Gun owner again after 25 years, appreciate some advice

[md7]

Thanks Md7, Christ, the guy at the shop sold me for self defense the Hornady Critical Duty, and one reviewer on youtube said that bullet can go thru walls possibly kill someone not intending too. I will just shoot that box at the range and try the Federal hst 124 like you recommend. I want to be safe, not sorry . appreciate your help!

Well, I would think most 9mm rounds have a risk of passing through walls to be honest. Not specific to Critical Duty ammo.

In terms of defensive capabilities, I’d think Critical Duty should be ok. I use Federal HST because it’s garnered a good reputation and because it works well in my defensive pistols. (No feeding, firing, or extraction trouble)

 

[Average Joe]

Mine shoots everything, steel or brass, I use grease on the slide and oil everywhere else. 115 or 124 grain bullets , doesn't' matter.

 

[SenseiDrop]

I know you only solicited answers to your specific questions, but since you framed it in the context of a person returning to gun ownership with little experience, I will offer some unsolicited advice. I am sure more will follow and a lot of it will be good. I'll just get it started:

1. Besides the slide lube of your choice, you'll want a gun cleaner and tools. There is a variety of cleaners out there and while they all work, the ones best suited for your use may depend on the type of ammo and powder (propellant) used. Some ammo produces more carbon fouling and some produces more copper fouling and various solvents are better or worse for each. For tools, I suggest a short pistol cleaning rod. I like one-piece Dewey rods because they're inexpensive and I can buy one for each tool (patch holder, jag, brush, etc) and not have to change the tool tips. You can also use a "bore snake" which work quite well indeed except in the case of bore obstructions.

2. Find a holster that works for you and get it. Make sure your first holster is not a cross-draw or appendix carry simply for the sake of being accepted at training classes and on the firing line at the range.

3. Sign up for training. A day on the weekend for some local training is a good start. You will be well-advised to attend a multi-day training academy when you can. ITTS, Thunder Ranch, Sig Academy, Rogers, Gunsite... something like that. If you indicate what state you live in, you can get advice about where to go. It can costs hundreds to thousands and some people get hung up on that but it's ill-advised to be cheap about training. Your skill is critically important to your results in whatever endeavor you have. Don't put it off until you get better or deeper into it. Give yourself a good start.

I live in florida westernrover, again i used to shoot alot in my teens and early twenties, it's just been so long out of the game, that i wanted to get advice on taking care of it, and info on all the 9mm ammo that's out there and what to choose. Thanks for your help!!

 

[DR505]

FBI issues Hornady Critical Duty 135 grain +p ammo; I don’t think you need worry about over penetration, especially when a huge majority of self defense rounds completely miss their intended target. I worry more about accuracy than penetration.

 

[Homerboy]

I’ve had several 92’s. I have two now, a civilian M9 and a Vertec. Don’t ever recall a malfunction in any of them. I’ve shot steel, brass, and aluminum. Last few years nothing but my brass reloads. Still never a malfunction.

I oil everywhere I should. The gun does like to be ran wet. But I use grease in the slide rails. A few months after oiling it the oil is gone. The grease remains.

 

[Spats McGee]

Welcome back, @SenseiDrop!

 

[rust collector]

Youtube can be a good resource, but the presenters are not infallible and some may be overly dramatic. Unwanted penetration is possible with most loads, but you need penetration if you are forced to try to stop someone. Just be aware of backstop, work out some relatively safe fire lanes, and use high quality defense loads. There is no magic bullet that does only what you want.

 

[stonebuster]

deleted

 

[SenseiDrop]

Youtube can be a good resource, but the presenters are not infallible and some may be overly dramatic. Unwanted penetration is possible with most loads, but you need penetration if you are forced to try to stop someone. Just be aware of backstop, work out some relatively safe fire lanes, and use high quality defense loads. There is no magic bullet that does only what you want.

Thanks rust collector, you make a helluva lot of sense. appreciate the advice!

 

[Shanvanvocht]

the guy at the shop sold me for self defense the Hornady Critical Duty, and one reviewer on youtube said that bullet can go thru walls

Virtually ANY 9mm is capable of penetrating interior walls as well as some exterior walls. Hornady Critical Duty ammunition is designed to meet FBI protocols, which means penetrating sheetrock walls, doors, automobile sheet metal and/or automobile safety glass and still give adequate terminal performance. The average civilian in a SD situation rarely needs that kind of performance. Hornady Critical Defense ammunition gives good terminal performance, but without the intermediate barrier penetration standard.

