What about Bersa?? 380 CC

I have a Bersa Thunder .380, one of my favorites, usually goes to the range along with whatever I want to work with that day. I've owned it for about 2 months and have well over 4oo rounds through it, mix of 95 gr FMJ and 56 gr Inceptor ARX. Field strip for cleaning the easiest of any other semi I own. Good grips, low recoil, dead accurate 7-15 yrds.

When I was looking for a 380 I checked out Bersa, which received good reports about the quality of their guns. The concerns raised were about repairs if needed. Bersa had no repair factility in the US when I checked. Maybe that has changed. They provide people with a list of gunsmiths that repair Bersa guns. Owners complained about the time repairs took and in some cases the fees. I decided against a Thunder and went to Ruger for a LCP II.

(732) 493-0333 Eagle Imports in New Jersey

I have a Bersa Firestorm in .380ACP that is a dependable shooter. It's a blowback design so it has a bit of snappiness to it in the recoil dept. But then that's what contributes to its accuracy.

Good gun but these days large for the caliber and the quality is just ok. Had one long ago but sold it. Nothing wrong with it but nothing to love about it either.

For a 380 auto of that size the Beretta 85 is a better gun.

Have the cc. Nice little shooter for a blowback design.

Rule3 said:

Well yes. So is my Sig P232 and PPK. But they are both heavier and a lot more money.

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You can get a used Beretta 84BB for $375. A Beretta 84F for $400. A used CZ 83 for $325. I would take all of those over a $300 Bersa. I like the Bersa when I bought it for $175 at $300 there are better choices. IMHO

Here is mine.
Been my back up for ten years.

My wife used to have one of the little 22's. It was a good little gun. With standard bulk 22 ammo it would choke from time to time, but with CCI or other premium ammo, it ran like a Singer Sewing Machine. Just bap, bap, bap...one right after the other. She eventually sold/traded it off for something else. She's sorry she did that. We've never seen another one or I'm sure she'd "make" me buy it for her.

Bought my Thunder used in 2008. Never was able to get it to malfunction, and I tried. I limp-wristed it, mixed up ammo types in the mags, mixed up ammo ages and case materials (steel, brass, and aluminum) in the mags, and that gun just ran and ran. Carried it for a couple of years before I got a Kel-Tec PF9, which fires a harder-hitting round that is more affordable and is easier to carry, but is a lot less pleasant to shoot.

I still have the Bersa, but it lives in the safe. I should probably try to find it a new home while values are still inflated, but I always seem to justify keeping it around for some reason or another. It has my respect.

In addition to the 380 CC I got the 22 model.
I jokingly refer to it as my anti car Jack gun.
Under dash holster might get them 10 CCI HP to the face!
( otherwise called failure of the victim selection process)

My Wife has a Bersa Thunder ... The thing is really accurate ... had a few hiccup for the first box ammo ...but after that ....great ....

Bersa is OK; but i would invest some time in looking for a old CZ 83 for the same price range.

My buddy has one- admittedly well used when he got it.

The hammer broke the first time we went to shoot it, snapped right in half.

We ordered a new one, but all they had in stock at the time was the "gold-plated" part, ugh. Easy to change out, now it runs fine and he likes it well enough. No jams, and accurate for its size. He calls it his "pimp gun," lol.

The gold is starting to flake off though.......

I had one where the hammer cracked apart after firing 60 rounds.

The metal appeared porous and of extremely poor quality.

If since learned of these breakages happening to others. I will never waste time or money on a Bersa product ever again. Life is way too short to bother with monkey metal bottom tier junk.

JCooperfan1911 said:

I had one where the hammer cracked apart after firing 60 rounds.

The metal appeared porous and of extremely poor quality.

If since learned of these breakages happening to others. I will never waste time or money on a Bersa product ever again. Life is way too short to bother with monkey metal bottom tier junk.

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Ya, it was definitely a casting. My buddies gun was probably mid-90s production.....the newest ones may use a MIM hammer, dont know if thats an improvement, though..

The only thing I don’t like about my Bersa Thunder 380 is the plastic follower in the magazines. It doesn’t affect function, but the slide stop doesn’t catch all the time on the last shot. The metal followers work much better.

I had a Thunder CC that didn’t fare well. I understand that there were problems with some of the metal in the production run mine was from, (~2014). I have heard far more positive reviews than negative, so I think my experience was an exception and not the rule.

bikerdoc said:

In addition to the 380 CC I got the 22 model.
I jokingly refer to it as my anti car Jack gun.
Under dash holster might get them 10 CCI HP to the face!
( otherwise called failure of the victim selection process)

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Same here! My only two Bersas...380 CC and Thunder .22. The Thunder .22 is an absolute favorite of mine.

i had a used bersa thunder 380 but its safety lever/decocker broke in two during a trip to the shooting range. a look at internet showed it to be a not uncommon problem. $10 replacement part and $20 gunsmithing, and this one problem was fixed. what i couldn’t fix was bloody slide bite to the web of my shooting hand. changed my gripstyle, judicious dremeling, added grip tape...nothing really worked. i got tired of a beatup hand and finally sold it off.

a much better feeling semiauto ccw replacement is the keltec p32. a much better feeling/shooting 380acp pistol is the s&w shield ez, but it is a tad too large for my own ccw situation. as far as im concerned all of the 380acp pocket pistols by ruger, s&w, taurus should be offered in 32acp as well.

Bersa 380cc was my first pistol. I had the same issue with the E-clip coming off the trigger bar, but that was due to pulling the trigger with the slide removed. Other than that, it was a great first handgun. So, funny thing is, when the e clip broke, I got one from the hardware store, and it kinda sorta worked. I had to order a metric size. While I was waiting for it to arrive, my apartment was broken into, that bersa along with a metro arms commander was stolen. The Bersa wasn't working properly, so whoever stole it would have been in trouble if they ever tried to use it. The metro arms never really worked right. The Bersa was recovered by police a year or so later. It was in pretty bad shape. Rusted up pretty bad. So the moral of the story, Bersa 380cc is a good gun, as long as you take care of them. There's better options, but its by no means a bad one.