The only Beretta .22 rifle listed in my 17th edition Gun Trader's Guide:

Beretta Small Bore Sporting Carbine
Semiautomatic with bolt handle raised, conventional bolt action repeater with handle in lowered position. Caliber: .22 Long Rifle, 4-, 8-, or 20-shot magazines. 20 1/2 inch barrel, 3-leaf folding rear sight, patridge front sight. Stock with checkered pistol grip, sling swivels. Weight: 5 1/2 pounds.

 

Can anyone tell me anything about this rifle? It is a .22caliber, clip fed (7 or 8 round), semi-auto rifle with a very nice checkered walnut stock that has a Monte-Carlo comb with cheek piece. The only markings that I can find on the rifle are on the very back of the receiver on the left side. It reads:

AUT. 22 Long Rifle "Beretta" Gardone V.T.
Made In Italy.

It has a ramp front sight with a blade and two flip up leafs along with a stationary one. It also has a hole in the bottom of the trigger guard for what appears to be access to a trigger adjustment screw in the floor plate. It also has, what appears to be OEM sling swivels. To hold the bolt open, you pull it back and press down on a latch type bar on the top and rear of the receiver. I'll try to post some pictures on Monday. I did not find anything about this rifle in the Blue Book either. Thanks in advance for any information that anyone has to share.

My Beretta collector's book is buried right now, but if it's the one I think it is, it was never officially imported by a company. Probably brought in as a private purchase, possibly by a military member. Does it have a dovetail for a scope on the receiver? If there are no importer's marks stamped anywhere, it wasn't brought in for resale. That makes things like spare parts and spare magazines rather iffy. Awaiting your pics.

Stan S.

 

Thanks for your response. It has a dovetail of sorts on the receiver where the flip up sight leafs are. The dove tail is in two sections, one in front of the sight leafs and one in back of them. The area is 1 3/4 inches long with grooves milled out for the Weaver style cross bolt mounting screws. There are no importers marks. The only additional marks that I can find are a couple proof marks and a serial number. I'll take some close up, detailed pictures tomorrow.

James

 

Please post pics if you can, l would like to see that interesting rifle.

 

Post pics as we would all love to see it. I don't know anything about the rifle. The ammo you will need for it is very rare and hard to find in the US.

 

I take it to be chambered for our .22 L.R. cartridge, or am I missing a covert "joke"?

 

It is very likely a Beretta Olympia model - PM your email address and I will send a copy of the owner's manual. Will post pictures of mine later, it came scoped with a Leupold and I continue the search for an original rear site. shoot straight, gewehr


Here are 2 pictures as promised; apologize for the poor quality but all I have at the moment:

 

Sent manual to OP; will pay top dollar for an original rear site. This model has 2 bolt positions, one for semi-auto fire, and one for "conventional" bolt action, single shot fire. Extremely easy take down and nicely balanced design. shoot straight, gewehr

 

Here are a few pictures of the Beretta AUT 22. If you click on the attached thumbnail, you can see a larger picture of the rifle.
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Wow, really nice! some similarities (clip, stock, trigger adjustment), but definitely not an Olympic model - have never seen one of those before. MANY thanks for sharing! A truly unique rear sight as well. gewehr

 

Sharp looking rifle. Thank you for posting pictures. I will be watching to see when someone that knows about this rifle says.

 

The mystery seems to be solved thanks to a RFC Beretta Forum member. It is a Beretta Super Sport. It is on page twelve of the link below. The series consists of the following models: Olympia - Sport - Super Sport. They were never imported into the US. They were made in the 1950s for a European audience. Some found their way here with US servicemen coming back from Europe at that time. Thanks to all who have commented. :congrats: Now I need to find another mystery to seek help to solve. :hmmmm:

http://stevespages.com/pdf/beretta_22.pdf

James

 

Hi all! I am new on this forum; I hope I am not asking something it has already been answered (I didn't find it anyway). I inheritated the same rifle as the Gewehr's pictures.

