Today’s Photo Of The Day is a special Beretta SO Sparviere over and under shotgun from Pietro Beretta Custom Atelier made for Sylvester Stallone as a “unique tribute to his acting career and to the legendary role of the Italian American boxer he’s been playing since 1976″. The engravings and inlaid elements of the SO Sparviere Rocky shotgun are dedicated to Rocky Balboa, Stallone’s character in the famous movie franchise.
The shotgun engraving required between 800 and 900 hours of work. Beretta engravers, carrying a centuries-old tradition, employed a number of different of techniques to bring to life this masterpiece. These include deep hammer and chisel, to reproduce two of the most memorable scenes from the Rocky movie saga; gold-inlays are also there, to recreate the Academy Award Oscar on the auget button, the stars, the numbers of the movies on the top of the receiver and Sylvester Stallone’s signature on the stock; colored enamels were employed to recreate the USA flag and add other details, such as Rocky signature boxing gloves.
Beretta SO Sparviere shotguns have a hinging side plate design and as seen in the picture above, there are enameled turtles under the side plates, Rocky Balboa’s pets which Silvester Stallone still keeps. SO Sparviere Rocky shotgun was shipped in a hand-crafted Rocky-themed leather case.
I wonder why body armor manufacturers are not making Rocky-themed plates … you know, it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
Pictures by Beretta, www.beretta.com