#Breda

Who is interested in new options for shotguns for IPSC and 3-Gun competitions? Breda America, a brand under Banshee Brands LLC, has just unveiled their latest models for competitive shooters worldwide: the Breda B12i/T4 and B12i/T4 X Competition Grade shotguns. These firearms are engineered to enhance performance in 3-gun competitions, with features like ambidextrous charging handles and easy-to-use controls. If you want to play, the MSRP starts from $1,899.

Today’s Photo Of The Day comes from the Italian company Breda. The photo shows a shotgun barrel in three of its production stages.

Keith Garcia is a phenomenal 3Gun competitor. My friend Brian M. mentioned that Keith Garcia has lighting fast hands when it comes to 3Gun. “He can reload a tube fed shotgun probably faster than I can reload my Vepr12” and Brian is no slouch in 3Gun.  Just to give you an idea here is a video from Keith Garcia’s instagram page.

Following military trials, especially historical ones, is a wonderful way to learn what not to do for weapons design. While some trails produce a few good offerings like the Garand/Pederson trials, most tend to quickly weed out the inferior designs (like the MHS’s rapid dropping of the Remington RP9 pistol). And sometimes, those trails can pick one of the bad ones… like Italy did with their Breda Modello 30, their LMG going into World War 2.

In 2014 I saw the first Breda AR-15s at the IWA exhibition.

The history of modern small arms is in part so fascinating because of how many firearms have been developed even in obscure circumstances, and how many of those obscure small arms still exist in museums and private collections around the world. Even though I make learning about obscure modern small arms my hobby, I am continually surprised by the new and unique weapons I uncover both on the Internet and in real-life excursions to some of the aforementioned collections.

While today the Italian company Franchi is not a heavy-hitting military small arms manufacturer, in the mid-1950s the company did produce some very interesting rifles, carbines, and submachine guns for the military market. The most recognizable of these is the LF-57 submachine gun, a simple blowback submachine gun very similar in design and appearance to the contemporary Walther MPL. Like that weapon, the LF-57 used a heavy, overhanging bolt to control cyclic rate of fire down to about 500 rounds per minute. The LF-57 ultimately wasn’t a huge success for Franchi, and only a few nations (including Italy) bought it.

Italian gunmaker Breda was at the show with a modest booth, showing off their new 930i sporting clays shotgun. Breda’s representative explained that the goal of the shotgun was to create a semi automatic sporting clays shotgun that could compete and win out of the box, with no modifications or customization.

Trevor Weston sends us more information on obscure Italian prototypes, this time two general purpose machine guns design by Breda. Trevor’s contact Vic Tuff writes:

Royal Armouries’ Trevor Weston recently sent me an email with some details relayed to him about a little-known Italian rifle from the 1950s, the Breda Model 39. This firearm was apparently intended to compete with what would become the BM59, among other weapons trialed by the Italians at the time, but stands out as having a very “commercial” appearance, with a classical shaped, fully-encased receiver reminiscent of a Winchester or Remington shotgun. Everything I know about this firearm comes from my email conversations with Trevor, in which he relayed information from one of his sources to me: