Bernardelli Roma

About the Bernardelli Roma

The Bernardelli Roma is a side-by-side double-barrel break-action shotgun produced by the Italian gunmaker Vincenzo Bernardelli of Gardone Val Trompia. Built around a Purdey-type locking system in which a lug on an extended barrel rib engages a recess in the breech, the Roma is a traditional boxlock-with-sideplates hunting and sporting shotgun. It was offered in 12, 20 and 28 gauge with fixed customer-selected chokes, automatic ejectors, an automatic open-breech safety plus a manual safety, and quality Italian walnut stocks. The extensive Roma series shares a common mechanism, with the numbered grades differing primarily in the engraving and ornamentation of the sideplates.

Vincenzo Bernardelli established his firearms business in Gardone Val Trompia in 1865, beginning with Damascus-twist shotgun barrels before producing complete firearms. The Roma sideplate shotguns became one of the company's signature sporting lines before the historic firm closed in 2017.

Bernardelli Roma specifications

Roma is a family of grades (Roma 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.) that are mechanically near-identical and differentiated chiefly by sideplate engraving and finish. Offered with either a single trigger with barrel selector or twin triggers; barrels typically 26, 28 or 30 inches.