Does anybody know where I can find a user manual online?

Grazie!

Antonio.

 

Sorry, just found (embarassed).

A.

 

Google your question (if you haven`t already) Information available.

 

I find it odd that something made in Italy in the 50s for European consumption would be stamped "Made in Italy, " and not "Fatto in Italia, or "Produtto in Italia"

I do like the sporter style stock with fancy pistol grip and cheek rest. It's so 50s. The selectable semi auto or bolt action option is a nice feature.

 

"Made in Italy" is used since the '50s indicating a product partially or totally manufactured in Italy. The wording has nearly always been in English in order to get an easier international understanding. Since 2009 "Made in Italy" is an Italian Gov. registered trademark indicating a product totally manufactured in Italy (design/engineering/manufacturing/packing). I guess that today an hypothetical new production of the Beretta 22 lr Olimpia would not be allowed to have stamped "Made in Italy" on it (Carl Walther Sportwaffen design?). Sorry for my poor English!

 

Where are you located?

I have the same rifle dated 1951.

I had difficulty locating magazines in Australia too.
I found a 10 round Zastava magazine which was a very close match. It was very tight, so I gently polished it with oil and fine emery paper until it was able to fit. The feed lips were a little short too, so I welded some extra metal in to lengthen them a bit.

It looks a bit rough, but performs flawlessly.

 

A couple of pics:

Beretta 5 round that came with the rifle, Beretta 10 round I found locally, Zastava 10 round that I've modified.






Feed lips of the original 5 rounder, Beretta 10 rounder on top:
10 rounder mag has slightly smaller feed lips, but still works ok.






Original 10 rounder in front, with modified Zastava at rear:
You can see where I welded in extra steel, to bring the lips out the same as the 5 rounder.

 

Thanks for Your reply .
Is there any document which shows the dimensions of magazines . I can show this picture to location manufacture but it would be great if I get the dimensions
or 3D Model

 

Sorry. None that I know of.

But here's a rough guide:

Sheet steel 0.040in thick

Gap between feed lips 0.220in

Mag release groove 1.310in from top of feed lips, or 1.835 from bottom of mag

 

thanks

 

Beretta Olimpia with 3-7x20 factory scope and original sights

FYI: Beretta Olimpia with 3-7x20 factory scope and original sights. (Auction pictures found online.)

FYI, there was a Sport model imported in 1960 by Gabe Godfrey of Godfrey Import Corp., 261 Broadway, New York 7, N.Y.

It was called the Silver Gyrfalcon Featherweight. It had 5 shot, 10 shot and 20 shot magazines available. Also had the "Precision milled and machined 3 leaf rear sight". (Info from Gabe Godfrey 1960 postmarked mailer.)

Thanks for all the detailed pictures in this thread.

 

Beretta Sport, Super Sport and Olimpia parts diagrams

Beretta Sport, Super Sport and Olimpia parts diagrams:

 

The other side of the stock:

Early Super Sport:

 

What you have here is a Beretta “Supersport” , which is kind of the delux version of the “Sport” , having front chequering, a different fore end and a larger bolt handle. Both of these are semi auto only.
The target version (known as the Olympia ), has a large handle, and can be locked down to Fire single shot, or with handle level to operate as a semi auto. It also has an adjustable position front sling mount amount other things.

 

That is a SUPER NICE rifle..!!

 

Wow, really nice! some similarities (clip, stock, trigger adjustment), but definitely not an Olympic model - have never seen one of those before. MANY thanks for sharing! A truly unique rear sight as well. gewehr

I have the MOD Olympic. Trying to find out more about this gun. C 22506 on the side

 

I recently bought a Beretta Sport and a few days later the Super Sport. These are very high quality rifles and a joy to shoot. The Sport model can function either as a bolt action or semi auto which is really neat. The Super Sport is a higher grade rifle that operates in Semi Auto only.