Morini Competition Arm S.A.

Morini Competition Arm S.A. was established in Italy in 1973 as an anatomical grip maker factory for target pistols. Back then, shooters still hadn't started using personalized grips, all attention having been focused on the mechanical aspect of the gun.

Morini were the first grips whose anatomical design was considered to be of paramount importance. From the beginning, at Morini factory, the grip was seen as the interface between gun and shooter and therefore a very important element of harmony.

Hämmerli AG was the first company to realize this and started to use Morini Competition Arm S.A. grips as standard grips for their pistols (free pistol 150 and 152, standard pistol 208/215, 240 and rapid fire pistol 230/232).

Increased grip production due to orders from Hämmerli and the production of the company's first free pistol in 1980 (model CM 80) resulted in Morini Competition Arm S.A. increasing its production capacity, going from a small scale workshop to an industrial company in 1982.

During the following years, complying with laws and regulations governing guns become more and more complicated in Italy, in 1985 the company decided to move to Lamone, Canton Ticino, the Italian speaking region of Switzerland.

With its spirit of continuing innovation Morini Competition Arm S.A. started producing the model CM 102E, the first sport pistol in the world with an electronic trigger in 1985. In 1990 the company moved to Bedano, its current headquarters, which is another small village of the Italian speaking region of Switzerland.

Here, the company has built, side by side with gun and grip production lines a multifunctional target range, normally used by the local police force.

In 1991, when all 4.5 cal. (.177) used either air that had to be precompressed by a piston or CO2, Morini Competition Arm S.A. manufactured the first precompressed air pistol with a 200 bar cylinder and ball bearing electronic trigger, the CM 162E. One of the world's legendary shooters, Ragnar Skanaker from Sweden, actively took part in the design. Predictably there were some teething problems, difficulties like the unavailability of 200 bar compressed air. These have been resolved and today the CM 162EI, the later version with the interchangeable air bottle, is one of the most popular target airguns in the world and the system of precompressed air in the cylinder has been universally adopted by all other pistol manufacturer.

The cooperation with the great "Skanaker" also brought further fruits and, in 1993, the CM 84E free pistol was born, sporting a ball bearing electronic trigger and a sensor which detects the finger's presence inside the trigger guard.

All technical details were finalized with the aim of helping the shooter to improve scores and perform well in competitions.

The CM 84E won the World Championship in Milan 1994 with the legendary Chinese shooter Wang Yifu and the European Championship in Zurich in 1995 with the Rumanian shooter Babii Sorin.

In 1997 the model CM 162MI was born, the air pistol version for the aficionados of mechanical trigger.

In 1998 again the Chinese legendary shooter Wang Yifu won the World Championship in Barcelona with the air pistol CM 162EI.

In 1999, the semiautos CM 22M, CM 22M-RF and CM 32M for Standard, Rapid Fire and Centre Fire disciplines were born.

In the year 2000 the Chinese Tao Luna won the Olympic Games in Sydney with the air pistol CM 162EI.

Till date, competitions at all levels have been won using Morini pistols: several World Cups, European Championships, World Championship, Olympics and, of course, Nationals in various countries.

Here some dates:

1985 First .22 l.r. standard pistol with reliable electronic trigger unit.

1991 First air pistol with compressed air cylinder with 200 bar and electronic ball bearing trigger unit.

1993 First .22 l.r. free pistol with electronic ball bearing trigger unit

1995 First air pistol equipped with analogic manometer on 200 bar compressed air cylinder

2010 First air pistol equipped with digital manometer on 200 bar compressed air cylinder