 

[jstert]

i don’t have a 9mm semiauto pistol, though i do have some 9mm ammo for a ruger blackhawk 357/38/9 revolver; i’m pretty much a revolver guy. given the recently improving price and availability of 9mm ammo i’m looking to get a pistol for it.

so, im curious senseidrop, what led you to the beretta 92?

 

[SenseiDrop]

Hi jstert, this reply is a few months late, but I ended up with the Beretta after learning it was the army's weapon of choice for our soldgiers, and it felt best in my hand compared to the other guns i handled at the store.
Felt tight , crisp just perfect when handling it. lol and it was the star in Die Hard movie....j/k

 

[Howland937]

Hi jstert, this reply is a few months late, but I ended up with the Beretta after learning it was the army's weapon of choice for our soldgiers, and it felt best in my hand compared to the other guns i handled at the store.
Felt tight , crisp just perfect when handling it. lol and it was the star in Die Hard movie....j/k

Ok, so you haven't been that active here...but you don't count as a new guy anymore since your original post is nearly a year old. So, if you're going to revive a thread this old the least you can do is give us an update on how the Beretta is performing for you. (If you'd had any issues, if you're improving or have it mastered yet). Ohhhh...and pictures. I mean yeah, your avatar. But that doesn't count. We all know what a Beretta 92 looks like, but we don't know what yours looks like.

 

[doubleh]

I never owned the Beretta but did have a Taurus PT92. I shot a lot af Blaser aluminum in it and some steel. I finally ran across something I wanted more and traded it. The chamber never developed any scratches. As to oil or grease on slides, I have used both. I never found any difference between the two except it is easer to apply oil.

 

[edwardware]

Just bought a Beretta 92fs and I want to treat it well, and would like some advice.

All three question have "maybe, it depends, a little bit" sort of answers, but none of them matter in your circumstance. By the time you've shot the 25k steel case rounds it takes to create appreciable chamber wear, you'll have spent 10x the value of the gun in ammo. Ditto for wearing it out by shooting commercial 9mm ammo in any bullet weight. And again for grease vs oil.

By far the best thing you can do is buy whatever ammo and lube gets you out shooting most often; everything else is de minimus.

 

[AustinTX]

Late on providing advice, but since you’ve revived the thread, I’ll just say that my experience is that, over the course of many, many thousands of rounds, grease does a significantly better job of protecting anodizing (the treatment applied to aluminum alloy frames) than oil. I would always recommend applying a bit of grease to the frame rails of any pistol with an aluminum alloy frame.

 

[CapnMac]

Just bought a Beretta 92fs and I want to treat it well, and would like some advice.

It's a fine firearm and will outlive most of us.

124gr has become a "thing" in FMJ, For donkey's years the bog-standard FMJ was 115gr. Which, for my 2¢ remains just fine for developing muscle memory wanted to operate your pistol reliably.

There's a legitimate argument that, if a person is carrying 124gr JHP, then 124 FMJ is a rational choice. Ok, logical enough. It won't share POI (point of impact) but should "teach" about recoil management, etc., if a person buts stock in such things. A person is not required to; but, only, to be true to themselves.

That Lucky Gunner comparison is a handy one to have pulled up on your phone while standing staring at the vast array of ammo (presuming there is an array) at the LGS. I'm not a fan of +P SD ammo if it can be helped, and Lucky Gunner offers plenty of choices that do not require that. (I rather like the SIG JHP, both for its performance and for the price my LGS wants for it.)

You wind up being the best arbiter for what is best for you. There tends to not be just the one 'perfect' answer.

 

[AlexanderA]

thanks so much for any feedback !

A lot of people recommend substituting a "D" version hammer spring. It improves the trigger pull significantly. Brownell's has these for $4.

I went further on mine, deleting the hammer-fall feature when the safety is applied. This involves removing the hammer release lever and substituting the "D" spacer. I never could get used to the disconcerting hammer fall.

