Bernardelli PO-18 ??? Anyone.

5-SHOTS, being that you live in Italy and seem to appreciate fine Italian pistols, do you have any experience with the Delta Top Gun?

They were built for several years on a very limited basis starting in the late 1990’s. It uses the excellent roller locking design taken from the old CZ 52, but manufactured to extremely high standards of quality.

I believe just 2-300 hundred were produced at most (probably less), but very few made it to the States. All of those were privately imported. I’m lucky enough to own two of them, both in 45ACP.

Brian, What is this parts function?

bc1023

Deanimator said: ↑

I'd like to see somebody bring the Benelli back, TISAS maybe.​

Way too complicated a design and too expensive to produce. They’re also very difficult to field strip by today’s standards or even in their day, to be honest.

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I had a Benelli B76 many moons ago and you're absolutely correct: they were beautifully made but much too complex for a single stack 9mm. I eagerly sold it to a friend of mine who was actually fascinated by it's intricate complexity and I believe somewhat by its Italian heritage!

bc1023 said:

Very nice

The Pardinis are very slick. I have an older GT-9 with the full length dust cover.

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Nice Pardini you have. Seems that first PC9 and GT9 started with the "E" serial number and then went with the "K" serial number. Or the "E" serial number was for the PC model and the "K" serial number was for the GT model. Not sure about this. Mine is a sort of "third generation" with the "AR" serial number.

bc1023 said:

5-SHOTS, being that you live in Italy and seem to appreciate fine Italian pistols, do you have any experience with the Delta Top Gun?

They were built for several years on a very limited basis starting in the late 1990’s. It uses the excellent roller locking design taken from the old CZ 52, but manufactured to extremely high standards of quality.

I believe just 2-300 hundred were produced at most (probably less), but very few made it to the States. All of those were privately imported. I’m lucky enough to own two of them, both in 45ACP.

Click to expand...

Superb collection of Deltas, congratulations. I know them but I've never seen one in person. Sort of a unicorn. It is very difficult for me to think of a more refined Italian pistol than this one.
Some months ago I've seen one for sale online here for 1500 euros (it was a .45ACP).
Now there's this 9x21 IMI one for sale for 1000 euros (a steal of a deal): https://www.armiusate.it/armi-corte/pistole/delta-ar-top-gun-9x21mm-imi_i538029 (there are some pretty good pics of the internals).
When in production they were in the 1800/2000 euros price range which wasn't impossible but they went out of businness. Too bad.

tarosean said:

Brian, What is this parts function?

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Not Brian, but would assume its for takedown, CZ52s have a similiar part in the same place to take them down

5-SHOTS said:

Nice Pardini you have. Seems that first PC9 and GT9 started with the "E" serial number and then went with the "K" serial number. Or the "E" serial number was for the PC model and the "K" serial number was for the GT model. Not sure about this. Mine is a sort of "third generation" with the "AR" serial number.


Superb collection of Deltas, congratulations. I know them but I've never seen one in person. Sort of a unicorn.
Some months ago I've seen one for sale online here for 1500 euros (it was a .45ACP).
Now there's this 9x21 IMI one for sale for 1000 euros (a steal of a deal): https://www.armiusate.it/armi-corte/pistole/delta-ar-top-gun-9x21mm-imi_i538029 (there are some pretty good pics of the internals).
When in production they were in the 1800/2000 euros price range which wasn't impossible but they went out of businness. Too bad.

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Yeah they didn't make very many at all. In this country, they trade hands for some big dollars ($4000+ in great shape with the case).

Here's some detailed pics of my nickel model from the first year of production (top eject).

newfalguy101 said:

Not Brian, but would assume its for takedown, CZ52s have a similiar part in the same place to take them down

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Yes, its the take down lever. The design is that of a roller locking system, borrowed from the old CZ 52.

bc1023 said:

Yeah they didn't make very many at all. In this country, they trade hands for some big dollars ($4000+ in great shape with the case).

Here's some detailed pics of my nickel model from the first year of production (top eject).


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Thanks for the amazing pics. I didn't even knew the first year was top ejection. Recently a guy opened a thread (https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/ambidextrous-autoloader.853904/) asking for a fully ambi top ejection pistol; the first production Delta AR Top Gun is the answer...
I'm seriously thinking about that 9x21 IMI Delta on sale in Italy right now...
There's also an as new Pardini GT9, serial number K00010, on sale for 765 euros shipped: https://www.armiusate.it/armi-corte/pistole/pardini-gt9-9x21mm-imi_i546522 Very tempting.

5-SHOTS said:

Thanks for the amazing pics. I didn't even knew the first year was top ejection. Recently a guy opened a thread (https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/ambidextrous-autoloader.853904/) asking for a fully ambi top ejection pistol; the first production Delta AR Top Gun is the answer...
I'm seriously thinking about that 9x21 IMI Delta on sale in Italy right now...
There's also an as new Pardini GT9, serial number K00010, on sale for 765 euros shipped: https://www.armiusate.it/armi-corte/pistole/pardini-gt9-9x21mm-imi_i546522 Very tempting.

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There are lots of great pistols. The Sig P210 (Swiss) is one of my favorites.

OP sorry for the thread hijack, but you seemed to get good info on the Bernardelli at least.