The Beretta Olimpia, Part Two

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Disassembly of an Olimpia rifle or carbine (carbine in the accompanying photos) starts with ensuring that the chamber is empty and the magazine has been removed. Next, pull back the bolt handle and rotate it in the rear notch to lock the breech open. Then push in the breech release button and lift up the rear of the breech and breech bolt as an assembly and withdraw to the rear, setting it aside. The hammer will be cocked.

To release it, the spring-loaded trigger catch lever located in front of the receiver tang will need to be depressed while the trigger is pulled and the hammer is released in a controlled manner. This is a "three-hand job" but can be done with two hands if you’re dexterous. Invert the rifle in a rifle vise or bench sandbags. Using properly-fit hollow ground screwdrivers, remove first the two outermost trigger The two tangs at the front of the breech assembly clear their recesses under the receiver ring.

Below center: Lift up the bolt handle and allow the bolt to ride forward in a controlled manner to prevent the recoil spring from "launching" the bolt, spring, or its guide rod. Given the mass of the bolt, it won’t launch far but who likes to chase parts around the shop? Ensure that no cartridge is chambered. guard screws, then remove the two smaller screws. Ignore for now the trigger pull adjustment screw that is directly beneath the hole in the bottom center of the trigger guard.

Lift off the trigger guard and trigger plate, taking care to note the stamped push button safety, spring, and detent pin inset into the rearmost steel block in the receiver. Notice the position of the sliding safety with its two detents. The barreled action can now be removed from the stock. Note, on some Olimpia rifles and carbines, the receiver is extremely well bedded without compound; that is, the receiver is a snug fit in the stock mor-

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Above center: Boltface showing the extractor and firing pin face along with the robust bolt races at the bottom. " Starting with the receiver tang at lower left, the trigger catch lever is shown in its mortise. Appearing to overlap the trigger catch lever is the sear lever actuation lever attached to the top of the trigger. Next, the hammer is shown in its forward (uncocked) position, followed by the hammer spring and strut assembly.

A steel receiver block containing the ejector is next, just to the left of the magazine well, in front of which is the cartridge feed ramp and the breech. The two short pins perpendicular to the feed ramp support and locate the two forward tangs of the breech from below. Notches cut into the receiver ring just in front of the pins locate the breech from in front and above, securely holding the breech in place at its front. tise. Some "persuading" with a rubber mallet may be necessary.

To further disassemble the receiver, have a bench block handy to support the receiver sideplates. With the hammer released as From the stock upwards, trigger plate (flipped over to show the crossbolt-type stamped safety and the detents machined into it), stamped trigger guard, and four guard screws. The sear let-off screw is still installed in the trigger plate.

Regarding the receiver shown in the stock and looking at the crossbolt safety button clearance cuts in the stock and viewing left, shown are the trigger, slotted sear lever, partially-hidden hammer spring and strut, steel block with magazine release button, and magazine well. Below center: Stamped safety’s detent plunger slightly offset to the carbine’s left side and directly to the rear of the trigger.

Remember to remove the detent and spring and place them in a magnetic dish before removing the barreled action from the stock. From left, trigger catch lever, sear lever actuation above, drive out the hammer pivot pin from right to left and remove the hammer through the top of the receiver. The hammer spring and its spring rod are retained in the receiver block where the magazine catch assembly is located; the end of the hammer spring rod opposite the hammer is round-headed.

Next, I find it helpful to drive out the trigger pivot pin and the sear lever pivot pin and then remove the sear lever and trigger as a group from the bottom of the receiver. Notice how the sear lever actuation lever extends from the top front of the trigger and rests in the top of a slot in the sear lever. Take a few photos for reference and see the group photo of the hammer, sear lever, sear spring, and trigger to get an idea of how they are positioned in assembly.

In operation, when the trigger is pulled, the top of the trigger moves forward, pushing the notched sear lever actuator forward against a mating surface in the sear lever, lever, cocked hammer, hammer spring and strut assembly, and steel receiver block containing the ejector.

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Above center: Index finger is on the knurled magazine release button, with the magazine catch in the magazine well just to the right. The straight edge of the half moon shaped magazine catch engages the slot in the magazine spine. tilting the sear lever forward and releasing the hammer to strike the firing pin. The trigger reset spring and pin can be withdrawn forward from the rear receiver block. The magazine catch, magazine release button, and spring are retained by a crosspin.

Pressing the magazine release button "cams" the magazine release to the rear. Drive out the crosspin and withdraw the release button from the bottom of the receiver and the magazine catch toward the front into the magazine well. Take note of which side the slot in the magazine catch is to be placed in assembly. On the carbine that I disassembled, removal of the magazine release button and magazine catch and spring also released the fixed end of the hammer spring strut.

