doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help ID'ing Beretta SxS?

I�m trying to help identify a gun for a friend, it used to belong to his dad who has since passed away. There is no obvious model designation that I recognize, I found some significant variation in appearance of some models but it looks like photos I can find online of a model 409PB, which it very well may be. Based on this and the info below can anyone help me to pinpoint the exact model and any applicable info?

The gun is a 12ga beretta SxS with double triggers, a beavertail foreend and capped pistol grip. The head of the stock has the singled squared indent into the action similar to the modern beretta stocks although I�m highly doubtful this is any newer than the 70�s or maybe very early 80�s�my guess is that it�s a late 60�s/early 70�s gun just from comparing it to other berettas I�ve owned, it appears to be a similar vintage and finish-level to my BL-4/S56e over/unders. There is no date code that I recognize�no roman numerals and no double letters, and no importers stamp. The serial # is C226xx (x=a numeral, just so I�m not posting full serial numbers in random places).

Markings on the gun:
Pietro Beretta-Gardone V.T.
Made in Italy
Cal. 12

Alloy Chromium Electric Steel
Special Type Ausonia

Bottom of action says-
Monobloc Beretta

On the barrels under the forened it says:
On the left barrel: Ky (looks like scrolled/cursive letters that appear to be an upper-case K and a lower-case y) 1,500 18,3 17.2

On the Right Barrel: 20.3 (over)70 18.4 17.8

On the bottom rib behind the lug it reads: 349 (I thought this might be a model, but could not find any info on a model 349. Gun appears to be much newer than march of �49 as well�is this a code for something?)

He didn�t send it to me but on the picture he sent I can see the barrel flats say �Choke� and next to that on one side �1�.

My friend doesn�t really know what to look for but that�s the info I�ve got. All of the pics he sent are attached. I know the markings say the gun is a 2 3/4" chamber with .720 and .724 bores with chokes of .023 and .043 which is a tight mod and a very tight full, but I'm not sure what the 20.3 is, what the 1,500,the Ky and the 349 is or what model it is.

Can anyone help me to pinpoint a model, date of manufacture, or source for any other info?

Thanks!

Kind of reminds me of old Gaylon imported ca. 1960 'Silver Hawk' non-ejector I used to own. Beretta had whole slew of BL guns like 409, 411, 426,..... Bit heavy, but very solid, robust and reliable shotgun. It cost about $170 when it was made. At one time we had member from Montana that knew old Berettas like nobody else. Too bad he does not seem to post here anymore.
There was a good article in Double Gun Journal few years back about older Beretta box-lock double shotguns. I got rid of most of my literature when I sold my shotguns. Perhaps someone on here will be kind enough to provide you with copy of that article.

409 I'd say Ausonia steel is the clue
date code or year will be on the flats somewhere a picture would help

Usually stamped on the forend wood I believe

Dave , it sure looks like a dead ringer for my 409.

The 1.500 is the finished barrel weight in Kg. Stamp may look like a coma rather than decimal point, because sometimes it is. What looks to you like Ky is actually Kg. It is simply a partial stamping that makes it look that way.

As said previously, model number is quite likely stamped in the wood under the forearm.

Date of MFG will be a Roman numeral stamped on the underside of the barrels near the breech. It does not show in the pics your friend provided, but its there somewhere between where we can see the partial word 'choke' on both barrels and the breech. Too, it could be on the action flat. Please have him take pics of both & post those.

the first # is Kg 1,500 and that is the barrel weight - 1.5kg

left bbl - 18.3mm/ o.721" / o.677" choke for 0.044" choke

right bbl - 18.4mm / 0.724" / 0.701" choke for 0.023" choke

nothing unusual about those #'s

** a pic of the bbl flats would have more data **

there is usually a model # somewhere, could be under the trigger guard, maybe on the action flats

the 20,3 and the 70 could be some kind of date code but it is not the standard format for that OR chamber length (cam.70) or anything else that I'm familiar with

not being mean but the #'s look a lot sloppier/older than the ones on a 1969 gun I have so ..... FWIW

I'm no Beretta expert but Italian guns all meet the same criteria for markings, proof, etc.

I believe the 20.3 is the chamber diameter in mm and the 70 is the length again in mm

Thanks all, appreciate the help. 20.3 seems like it would make sense for a chamber diameter--seems the most plausible thing I can think of, anyway. I do have a photo of the inside of the fore end (for some reason that portion of the image was cropped when I posted it), the last 4 digits of the serial number are there but definitely no model number. I've requested a picture of the water table and barrel flats so hopefully that will get a definitive date and perhaps even a model.
For what it's worth I stumbled into a Beretta SxS-focused newsletter that indicated the Italian proof markings went from mm bore and choke markings to a "star" system in 1962, which if that's accurate would indicate this was a pre-62 gun. It seems to be a 40x Silverhawk, likely a 409 as Dave mentioned above, I'm just not sure how to tell the ultimate grade if the model isn't marked on it...my 1960's Beretta O/U's have significant variation in appearance and embellishment even within a given grade so I'm not sure how to be certain.

The gun is a model 409. The Silver Hawk was the US importers name for the 409 guns it bought from Beretta. That importer was Galef

Your gun was probably carried into the U.S. by a member of the armed services or someone traveling to Italy. Usually those guns had sling mounts. You might look for holes in the bottom rib.

Nice gun - entry level grade. I have several of them in 20,16 and 12ga.