 

[Smaug]

The 9 mm was designed for 124 gr originally. Often, 115 causes jams. If it's just range ammo, I would use 115 gr., as it is much more widely available than 124 gr. or heavier and a lot cheaper. For defense, I'd probably go 124 gr hollow point and shoot just enough to make sure it shoots reliably.

I never used grease, but I would tend to trust what Beretta recommends. (I never had a Beretta, either) Grease or oil absorbs carbon and soot, so while it is fresh, it lets the gun cycle easier, but when it gets laden with junk, it will be like a grinding paste.

Congrats on the 92FS; it's one of the all-time greats, having served our military for quite a long time. I do think they should've gone with the Ruger P89 or S&W instead; something manufactured by The Home Team.

If you don't have one, get some way to lock it up well. They are starting to hold owners responsible when someone steals their gun and uses it for a crime.

Lastly, I recommend picking up some kind of .22 pistol, so you can practice without going broke. (or even an air pistol)

 

[Alllen Bundy]

Your lubrication choice depends upon your environment. I live in MinneSnowta, the land of the proud and frozen. I only use synthetic lubricants that will still lubricate in subzero temperatures. If you are in a dusty environment you might consider dry lubricants. In hot humid locations, such as Florida, you might be looking for better corrosion resistance to moisture.

Using a separate cleaner and lubricant is superior to an all in one CLP (Clean-Lubricate-Protect). But many people are more likely to use a CLP more frequently because it's easier. But if you are a more compulsive person that pays attention to the small details, you might want to use a separate cleaner and lubricant and completely disassemble, clean, lubricate, and then reassemble your pistol.

Brass shell casings are more likely to polish the steel parts inside your pistol. Steel parts are more likely to wear the steel parts inside your pistol.

Dissimilar metals contacting each other will usually result in lower sliding friction than similar metals. The higher sliding friction of a steel shell case rim sliding under the steel extractor and sliding across the steel breechface can contribute to a return to battery malfunction. So I use brass shell cases. But I went one step further and I polished the breechface, the left adjacent wall to the breechface, and the underside of the extractor claw to reduce the friction and now you cannot ride the slide slowly enough to prevent the slide from returning to battery.

Another friction concern is the stripper rail sliding over the shell case when cycling the slide. The friction of the stripper rail against the shell case in my P365 was so great that it made it very difficult to retract the slide over a magazine loaded to capacity. The stripper rail also put deep scratches into the brass shell cases. Polishing the stripper rail cured the problem.

To check your Beretta for this problem, note the amount of force it requires to retract the slide WITHOUT a magazine inserted. Then load a magazine to capacity, insert it with the slide closed and in battery, then retract the slide and lock it back. If you can retract the slide easily, then your Beretta has been well finished. If you have difficulty, then check the surface finish of the stripper rail, as it may be too rough. Steel cased ammo will likely exacerbate this problem. After I polished the stripper rail in my P365, it only requires about 33% more force to retract the slide over a loaded magazine than with no magazine.

In testing 5 different brands of ammo, only Speer Gold Dot and Sig Elite performance did not show any signs of bullet setback even after being chambered 20 times from the magazine. Some brands had measurable bullet setback after the 3rd chambering from the magazine. The Sig V-Crown bullet was the most secure in the shell case being far more difficult to remove from the shell case than the Speer. The Speer bullet was the 2nd most secure. It also appears that Speer uses a sealant between the bullet and the shell case and it is not supposed to be as susceptible to contamination as other brands.

The Beretta 92 FS has a 4.9" barrel length allowing for higher muzzle velocities resulting in more consistent bullet expansion, so you won't need to be quite as picky about self defense ammunition as someone with a short barrel. If you live in a cold climate where people are likely to be wearing multiple layers of clothing, muzzle velocity ratings are more important. Multiple layers of clothing will inhibit bullet expansion. A higher bullet velocity will help to overcome the expansion problem through heavier clothing. If you are using a 124 or heavier grain bullet, you will likely be better off with a +P powder load to insure sufficient bullet velocity to insure proper bullet expansion. But since most muzzle velocity ratings are performed with a 4" barrel length, that 4.9" barrel will give you a slight muzzle velocity improvement over the advertised rating.

There are also new style all copper self defense bullets that are promising. But I don't know that the gun community has yet come to a consensus on the performance versus conventional mushrooming copper jacketed lead bullets. YMMV.