Hi Pat, I also have a Bernadelli Hammergun (12ga), mine is the Italia model. Never one problem with her, handles very well, nice balance and a quality piece.

I use mine for duck hunting and it's proved it's worth in the blind over the past few years. I had Briley install their thin wall steel shot tubes and had Mark Larson "enhance the stock (the wood on mine was as plain as all get out!)

I agree with Adam and Jani, these guns are getting hard (and in 20ga even harder) to find and the quality is excellent. I'd go with the Bernadelli, but then again, I like hammerguns.

Bernadelli made three grades of hammerguns, the Bescia (looks like the model you posted, from what I can tell on my crappy monitor), the Italia and the Italia Special. All three are the same action/gun, just better/more engraving and perhaps a bit better finished. These are excellent guns!

You can use this link to see the year the gun was made:

http://www.gun-data.com/italiandatecodes2_arms.html

Here's a pic of my Bernadelli Italia:



Good luck on your search!!!

Best!

Greg


Gregory J. Westberg
MSG, USA
Ret