Welcome to today’s program photo of the Day! Here we have the rare sight of a company that doesn’t forget a lot. This is the Benelli B77, a .32 ACP member of Benelli’s short-lived foray into the handgun market in the late 1970s and ’80s. You know Benelli for guns, and there’s a reason: the pistols flopped.
The flagship of the family was the 9mm B76, and it had a strange party trick. Most autos of this size are simple blowback or use a tilting barrel. Instead the B76 ran a fixed barrel with an inertia-operated locking system patented by Benelli, a bolt with ribs that locked into the receiver, held closed by the inertia of the slide until chamber pressure was reduced. Apart from its guns, the Benelli is the only suit that has inertia locking.
Here is the grip of this particular gun. The B77 group is the .32, and the .32 doesn’t produce enough pressure to require that fancy lock, so it’s just an obvious setback. You’re looking at the simple cousin of a family known for its clever machinations. The entire line arrived too late, in a market already saturated with double-stack service pistols, and Benelli wisely left behind the shotguns that made them famous.
Most of our POTDs use images of our friends Rock Island Auction CompanyMajor firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse them current auction – Who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!
“Benelli Model B77 Semi-Automatic Pistol with Box.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/1151/benelli-model-b77-semiautomatic-pistol-with-box. Accessed 25 June 2026.
