History:
In 1947 the last change of the 6.35mm pistol took place. The main change was in the shape of the grip safety, instead of the hump it was now curved to match the contour of the frame. For the first pistols the steel-backed plastic grips were used, but around 1952 the grips were made totally of plastic, with a new Beretta trademark near the top. Another change was in the slide serrations, from vertical to slight slant.
The pistol was named Model 418, but the slide markings followed still the late Model 318 pistols.
Early guns for the export export also had "Made in Italy" stamped on the left side of'the frame.
For the United States the Model 418 got two trade names. One was Bantam. But this name was soon stopped, as it came close to "chicken", which isn't a fitting name for a gun. The other name, which then appeared on some grip panels was Panther. This fitted better to the trade names for the .32 and .380 pistols, the Puma and the Cougar.
Importer for Beretta in the United States was still the J. L. Galef Company of New York City.
Serial numbers of the Model 418 really started again from the beginning. The first pistol of the new model was numbered "00001A". There were two main groups, designated by "A" and "C" suffixes. Appearently, after the "A" was finished with "99999A," the numbering started again with "00001C."
The earliest pistols found, got proofing marks of around 1949, and the last ones around 1958, probably very near the end of production.
Total production of the Model 418 was at least 140,000 pieces
Two special versions of the pistol were produced, a chrome-engraved pistol called the Model 420, and a "deluxe" pistol, the Model 421. The Model 421 was finely engraved, gold-plated, and had metal-backed grip panels of tortoise-shell. It came in a leather-covered, velvet-Iined case, with a spare magazine and cleaning rod.
Possibly the Model 420 and Model 421 were numbered in a separategroup (maybe the B suffix), but this has not been verified.
Technical Data:
SYSTEM: self-cocking pistol with inertial system and striker
CARTRIDGES : 8
CALIBER : .25 ACP
BARREL LENGTH :
WEIGHT EMPTY :
TOTAL LENGTH :
TOTAL HEIGHT :
TOTAL WIDTH :
TRIGGER : Single Action
SIGHT : fixed
SAFETY : safety-lever and grip safety
FINISH : blued
GRIPS : metal and hardrubber