During a visit to central London I walked past The Beretta Gallery. The Gallery is located very central, 36 St. James’s Street, close to The Ritz (famous hotel), Picadilly and Jermyn Street. An area known for prestigious Gentleman’s Clubs and other custom shops.

The building is very elegant and contains the premium brands within the Beretta Group.

The Beretta Group is very large and they own companies like Burris, SAKO, Tikka, Steiner, Franchi, Stoeger and Benelli.

As many other companies, Beretta seems to make a lot of business out of non-firearms related things like accessories, homeware, luggage, gifts and clothes.

However, for some reason this was not my primary interest as I climbed the narrow steps upwards in the renovated former bank building. Where’s the hardware!?

The top floor is a show room for Beretta’s wide range of luxury shotguns, rifles and optics.

Due to legal restriction’s there are absolutely no handguns at the Beretta Gallery in London.

With this in mind, it came as a surprise to find a state-of-the-art sniper rifle like the SAKO TRG M10 as the main display.  Of course it had a suppressor, or “sound moderator” which seems to be the local term.

For 2016, SAKO have actually released a new color for the M10: Black. Or “Stealth black” as it’s called.

Previously it was only available (for private users at least) in sand, or “coyote brown” according to Sako terms.

I guess the “news” for 2017 will be to release it in “military green”, which would be the last of the 3 colors.

The rifle on display was a .308 Win., but on the M10 it’s easy to change barrels to either .300 WinMag or .338 Lapua Magnum.

This scope (Leupold VX-6) and mount would not be my first choice on a rifle like this. Actually the front of the optic was touching the Picatinny, metal to metal, so I hope it was for demonstrations purposes only.

The M10 system, with .338 Lapua Magnum as one of the potential calibers, screams for a Spuhr mount and a Kahles K624i 6-24×56. Or potentially something from the Steiner line-up, to follow the Beretta Group trademarks.

Don’t let Nikita anywhere close to this table…

The “sound moderator” (apply thick British accent) is made by ASE Utra (Made in Finland, as the rifle) and has a quick detach. I’ve heard only positive things about ASE, so they will be considered whenever I buy a suppressor.

I don’t know the details of gun legislation in the U.K., other than it is very restrictive. I would never change a flight at Heathrow or any other U.K. airport if I was going somewhere for a shooting competition or hunting. Friends have tried, only to never see their firearm again.

According to the sales representative, to apply for a license you need to prove that you have a need for a rifle, either by owning land (the more the better…) or possibly by being a member in a shooting club. You can only own one rifle per caliber.

However, getting a license to own a “sound moderator” is much easier, if not encouraged. How different gun laws and policies can work… (again please forgive me if I got the details wrong).

Below: 8.900 Brittish Pounds equals to about 13.000 USD. That’s without the “sound moderator”. That’s quite a lot more than average EU prices for a M10.

There’s a large selection of rifles and shotguns.

Above: Sako TRG-42, Sako 85M Stainless (.300WM), Sako 85L Kodiak, Sako 85LHunter (both .375HH) and Sako 85XL Safari  in .416 Rugby.

Above: Beretta Silver Sable II in 9,3x74R, 22″.

Other possible gun shops to visit in London is the Holland & Holland (only 5 minutes away from Beretta, close to New Bond Street) and at Harrods.