Surplus Sunday: The Beretta BM59 Rifle

By Dan Zimmerman

By Josh G.

Ah, Italy. A country of beautiful scenery, historic buildings, delicious food, fine art and some of the most beautiful, fast cars in the world. Oh, and when they get their hands on a classic like the M1 Garand, they turn it into a piece of art . . .

and change its name to BM59.

History:

The M1 Garand, “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” was an essential tool for ground forces across the globe during WWII. It’s widely acknowledged as one of the greatest firearms ever built. But, as with most things in life, like technology, it eventually became an obsolete design needing replacement. In America, the M14 took the war fighting reins (however briefly). Other countries, like Italy, thought it best to improve upon the rifle they already had.

The Rifle:

Beretta figured it would be cheaper and less time consuming to use the M1 Garand as a planform on which to add upgrades to make the weapon better. The end result was a beautiful rifle called the BM59. It was re-chambered to accept the NATO standard 7.62X51 rifle cartridge via a 20-round magazine.

Beretta wanted a firearm that was capable of going full or …read more

Source:: Truth About Guns