Shotguns As Art

There are lots of sounds you might associate with Beretta firearms: the rhythmic pop-pop of pistol fire at a police range, the boom of a hunter's single shotgun blast, the crack of steel on steel as a movie hero slams home a magazine. But in an airy second-floor studio here at the headquarters of the world's oldest firearms manufacturer, in the iron-rich alpine foothills of Gardone Val Trompia, Italy, there's another, more delicate sound: the staccato tapping of engravers adding the tiny finishing touches to the company's custom-made shotguns. And we mean custom: buyers can specify size, shape, materials and just about any engraved design at prices that range from $25,000 (for a gun with traditional floral and wildlife scenes) to $70,000 and beyond (for gilding and inlays).

The singer Madonna spent about $100,000 last year on a matching pair of custom Beretta SO9 over-and-unders for her husband. In the past two years, despite the global recession, Beretta Holding reports a 15% increase in sales of such "premium grade" guns. The company earns most of its profits from mass-produced weapons such as military handguns, but its annual premium-grade sales of $30 million represent 8% of its revenues and more than one-third of that worldwide market. (Beretta doesn't disclose how many guns it sells.)

Buyers don't consider the guns an indulgence. "Premium guns are very good at holding their value," says Will Hetherington, an editor at the British Shooting Gazette. "They're seen as an investment, more along the lines of a piece of art. Many owners never take them out of the house." Others, though, are using their guns right now, during the fall hunting season across North America and Europe. Beretta sells the shotguns at a handful of specialized "galleries," including one on Madison Avenue in New York City and another in Dallas. A new one will open in March in Paris. Standard-size guns with traditional engraving are kept in stock. For custom dimensions or engraving, you can fax in your needs and then wait a year or two.

If anything could shake interest in what British collectors call "best guns," it's not costliness it's the scene just down the road from the Beretta engraving studio, where the company is leading a push to partly automate the making of luxury firearms. Beretta has invested some $4 million over the past four years in computer-controlled machines to cut walnut stocks, cold-forge barrels, even fashion the upper curves of receivers (the guns' steel mid-bodies).

To some it's a sad shift away from what has been a product made only by Old World artisans. Yet the changes are all but inevitable, as technology compensates for a dwindling supply of qualified craftsmen. "It's an inescapable truth that machines can ultimately step in and do most jobs as well as, if not better than, humans," says Hetherington. There's no denying that for utter precision and consistency, nothing beats a 125-ton computer-driven swaging machine hammering down on a barrel 1,600 times a minute. What is unknown is whether knowledgeable collectors seeking uniqueness, not consistency will one day insist on "pre-machine" guns.

Top English makers still produce the most-prized custom guns, in very small numbers, and, yes, some of them are modernizing. Holland & Holland of London, founded in 1835, turns out perhaps 125 premium shotguns and rifles a year. "Because of our size, we can't make some of the investments that Beretta can," says Russell Wilkin, technical director. "But we use a lot of the same new technology," including automated initial machining.

The premium line is vital to Beretta's appeal, and artisanal engraving is part of the essence of the guns. Typically, 350 hours of work are needed to execute the postcard-size surface of a receiver. Luca Casari, 35, like only a few who are still working in the studio, learned the art as a boy. "Sure, we could be replaced by laser," he says, "but doing it by hand gives the gun its real value."