A Call To Arms

In search of the world’s most extravagant adventures.

- Jared Paul Stern

WITH FIVE CENTURIES OF EXPERIENCE crafting guns for everyone from Napoleon and Winston Churchill to Ernest Hemingway and James Bond, the Beretta family knows more than anyone on earth about the fine art of making firearms. From sleek, black handguns to gold-inlaid, six-figure shotguns highly prized by hunters and collectors around the globe, the Beretta name carries instant prestige that speaks of skill, craftsmanship, elegant design and deadly accuracy.

Beretta is, in fact, the oldest industrial dynasty in the world, with 15 generations of family ownership dating back to the year 1500—and very likely beyond. For the family to be able to trace its lineage so far back is a testament to its immutable values, and those of the company bearing its name. Beretta’s iconic logo of encircled arrows representing the three shots a battleship fires to engage a potential enemy, with the final one hitting the mark, is recognised and revered the world over, and with just cause.

The best family-run companies take on the characteristics of their owners, and Beretta in the 21st century is the mirror of its namesakes. Pietro Gussalli Beretta, the company’s president and CEO, is a keen hunter and astute businessman who’s happiest on the trail with his guns and his dogs, tracking big game in Africa or duck hunting in the Venetian Lagoon. Part refined aesthete, with an ear for opera, an eye for art and a taste for antique furniture, part man of action who has hunted almost everywhere in the world a man can go with a gun, he took the reins of the company in 2015, passed down to him from his father, Ugo Gussalli Beretta.