ohbythebay
Member
As promised, my wife and I hit the range today with the new Bersa. I promised a full report.
First, every one of my current handguns cost close to or over double the cost of the Bersa, so I have some fine examples for comparison. There are similarities and while they are superior in some ways, no one should hesitate to buy one based on the price. The cost is irrelevant. what is relevant is the fit, function and accuracy.
Overview and operation
Holding the gun, it fits perfectly for medium sized hands and for my wife's smaller hands, no issue even though it uses a staggered stack magazine. It has ambi safety/decocker and ambi slide release. The mag release is on the left but can be easily switched to the other side.
Racking the slide is easy and smooth so again, for ladies, not an issue. The slide will not rack with the safety on as it is locked out and if the hammer is back, activating the safety decocks it. Unlike the Bersa Thunder 380, there is no magazine safety (which most of us hate anyway) so you can operate the gun without a mag in. All the controls, safety, decocking, slide release, mag release and racking are smooth with no binding or stiffness.
Interior and cleaning
I stripped it down and cleaned before taking it to the range. It is so easy to field strip. Move the lever in front of the slide release and slide the slide off. That's it. To reassemble, slide on, lock the lever. Done.
It is very neat and concisely built inside. The recoil spring and rod are a steel rod with a double spring (a smaller spring on the rod and another that goes over both). The barrel fits easily and my one negative is how the outer coating of the barrel seems like it will not wear well. It is some sort of flat black coating (almost like flat black primer) and not have the appearance of being long lasting. I may consider having it cerakoted. That does not take away from the inside of the barrel which is nicely finished.
At the range
We ran 120 rounds through the gun without a single FTF. 60 rounds of 115gr FMJ and 50 rounds of 124gr JHP. The gun worked flawlessly. We were surprised however; that it did have quite more recoil than expected considering it is a fairly solid, heavy metal gun. It is easily controllable and accuracy is very impressive but as I said, we were surprised at the amount of recoil.
The double action trigger is a bit long but on the positive side, completely smooth through the entire range of travel. In single action, the trigger moves way back so there is just a short pull and reset. Again, the trigger click is just instant positive. No grind, crunch or feeling of excess pull.
The sights are decent standard 3 white dots but are interchangeable with SIG #8 sights.
Pros
All in all, very fun to shoot, very dependable right out of the box, accurate (we shot out to just past 15 yards). I would have no qualms using it as a carry SD gun in place of my RAMI (if I had to) and at 13 + 1 with 2 mags, more than enough capacity.
Cons
Nothing major but will note two things of note
1) Bersa finishes are like paint so it is finished on the slide rails. Don't be surprised if some of that wears off. It is not visible with the gun assembled and you should be lubing that anyway, but you will eventually see bare metal spots. If that bothers you, you can always cerakote or similar.
2) When you engage the safety and it decocks, it snaps the hammer all the way forward. There is a hammer block but compared with my CZ which goes to half cock, or even my former Bersa Thunder 380 which you could see a small gap (indicating it was not all the way down) it is alarming as is snaps home. if the hammer block/firing pin safety ever fails, you will get a surprise discharge. I know that is now how it works but just noting.
So no true negatives and very happy with the purchase. BTW...In the picture, it still has factory GUNK on it..was taken BEFORE cleaning...They do soak it...
First, every one of my current handguns cost close to or over double the cost of the Bersa, so I have some fine examples for comparison. There are similarities and while they are superior in some ways, no one should hesitate to buy one based on the price. The cost is irrelevant. what is relevant is the fit, function and accuracy.
Overview and operation
Holding the gun, it fits perfectly for medium sized hands and for my wife's smaller hands, no issue even though it uses a staggered stack magazine. It has ambi safety/decocker and ambi slide release. The mag release is on the left but can be easily switched to the other side.
Racking the slide is easy and smooth so again, for ladies, not an issue. The slide will not rack with the safety on as it is locked out and if the hammer is back, activating the safety decocks it. Unlike the Bersa Thunder 380, there is no magazine safety (which most of us hate anyway) so you can operate the gun without a mag in. All the controls, safety, decocking, slide release, mag release and racking are smooth with no binding or stiffness.
Interior and cleaning
I stripped it down and cleaned before taking it to the range. It is so easy to field strip. Move the lever in front of the slide release and slide the slide off. That's it. To reassemble, slide on, lock the lever. Done.
It is very neat and concisely built inside. The recoil spring and rod are a steel rod with a double spring (a smaller spring on the rod and another that goes over both). The barrel fits easily and my one negative is how the outer coating of the barrel seems like it will not wear well. It is some sort of flat black coating (almost like flat black primer) and not have the appearance of being long lasting. I may consider having it cerakoted. That does not take away from the inside of the barrel which is nicely finished.
At the range
We ran 120 rounds through the gun without a single FTF. 60 rounds of 115gr FMJ and 50 rounds of 124gr JHP. The gun worked flawlessly. We were surprised however; that it did have quite more recoil than expected considering it is a fairly solid, heavy metal gun. It is easily controllable and accuracy is very impressive but as I said, we were surprised at the amount of recoil.
The double action trigger is a bit long but on the positive side, completely smooth through the entire range of travel. In single action, the trigger moves way back so there is just a short pull and reset. Again, the trigger click is just instant positive. No grind, crunch or feeling of excess pull.
The sights are decent standard 3 white dots but are interchangeable with SIG #8 sights.
Pros
All in all, very fun to shoot, very dependable right out of the box, accurate (we shot out to just past 15 yards). I would have no qualms using it as a carry SD gun in place of my RAMI (if I had to) and at 13 + 1 with 2 mags, more than enough capacity.
Cons
Nothing major but will note two things of note
1) Bersa finishes are like paint so it is finished on the slide rails. Don't be surprised if some of that wears off. It is not visible with the gun assembled and you should be lubing that anyway, but you will eventually see bare metal spots. If that bothers you, you can always cerakote or similar.
2) When you engage the safety and it decocks, it snaps the hammer all the way forward. There is a hammer block but compared with my CZ which goes to half cock, or even my former Bersa Thunder 380 which you could see a small gap (indicating it was not all the way down) it is alarming as is snaps home. if the hammer block/firing pin safety ever fails, you will get a surprise discharge. I know that is now how it works but just noting.
So no true negatives and very happy with the purchase. BTW...In the picture, it still has factory GUNK on it..was taken BEFORE cleaning...They do soak it...
