Beretta USA’s Tennessee Factory: Behind The Scenes

by
at USPSA posted on February 23, 2022
berettausa_factory_tennesee-2.jpg

Recently, I had the chance travel about 30 miles northeast of Nashville to Gallatin, Tennessee, which has a population currently sitting at just over 45,000. That is about to change, with Facebook (Meta) building a nearly one-million square-foot data center that is set to open next year. Not far down the street from there is the Beretta USA factory, which opened in April 2016.

Beretta USA in Tennessee
The Gallatin, Tennessee, facility is home for the R&D and manufacturing divisions of Beretta USA.


Beretta kept its U.S. corporate offices in Maryland, but moved the research and development and manufacturing divisions of Beretta USA to the new factory, allowing for a significant increase in production capabilities. The 156,000 square-foot factory sits on 100 acres of land in Tennessee, with more than 400 employees on site. This factory also boasts a mixture of CNC machines, state-of-the-art robotics and areas where employees are still manually running 92 pistol slides through buffing machines. Additionally, there are several quality control stations located throughout the factory that ensure that the best possible parts are produced and sent to the assembly areas. (Check out this inside look at the Beretta factory in Italy. —Ed.)

The variants of the Beretta 92 are made here, as well as the APX, Nano, Pico, ARX 100 and the A300/400 shotguns. There were rows and rows of slides and frames ready to head to the assemblers before being placed back in racks. Once assembled and placed back in the racks, the firearms that are made at the Tennessee plant are sent to the indoor firing range for testing and function firing. After inspection and cleaning, the firearms make their way to the packing and shipping department. While the factory is set up for lean manufacturing, there is still a lot of hand work that goes into making every one of the Beretta firearms.

As part of the facility tour with Beretta Business Development Manager Nicola Leronzi, I was introduced to his team in research and development to discuss USPSA and competitive shooting. The team was receptive and interested in learning and had many questions. While I’m not sure that there is going to be a Jake Martens Signature Beretta model, it was great visiting with the Beretta team to learn what goes into the making the company's firearms.

It is great to have companies that are producing out-of-the-box, race-ready firearms. Beretta has jumped into this arena with the Performance and Defensive models of the 92X series handguns. J.J. Racaza snagged two national titles with these guns in both the IDPA and USPSA Carry Optics divisions. He has also been in some tight races, garnering second place in Production and in the last two Open Nationals using his customized Beretta 92X Performance pistol.

Article from the January/February 2022 issue of USPSA’s magazine.

Latest

Magpugloves 1
Magpugloves 1

New: Magpul Breach Glove 2.0

Magpul announces new Breach Glove 2.0.

Hinton Captures Men’s Trap Gold At 2025 ISSF Lima World Cup

Team USA’s Will Hinton earns Men’s Trap gold medal at 2025 ISSF Lima World Cup.

Texas A&M Wins 2025 SIG Sauer Relentless Warrior Championship

Texas A&M University wins SIG Sauer Relentless Warrior Championship title.

Maddalena Wins Women’s Rifle Gold At ISSF Lima World Cup

Olympic silver medalist Sagen Maddalena wins Women’s 50m Rifle 3-Position gold medal at 2025 ISSF Lima World Cup.

Panic-Buying, Not Tariffs, May Repeat Ammo Shortages

NSSF and other experts weigh in on what may cause an ammunition shortage in the future.

West Virginia University Wins 20th NCAA Rifle Championship Title

WVU rallies during air rifle to secure victory over Kentucky by one point at the 2025 NCAA rifle championship in March.

Interests



Get the best of Shooting Sports USA delivered to your inbox.