doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bernadelli gamecock deluxe.

Thanks for the picture. What then is the difference between the deluxe and premier? All I can find for sale are premiers with single non-selective trigger and deluxe with double triggers. Is yours marked with Stoeger as importer and is it marked Premier?

In the Roma series, an E was added for an ejector gun, and I believe an M to designate single trigger. But I don't recall having seen many Romas that did not have ejectors. I did find one description of a Gamecock Premier with Roma 3 in parens, indicating it was a single trigger gun with ejectors--as mentioned above. But most Roma 3's I've seen are double trigger guns. However, they do look the same with the fairly plain sideplates, other than the single vs double triggers.

I think there were some differences between the Roma series and those sold by Stoeger as Gamecock. I think the Roma 3 was basically the Deluxe Gamecock, but, as you point out, the 3 was available with an M designation for single trigger option and the Roma series were also available with pistol grip stock. Stoeger offered no options other than the regular Gamecock, the Deluxe and Premier, all of which were straight grip.

Although I think Stoeger coined the "Gamecock" name, they weren't the only Bernardelli importer to use it. I recently saw a standard Gamecock imported by Sloan's Sporting Goods. And I'm not positive when Stoeger started using the Gamecock name, but it must have been after 1961. My Shooter's Bible from 1961 doesn't list any of the guns as Gamecocks, but it shows the San Umberto 1 (which became the standard Gamecock) plus grades 2 and 3, which were also non-sideplated guns like the standard Gamecock. There are also 3 Roma grades listed (3, 4, and 6) plus the true sidelock Holland. The catalog indicates that automatic ejectors, a beavertail forend, and a selective single trigger were available as options (at extra cost) on all grades.

I had a Roma 3E 20 guage 26" IC/M for many years; it had double triggers with the front one articulated. Case-colored sideplates, very plain but sound wood on "English" stock. Sold it about 8 years ago for $950; it was 90% bluing but many little stock dents and dings from hunting grouse in upstate NYS.

Marked on the receiver Premier

Marked on the barrels
Custom Made For Sloan's Sporting Goods Co. Ridgefield, CT.

Thanks. Wasn't aware that they were imported by anyone other than Stoeger.

Warshal's Sporting Goods in Seattle was also importing V. Bernardellis for some period of time. I have a VB O/U marked for Warshal's, now closed. In the mid-90s, they still had new VBs on the rack.

I knew others had imported Bernardelli's - just thought Stoeger was the only one that used the Gamecock name.

I'd thought the same thing, cpa--until I recently ran across the Gamecock imported by Sloan's. Guess they kept the name after Stoeger ceased importing them.