Best Price Source on a Bersa Thunder .380?

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I believe I've seen them for $189 over at the Armory in Va Beach (www.the-armory.com) if that helps. This was a couple months ago, so I don't know if they have any in stock at that price.

It's not listed on their website, you'll have to e-mail them or call if you're interested.
 
Are you sure on that buy?

A couple years ago I saw a rental Bersa 380 break its hammer and we inspected it and it was mad of some brittle pot metal.

Okay for the range but for CCW - no way!
 
Woody,

Gander Mountain has been selling the 2 tone Bersa's for $199 for the last year or so. I bought one about 8 months ago and last I saw they still had the same price.

Gotta pay sales tax, but it's only on 200 bucks - but no shipping or FFL fees to deal with :)
 
Pay close attention to the actual merchandise specs.

They're all basically Thunder 380's, sure, but it's the details that count.
Gander occasionally bundles its Thunder 380's with the 9-round mags, which can bite you as you insert them in the pistol. Some other specimens elsewhere have been altered slightly (usually involving non-spec sights)---and this may screw you with respect to factory warranties when the non spec parts fail.
 
Are you sure on that buy?

A couple years ago I saw a rental Bersa 380 break its hammer and we inspected it and it was mad of some brittle pot metal.

Okay for the range but for CCW - no way!
Click to expand...

YEA, ARE YOU SURE ON THAT BUY!

Iv seen Glocks EXPLODE! I'll NEVER trust one with MY life :rolleyes:

Iv seen Springfield armory 1911's crack their frame! I'll NEVER trust one with MY life. :rolleyes:

Iv seen S&W revolvers blow their cylinder! I'll NEVER trust one with MY life. :rolleyes:

If your standard of an exceptable CCW brand is one thats never had a parts failure, then you wont be CCW'ing at all. :neener:

BTW: if the gun was a rental, then it probably got RENTED. Rental guns get used and abused A LOT! Who knows how many rounds that gun chewed through before it broke...not to mention how many times it was droped/smacked/scratched/improperly cleaned.

Also, im willing to bet that neither you, nor any of your firends are metalurgists. In other words, unless you took the remains of the hammer and put them under a stress test compared to a similarly sized piece of hammer from another gun maker, then you have no idea how "brittle" it actualy was.

Take it easy in the future cowboy.
 
Yes, all guns have parts failures.

But the mark of a quality gun IS it's ability to be abused. If you are going to defend your life with it, it should be rock steady.

Sure Glocks break but then again, have you seen their torture tests. Sigs, HKs, Smith & Wessons, Springfields, Kimbers also break. But LE professionals carry those guns daily and short of a few bad guns, they perform well.

I've shot and purchased a few rental guns from friendly gunshop owners. And most guns do fine on rentals.

But I am telling you, you don't need your PhD in metallurgy to look at a broken hammer spur, and rub your finger against the metal and to see it crumble off like nothing to figure out it's made out of brittle metal.

It's not acceptable to most ranges with rental guns to even allow shooters to bring in that hot +P+ ammo and shot it through their rental guns. It's usually standard velocity American Eagle or PMC ammo around Seattle that you can shoot through rentals.

But this is America.

Under the Second Amendment, you have the right to carry that $200 gun for CCW. I just hope that's your BUG and not your primary.

I also very infrequently carry a Kel Tec P-32 - also another $200 gun with some known QC issues as well. But it's a BUG to a BUG and there known problem has been finishing issues not design or metal issues. Those cna be fixed by fluff and buff if you have some basic mechanical skills.

In the many years of shooting at half a dozen public ranges, I've never seen a parts failure like that. Carry what you will.
 
My previous post was highly Sarcastic, and I think you misses the main point.

That was that all manufacturors have parts fail from NORMAL use. That is because no mater how good your quality controll is, eventualy something will slip through. While Glock, Colt, Sig, Springfield, and the like are extrodinary weapons, they are not exempt from this.

Even if the integrity of a companys parts are normaly fine, there are MANY un-forseable factors that are beyond the factorys controll. Anything from an over-sight in the steel-makers facility, to a cold-spot in the manufacturors heat-treating kiln. These are all things that would NOT be apparent untill many rounds have been fired, and something that the factories test-firing would NOT catch. These likely causes are also soemething that are likely coved under warenty, and if not, are easily and cheaply repaired by a smith. ;)

Spanish made handguns like Bersa, Llama, and Star are also known for being of a quality far beyond their usual $300-$350 price tag.

in other words, it is likely, yea PROBABLE that this defective hammer was beyond the controll of the factory.

THAT sir, was my point.
 
Bersa's are not Spanish made. Their made in South AMERICA They have nothing at all to do with Llama or Star both of which are no longer made.
Bersa is a find pistol that has a good rep. for relieabily and a excellant buy for the money.
 
...I saw a rental Bersa .380 break...
Click to expand...

Well...
The problem with that sort of observation is that there have been
at least 11 different Bersa pistol models chambered in .380 ACP,
over the past quarter century.

Manufacturing techniques and overall quality can change drastically
in far less time.

Some pretty big names in gun-making put out some really shoddy guns
in their past, but that has little bearing on whether or not they're making
good guns today.

But hey, we should all shoot what suits us, and no less.

:)
 
Good points Mr. Trooper.

But of the Latin gun makers, Star was and is the best. The Ruger of their world. Astra also makes/made some fine guns. The Astra Constable is a fine gun too.

Star has some high quality steel guns but whne the wonder 9s came in much lighter, their design was just too heavy.
 
OOPS! sorry.
They all have latin names, so i assumed they were spanish.

also, Bersa a Llama seem to have the same web site.
 
Hi, mr.trooper

Llama means flame in Spanish, while
Bersa is an amalgalm of the founders' first names.

As to the common web-presence...
Bersa and Llama recently have/had the same US distributor,
hence the 'shared website', which in any case is run
by SGS, who also own the Firestorm brand name.

It is no accident that Firestorm guns look just like
Bersas and LLamas (and Laserres, too)



:)
 
"I also very infrequently carry a Kel Tec P-32 - also another $200 gun with some known QC issues as well. But it's a BUG to a BUG and there known problem has been finishing issues not design or metal issues. Those cna be fixed by fluff and buff if you have some basic mechanical skills.

In the many years of shooting at half a dozen public ranges, I've never seen a parts failure like that. Carry what you will."

I had a Kel-Tec P-32 that had the trigger axis snap. I bought it new and never abused it in any way. It was a part and material problem NOT anything I did in the 750 rounds I shot through it. It was and probably still is a common flaw to the P-32. I am not the only person I have heard of that this has happened to.

That being said, I too thought that the part was cheap brittle pot metal but the fact is, I am not sure why it broke. It was either the fact that the metal was not stong enough or the design made it fail. In any case, the Bersa is NOT known for having parts fail but the Kel-Tec P-32 is. On a whole, you would be better off with the Bersa as a bug than the P-32. The Bersa has a much better reliabilty record.

Any gun can and will fail but the fact that the odd Bersa has had a part break is not the same as hearing about large numbers of people complaining about the same problems with the same pistols. I think you are safe with a bersa despite it's $200 price tag. They don't preform like $200 guns.

Horge,
I went to your website and I was impressed. That is a really nice bersa website you have there. Keep it up! I like the older Bersas as well. I have a Bersa 23 in nickel that is one of my all time favorites and I regret trading a nice nickel Bersa 383-A I had as well. My newer bersa Thrunder 22 is nice but the old ones are special. I am always on the lookout for them now. I really like the nickel ones.
 
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