September 10-12, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/10/2024
Very scarce and low serial numbered early Breda model 30 machine gun as produced in 1935 under contract for Costa Rica. The original bipod and three spare barrels are included with this gun. One barrel is in 6.5 Italian Carcano, and the others are in 7x57mm Mauser. One barrel flash hider not present. Two of the barrels do not have the wrapping on the handles. Costa Rica specified the 7 mm Mauser chambering in the guns they ordered. This is fortunate for gun collectors today as this is a more popular caliber than either 6.5 mm or 7.35 mm Carcano. Manufacturer’s markings including date of manufacture on top of receiver. No magazine assembly or charger loaders present. Electronic NFA registry indicates “BREDA” as the manufacturer. CONDITION: Overall appearance and finish is extremely fine original blue finish on gun itself with areas of gray and brown patina. Barrel range from extremely fine finish to very little finish with gray patina on barrel in gun. Wood is fine with some bruises and dings. Very nice cartouche with serial number on right side of stock. Bores of all barrels are near excellent, shiny and bright. Bolt face is extremely fine. Mechanics are crisp and smooth. This is a fully automatic only machine gun. Italy entered WWII with over 28,000 of these machine guns. Under combat conditions, they tended to jam as the magazine housing was skeletonized with the spring open to the air to save on the weight of the machined parts. This allowed dirt and other material in. These guns also tended to overheat when employed with sustained periods of fire. Neither of these situations are necessarily encountered in recreational machine gun shooting today. If one were to employ this gun as one would a Browning Automatic Rifle on the firing range, keeping it out of the dirt, and not allowing it to overheat, one might be surprised at how controllable it is with a solid bipod and pistol grip assembly. One of the rifle caliber model guns of Italy of World War II and certainly a well-made machine steel machine gun. THIS IS A NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT ITEM AND REQUIRES BATF APPROVAL PRIOR TO TRANSFER. THIS ITEM IS FULLY TRANSFERABLE ON AN ATF FORM 3 OR 4 AS CURIO AND RELIC ELIGIBLE. JWK 2024-09-087.