To disassemble the rear sight, first take some measurements with the depth measurement "tail" of a digital caliper or a small machinist’s scale to get an idea of the present elevation and windage settings. There are usually windage hash marks on the rear sight ramp and leaf that make resetting the windage easy but elevation requires either counting revolutions of the elevation screw or taking rear sight leaf height measurements.

Remove the two opposing serrated windage screws and slide out the rear sight leaf to either side. Remove the rear sight ramp by removing the elevation screw. The front sight insert is removed by removing the retaining screw and pushing or driving the insert out to the front. Reassembly is in reverse order but I find it easier to place the receiver on a bench block on its right side and position the sear lever and trigger Removing both pivot pins makes removal of the trigger and sear lever the easiest.

Below center: Closeup of hammer spring and strut. It is retained by a crosspin and is spring loaded. The recess for the spring and plunger is visible partway back in the slot in the receiver tang block. as a group into the receiver after replacing the trigger reset spring and plunger, ensuring that the sear lever actuation lever is properly positioned in the sear lever slot, then tapping the sear lever axis pin into the receiver and into the thin side of the sear lever to retain the sear lever.

Then push the trigger up and under the trigger catch lever in the rear tang so that the hook on the top right of the trigger engages the mating hook in the bottom front of the trigger catch lever. This helps to fix the trigger in position for installation of the trigger pivot pin. Then push the trigger back against the trigger reset spring and plunger while inserting a pin punch or slave pin into the trigger pivot pin hole.

Start the trigger pivot pin in the receiver hole and continue to seat the pivot pin while the pivot pin simultaneously pushes out the slave pin or punch. The hammer can then be installed in similar manner. Once all pivot pins are installed, function

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The sear lever actuation lever extends through the top of the slot machined into the underside of the sear lever. The sear lever spring must be in this orientation when installed into the sear lever slot so that the curved tail (right) fits into a capture slot machined lengthwise into the bottom of the sear lever actuation lever. Note, the fire control group will not function properly if the sear lever spring tail is not inside that capture groove in the actuation lever.

Above center: Fingertip is replacing the trigger reset spring and plunger into the receiver tang block in preparation for re-installation of the trigger and sear lever. The sear lever spring is shown in its proper orientation. Push the spring in and finish driving in the pivot pin. check the trigger control group before further assembly.

When reinstalling the carbine two-piece sheet metal trigger guard and trigger plate, it helps to first install the large guard screws at both ends of the trigger guard; this helps align the holes in the trigger guard and trigger plate for the two smaller screws. Install the two smaller screws tight, then tighten the large guard screws. Below center: A slave pin or punch serves as a third hand to retain the hammer while seating the hammer pivot pin. The hammer strut is properly seated in its recess in the hammer.

I did get some trigger time with my friend’s Olimpia, putting three magazines full of Mini-Mags down range recently and found it to be a captivating rimfire rifle. It’s hefty but in that mass is stability. The bottom of the forends of both the carbine and rifle stocks are inletted with a sheet metal plate with four positions for mounting the front sling loop in order to optimally fit a target sling to a shooter’s arm length and stature.

With a fitted target sling and properly adjusted sear let-off, the Olimpia is extremely stable and accurate, especially seeing how the 0.900" diameter, target-crowned barrel virtually eliminates vibration. Being halfway to 126, I have a very short "short list" of gun wants. After shooting the Beretta Olimpia that short list grew one gun longer. Two useful parts references are from Italian parts dealer OMPS 2 (Bit.ly/2Ncg Ey4, +39 030 832176) and Numrich (Bit.ly/2x1l Xp R, AG

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Beretta Olimpia (Speci ications subject to change without notice) 1 barrel 1bls stock 2 firing chamber 3 breech 4 breech release button 5 bolt handle 6 bolt recoil spring 7 recoil spring rod 8-10 trigger plate screws ll trigger plate and trigger guard 12 receiver for cocking mechanism 13 safety with spring and pin 14 magazine well slot 15 magazine-catch hole 15b magazine-catch with spring and pin 16 hole for trigger pull adjustment screw 18 rear sight with base 20 sight mount 21 two knurled buttons 23 aiming notch Only one mount is used between the scope reticle adjustment block and objective bell, and the scope is cantilevered back over the receiver. 24 front sight with base 25 front sight guard 26 cheek rest 27 stop 28 front swivel plate 29 adjustable front swivel 30 swivel screw 31 magazine 32 bolt handle locking notch 33 breach bolt 34 extractor with spring and pin 35 firing pin and spring 36 ejector with pin 37 hammer spring and spring rod 38 hammer and pivot 39 sear lever and spring 40 release lever, pin, trigger recoil-spring 41 trigger-catch lever with pin and recoil-spring 42 rear swivel and screws American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.