History of Pardini

Giampiero Pardini, knight of the Italian Republic and CONI Star of merit, has been one of the most prominent marksmen in Italian target shooting. He was born in 1941 in Camaiore, Tuscany, and was first introduced to pistol shooting by chance in 1970.

One of his friends had bought a gun and invited him to go to the shooting-range in Pietrasanta to test it: he fired five shots, and that was it. After three months Pardini competed in fifty matches consecutively. “Staying in the black” didn’t seem to be too difficult and so started his brilliant career as a marksman. He challenged himself in all the handgun shooting events, but Free Pistol match turned out to be his favorite.

His previously dormant passion for mechanics came out in Pardini-the marksman: the logical consequence was, at the beginning, to modify a Free Pistol followed by the creation of a new trigger mechanism. Finally, the creation of a completely new and original pistol, with which Pardini obtained a series of record scores.

The PGP 75 (the name of his first pistol) immediately attracted the attention of shooters in the event: he started receiving a lot of requests from marksmen, who, importantly, were able to improve their scores easily with the new pistol. This all persuaded Pardini, at the beginning of the 1980’s, to retire from competitive shooting and completely dedicate himself to the work of gun maker.

Pardini can rightfully be proud of the fact that his company produces all the parts for his pistols. In the seaside resort of Lido di Camaiore where Pardini firearms have its headquarters, we can find various workshops using computerised numerical control machinery: the blueing baths and the chromium plating and their thermal treatment of components are also carried out at the headquarters.

The barrels are Pardini’s latest success due to the fact that there was no specific equipment on the market for this type of work. Pardini built and modified equipment that is now able to produce all calibers of barrels that are considered at the top-end of the market for their precision and quality. Pardini’s equipment allows them to build a progressively narrowed barrel, from the start of the rifling to the muzzle of the barrel, without “steps” thereby improving precision and a reduction in recoil. In a short time, Pardini has been able to produce a complete range of pistols for competition shooting. It is also important to state that all these pistols have allowed their numerous owners to reach an infinite number of wining results.

The history of Pardini Firearms is relatively short compared to other famous companies; the facts, as we have seen, demonstrate however that the life of Pardini Firearms has been very intense and particularly successful. The recipe of this success has many ingredients. First of all, its specialization has shown itself to be a very profitable company policy, because it has allowed Pardini to concentrate all its resources, human and economic, in one field – that of competition pistols, up to the highest levels of competitiveness. Secondly the size of Pardini Firearms, a small industrial company, has given that productive flexibility that in a continually evolving sector is important for the constant innovation of its products.
Another aspect that needs to be considered in a sector dedicated to competition is the after sales service: both marksman and the ordinary pistol shooters know that they can always count on assistance from the producer. Without Giampiero Pardini and his team’s passion for shooting, we would not have seen the birth and the growth of Pardini Firearms: all firearms are simply pieces of iron, but these also have a soul.