a limited market for 9mm Para pistols at the time. Or you managed to get a public contract (army, police forces...) or the model was doomed, regardless of the quality.
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No. The rearward motion of the slide is blocked by the fixed barrel and the frame. To disassemble the weapon you have to rise the rear of the slide and push it forward. The worst thing that can happen if you fire with the disassembly button depressed is that (and it's a case out of one-million) the slide can rise out of the rails in and be projected forward, so "automatically" disassembling the gun, but without any injury for the shooter.
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The P018 was a very good design, but it took ideas, other than from the Hi-Power, from the CZ75, the Beretta 92 series and the SIG P220. It's not possible to think it could came out before 1982, when it did. The real shame had been for the evolution P.One. In today's market it would have probably sold well exactly thanks to the mix of classical features (all-forged-steel construction of frame and slide, 1911 style safety...) and modern ones (DA/SA "wondernine" with a decocker function, like the modern day CZ and Taurus, front serrations...). But it came out in the worst possible moment for an all-steel handgun.
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It's a "foolproof" safety. For those that think to have unloaded the gun by removing the magazine, and forget the round in the chamber (any gunsmith can provide dozens of samples).
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Itr would be great ot have a review on the "Bernardelli Semiautomatico" shotgun, made form the end of the '40s to the end of the '60. Other than having a detachable magazine, it used a peculiar delayed blowback action that many think it's a forerunner of the Inertia system. https://www.armeriasebina.it/uploads/2013/06/Fucile-Semiautomatico-BERNARDELLI--800x533.jpg
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Astra had been successful first.
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He should really do a segment on the Bernardelli Semiautomatico shotgun of 1949. That design was phenomenal. It's like if Baldassarre Belleri (the designer of the action https://patents.google.com/patent/US2622359 ) had seen a SVT-40 and thought "oh, nice rifle, it could be a great shotgun, but that gas piston is completely useless" and redone it as a delayed blowback action only changing the inclination of the locking surface. And it worked flawlessly. https://www.armeriasebina.it/uploads/2013/06/Fucile-Semiautomatico-BERNARDELLI-.jpg
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@Psiberzerker Probably the best trigger design is in the Glisenti 1910, where the sear is directly above the trigger. Unfortunately in that pistol the recoil spring doubles as striker spring, so the trigger has to fight vs the recoil spring to release the sear, that way that the trigger is really crisp, but hard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NplYrBFTWrA
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