Italian 'BODEO' Revolver with a very unique history

[Bill Grist]

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The history of this weapon is one of the most unique in my collection..A Italian 1889 10.35 Bodeo Revolver.. Let me start with a hypothesis of how I think the Italian weapon got to Perth, Western Australia. I assume that the weapon was captured by a Australian serving in North Africa, and upon returning to Western Australia, the weapon was confiscated by the Perth, Western Australia police dept. for some unknown reason... Now to 1945 where Lt.JG Benjamin Lee Smith USN Weapons officer US Submarine Nautilus was operating out of the US Navy Sub base Fremantel/Perth, Western Australia.. Where he purchased this pistol and carried it with him as a personal side arm..With the Pistol was 15 rnds of Italian ammo dated in the late 30s..And all of the paper work to include the confiscation tag from the police station in Perth and the License to possess a Firearm issued to B.L. SMITH US NAVY.. Enjoy this Unique piece of History... Benjamin Smith is still living...BILL

[History]

Bill, thats my kind of story and history!!!!! Wonderful!

[harmonef]

I have one of these pistols too. My dad "liberated" it from an Italian policeman in Naples, Italy during WW2. Dad was a sailor on the USS Barnett APA-5. I'm not 100% sure of the details, but the Cop made a move towards his pistol, and my dad knocked him out. He then cut the holster from the belt and kept it.

I shot the pistol several years ago. It uses a 10.4mm round.

[Jason L]

How was your talk with Mr. Smith?

[Pierre N]

interesting arm , i put french description

[Rifleman]

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and upon returning to Western Australia, the weapon was confiscated by the Perth, Western Australia police dept. for some unknown reason...

Thats easy, its well known that the WA police have an anti gun culture so ive been told, and second at one stage any military caliber firearm was made illegal here as well,
Now its only semi automatics that are banned unless you have a bloody good reason all pistols and revolvers over .40 cal and under a stated length are banned as well.