Disturbing failure in a Bersa FireStorm 22

I restored a 1990's Bersa Firestorm .22LR pistol after decades of neglect. This was a fun project. I also did some work on the smoothness of its trigger, and took it to the range this morning to test it out.

It jammed a lot, mostly stovepipe FTEs and one funny FTF. And then it did something that scared the tar out of me.

The gun had a stovepipe FTE. I didn't see it, and pulled the trigger. And the hammer fell.

The hammer fell when the slide was out of battery.

I am quite concerned.

I did notice, when disassembling the gun, that it lacked an automatic safety cam. This part apparently made it into later versions of this pistol. I don't know if it was there to prevent this kind of failure. Or did my smoothing the trigger, sear, and hammer make it happen?

Does anyone know how I might make this gun safe? Failing that, is there any reasonable way to get rid of it without putting some innocent gun buyer at risk?

That's an excellent idea. Thank you! And yes, I will keep this thread updated to the best of my ability.

I've shipped the pistol to John's Guns Etc. in Lott, TX, which is an approved Bersa warranty repair center. Sadly, I can't send it USPS, and UPS won't ship it in any way other than Next Day Air. $77.86! Ouch!

Oh, well. I've sent it with the requisite copy of my ID, letter describing the issue, magazine, and no ammunition. We'll see how it goes.

I am being careful to keep my own hopes not terribly high. Thank you for letting me know of your experience.

Hokkmike said:

I wouldn't want to shoot it again. I would trash it.

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I'm going to see what the good folks at John's Guns can do. They have a good reputation (see Stony's post, for example). Also, it's easy to test safely -- insert a thin shim into the ejection port over an empty chamber, cock the hammer, see if it falls. If it does, I'm done with the gun.

rule303 said:

Most older hammer fired blowback operated autos (including the Walther PPK, Ruger MK series, etc) will allow the hammer to fall without the slide 100% in battery. On the Bersa, if the slide is open more than a fraction of an inch, the hammer will hit the bottom edge of the slide rather than the firing pin. Even if you had a round chambered, and there were not a stovepipe in the ejection port, the round would not have fired.

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I like your username, but I don't agree with much of that reasoning.

Your own language contains a worrisome edge case where the gun would fire out of battery: The slide is open a fraction of an inch and the hammer falls. Thus, it is not always the case that the round would not have fired. Furthermore, there's a troubling case where the hammer rides a closing slide and touches off the round before it's in battery.

Although other designs may have this issue, I have seen this Bersa exhibit failures to feed more often than I have the other guns you've mentioned. There's a picture of this in my blog post on testing the FireStorm. Thus, I think its risk of detonation is higher. But even if it weren't, I'm not all that willing to take a significant risk of becoming Two-Face, whatever the brand of the gun.

I'm more in agreement with Hokkmike: If John's can't fix this, if the automatic safety cam does not affect this issue, then I shall ask John's to keep the gun or dispose of it.

drband said:

I would encourage you to check this link: http://www.wolfgangthegundoctor.com/

Wolfgang is a Bersa warranty gunsmith and will take care of you if there's still a problem. He's generally the go-to warranty smith on the bersachat forum. He's pretty quick to respond to emails.

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Ah, thank you. I'll see what John's does with it first, having sent it already, but it's good to know there is a contingency plan.

Heard back from John himself this afternoon.

The extraction issues are probably caused by two things: a very rough chamber, and my abortive attempt to remove the extractor pin. It wouldn't budge but a little, but that may have been enough. Sadly, this pistol's extraction and ejection issues predate that attempt, so that is probably not the sole cause. However, it probably didn't help.

The hammer drop issue is not fixable. Yes, the automatic safety cam might have helped, but there is no way to fit it into the frame, and an aftermarket modification would cost more than the gun is worth. Sadface.

The neglect was actually easily reversed. The problems lie elsewhere.

chicharrones said:

Two alternatives I can think of for that Bersa since it is declared unsafe.

1. Remove the firing pin, fill the barrel and chamber with JB Weld and keep it as a dry fire practice gun.

2. Do everything in step 1 and keep it as a future "buy back" gun. Could get some cash or a gift card for it.

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Do you think it's any less safe than a Walther if it feeds reasonably? My main issue is that its failures to feed might increase the chance of a kaboom. However, I do agree that even a slow feed might be dangerous if the hammer rides down with it.

I do live near Boston, home of gun control foolishness, so a buyback is not impossible.

Fair point.

danez71 said:

I'll have to check if mine has a rough chamber too but I'm pretty sure when I have issue it's due to weaker ammo as it's 100% reliable with hotter ammo.

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The failures to eject, probably. The failures to feed, I'm less sure. Those are the failures that worry me more, as they might lead to a kaboom.

danez71 said:

Could you clarify the last paragraph please?

Is the purpose of the automatic safety cam to prevent the issue of firing while the slide isn't fully closed?

And is that something that your model wasn't designed with whereas the newer models are?

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That's exactly what I meant.