Beretta has been in the firearms-making business for nearly 500 years in the Gardone Val Trompia region and, while we visited the amazing complex, we were asked what three guns we would like to shoot in the company's on-site shooting range, located inside a mountain. Because Beretta.
Our choice was easy: the classic Cold War-era PM12 "Spaghetti Uzi" submachine gun, the exciting new NARP rifle, and the elusive 93R machine pistol.
While we'll get into the first two later, let's go ahead and get into the 93R.
A sort of lookalike to its cousin, the Beretta 92, the 93R is an altogether different animal. One meant to run fast.
Select-fire, with options for a three-round burst or single shots, the "R" in its model designation stands for "Raffica," which roughly translates into "gust" or "flurry." To help control this zippy 9mm with its 700 round-per-minute cyclic rate of fire, the frame has a hinged metal forward grip and an extended barrel with compensator cuts. To feed the brass-chewing little beast, Beretta marketed the pistol with an extended 20-round magazine, which would allow for six bursts of three rounds and a seventh of two.
The company, which had produced (and continues to develop) several generations of submachine guns, a similar select-fire pistol had already preceded the 93R. The M951R, which was adopted by several Italian special forces and police units in the 1960s.
As with the M951R, the 93R was marketed primarily for niche roles such as VIP protection, counter-terror/robbery operations, and special forces types.
Only produced in small numbers between 1977 and 1993, the 93R has been seen in dozens of action and sci-fi movies, particularly as the "Auto 9" in the RoboCop franchise. It has also been in over 30 video games including assorted installments of the Call of Duty, Jurassic Park, Resident Evil, Battlefield, Payday, and Uncharted series.
Sadly, due to import restrictions and the bug that was the Hughes Amendment, the 93R is rare in the states, with just a few floating around-- and most of those being well-modded 92s.
So we had to travel 5,000 miles across an ocean to see a few and fire one.
The 93R was a blast to shoot. The three-round burst and integral foregrip made it easy to control and you could rapidly see a soccer-ball-sized group appear after a few mags on the target some 20 meters downrange.
But eventually, we had to leave.
Sigh. Cue Pavarotti.
