Pietro Beretta markings?

[Gargoyle]

I've got an old Pietro Beretta .410 single shot, camper style shotgun with some markings on it that I'm unsure of. Three stars followed by "IM" followed by "410" . Now I know what the 410 is and I figured that the IM meant improved mod. but have been told that may not be the case. I'm trying to figure if this is a 2 1/2inch or 3" gun and any other info I can get...

any help would be appreciated...

thanks

DJ

 

[marshall]

I can't help you with the marks, thou some of the shot gun
guys may post?
This sounds like a Model FS-1 single barrel folder made 12to 410g.
also known as the Campanion, underlever break open.
The blue book lists them as all full choke.
As a wood guy, I make ckoke gauges from hard wood, turn a piece
so it fits tight in the chamber, mark the sood flush with the end of barrel,
them just measure how long the camber is and then add 1/4"+ for the
crimp to open- ie- a 3" chamber is about 3.3" long.
You can drop the rod in a barrel that you know is 2 /3/4" and 3" and mark
the gauge at that point for each lenght, real handy for old sxs shot guns
as some are 2 1/2"

 

[looch]

3 stars in Italian markings means "modified", so there's a conflict with the IM marking. Not all that relevant, since patterning the gun is a much more "real world" test.

Also, an Italian gun will have chamber dim's in metric: 70 for 2 3/4". Nothing like measuring them yourself, though.