The Passing of a Legend

Double Barrel

He asked me what I liked about his guns, I told him, the balance, the triggers, the barrels, the wood to metal fit, in a word everything, and the most important attribute was that the gun felt alive in my hands when it was brought to the shoulder, ...... and he smiled.

http://www.perazzi.it/azienda

Daniele Perazzi founded his company in 1952 at the very young age of 20.

He was born into a northern Italian working class family and started working for small arms manufacturers in and around Gardone Val Trompia when he was a lad of fourteen. At the age of 20 he decided to go on his own as a gunmaker. His excellent version of a single trigger, which he patented, gave him the wherewith-all to give his start-up the much needed respect and of course income to get off the ground. He intent always was to become a gunmaker and produce complete guns, lock, stock and barrels. His first workshop was in the basement of his house, making a few guns every year. Around this time he struck up a partnership with Ivo Fabbri and together they produced several hundred Fabbri-Perazzi shotguns.

Daniele's real success began because of his friendship with Ennio Mattarelli. Mattarelli was a very talented gun designer, world class trap shooter who just happened to be in the hunt for a suitable gun to compete in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Matarelli knew what he wanted in a gun and he chose Perazzi to build his dream. Mattarelli won the gold medal in Tokyo with a Perazzi gun and the international shooting community became aware of the Italian gunmaker, Perazzi.
1968 Mattarelli competed with a new Perazzi construct in Mexico City, he did not win the gold medal, but the gun he was shooting, the Perazzi MX-8, had made it mark and as they say 'the rest is history'.

Rest in peace my friend.



Derek Partridge (lt.) and Daniele Perazzi.

Double Barrel

Digging up history.
A good read to accompany the above thread. A bit out of reach until I win the big lotto.
Enjoy

" Ivo Fabbri founded the company in 1968, eight years after he began working with Daniele Perazzi. Their dreams differed. Perazzi wanted to create the best competition gun in the world, something he realised incontrovertibly at the London 2012 Olympics, when Perazzis won 12 out of the 15 shotgun-sports medals. Fabbri, however, was inspired by the traditions of London gunmaking and simply wanted to make the best.
What comprises “the best” is a moot point. The classic definition is a gun that cannot be improved by additional time or expense and it’s one that has served the Mayfair makers well. But they use methods and materials that differ little from when they were founded centuries ago. Computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools now do much of the basic work but the factories still resemble Victorian workshops in form and function, with metal-to-metal tolerances checked with soot from a blacking lamp. Yet, with steel, wood and a thousand man-hours, London continues to fashion the world’s best guns – or at least, the best in traditional gunmaking. For, with the exception of the Purdey Damas, which uses a powdered steel process to create a gun with great strength but with Damascus patterning, British bests have not embraced new materials. In contrast, Fabbri rejoices in them."

http://www.thefield.co.uk/shooting/fabbri-italian-gunmakers-26748