cartridge from the magazine. The slide can then be released by depressing the slide release lever located on the left side of the frame. The pistol uses fixed iron sights set for engaging targets at 50 m. These consist of a forward blade and rear notch. The pistol's barrel has a rifled bore with 6 right-hand grooves and a 1 in 254 mm (1:10 in) twist rate. The M1951 pistol is chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. Variants The Modello 952 is a commercial version of the M1951 chambered in 7.65×21mm Parabellum. Produced for sales to sport shooters in Italy in order to comply with restrictions forbidding ownership of military caliber pistols. This model was available in two variants: the “Target” and “Special” models. The "Target" version of the 952 incorporated modifications to the grips, sights and barrel that had originally been introduced on the "Berhama" target-shooting model of the 9mm 951 made specially for the Egyptians. The M951R is a select fire version of the M1951 chambered in 9 mm Parabellum. The "R" stands for Raffica, which is Italian for "volley", "flurry", or "burst" (sometimes spoken "R" as "Rapid" in English), which was designed and produced during the 1960s in response to a request made by the Italian special forces. The primary difference between the M951R and the original M1951 lied in the fire selector lever mounted on the right side of the weapon’s frame, enabling either semi-automatic or continuous fire - labelled "SEM" and "AUT", respectively. Additionally, the weapon has a heavier slide, a folding wooden forward grip, the barrel was extended, and so was the magazine, increasing capacity to 10 rounds. The M951R had a rate of fire of approximately 1000 rounds/min. The M951R was issued to several Italian special forces and to a lesser extent to the Carabinieri and the Polizia di Stato all along the 1960s; it had poor success and quickly went out of production, as it was plagued by several defects: the ammunition capacity was low compared to the rate of fire and, with the selector on the "AUT" position, the M951R fired in full-automatic mode rather than by three-rounds bursts as other similar products of the following years; this produced high recoil and resulted in poor controllability and scarce accuracy. Furthermore, with such a high rate of fire, even with extensive training it was impossible for the shooter to produce short and