Ernest Hemingway's Beretta SO3 Shotgun

Visitors to the Safari Club International (SCI) convention always have plenty of gorgeous things to look at - high end guns, taxidermy, etc - but at this year's show, there was something truly special in the Beretta booth.

As an arms historian, I'm always on the lookout for impressive pieces. That's why I spend most of my time at the show in the area that SCI calls "Gunmakers' Village." There, you can find booths from all the big names: Purdey, Boss, Holland & Holland, Westley Richards, Cosmi, Sako, and, of course, Beretta.

In an unassuming tall case lining one of the walls of the Beretta booth was an over/under shotgun and an accompanying "leg of mutton" case. If you didn't know to look for it, you might actually miss it. Quite frankly, in a sea of exceptional guns on display in 2,100,000 square feet of display space in Nashville's Music City Center, this shotgun would be easy to miss.

This gun, however, is no ordinary over/under. (That is, if there is such a thing from the world's oldest gunmaker.) This particular shotgun belonged to a famed author, adventurer, and hunter, whose name is marked on the mutton case: Ernest Hemingway.

Of course, I had heard of this shotgun and it was on my to-do list to go and see the gun where it normally resides (more on that later), so I was delighted to get to see it without having to do any extra travel.

Papa, as Hemingway was often known, purchased this Beretta SO3 shotgun, serial number 5991, at a shop in Venice in December 1949. The reason he was there was for a duck hunt on the city's famous canals, and this over/under would have been a perfect gun for just such a hunt.

Hemingway owned many guns in his lifetime, and this Beretta remained one of his favorites. Weighing seven pounds and sporting 27.5" barrels choked modified and full, it was one that he still owned at the end of his life in 1961.

Hemingway duck hunting on a Venetian canal in 1945 - four years before acquiring the Beretta SO3

Almost two years after Papa's death, his widow Mary consigned the gun to Abercrombie & Fitch - yes, the very same A&F that only sells preppy clothes today. It sold the following year for $250, but A&F charged an astounding 50% consignment fee, leaving Mary Hemingway with just $125 for the shotgun.

In 1999, Beretta reacquired the gun for the company's personal collection. Normally, it resides in a place of honor in their New York City showroom.

Attendees at the 2023 SCI convention had the rare treat of seeing the gun without having to travel to NYC - that is, if you knew where to look.

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