Читать книгу Gun Digest Book of Beretta Pistols. Function | Accuracy | Performance онлайн

114 страница из 126

Long before the U.S. adopted the Beretta 92, it had been fitted with an ambidextrous safety/decocking lever as standard. It is a very southpaw-friendly pistol.

The Model 1951 proved that Beretta could build a rugged, reliable 9mm Parabellum service pistol. The foundation had been laid for the Model 92.

Genesis Of The Model 92

In 1970, perceiving the double-action 9mm to be the pistol of the future, the Beretta company began work on such a gun. It would be Beretta’s first double-action 9mm, and its first pistol with a double-stack, high-capacity magazine. Giusseppe Mazzetti and Vittorio Valle, reporting directly to Carlo Beretta, led the design team, which reportedly at one point had some 15 designers working on the double-action mechanism alone. Much of that development would ultimately transfer to the forthcoming Series 81 pistols, medium-framed autos in calibers .22, .32, and .380.

The first prototypes, reports Larry Wilson, were complete by 1975. This original incarnation of the Beretta Model 92 had the open slide and “oval” burr hammer, and unique magazine release, of the 1951. The shooter operated a frame-mounted safety, pivoting on a pin, the same as a 1911 or a Browning. The trigger guard was rounded.