Made a stupid mistake.....got a Beretta 92F instead of 92FS...what to do??

[saturno_v]

I did put an ad on my local gun market website looking for a used Beretta 92FS in good conditions.
I wanted this pistol because it was my service sidearm in the army, for "sentimental" purposes if you wish....and I abolutely love the look of the Beretta full size, I already own a 96.
This guy does answer, super nice person and tells me that he has one (made in USA) in very good condition to sell....he likes the pistol but he says "he is just too much of a SIG guy".
We meet and I look at the pistol.....super tight, mechanically in excellent condition but with what appeared to be few scratches and tiny finishing blemishes (it had a wrap on rupper finger groove which I removed).
After a quick negotiation he let it go for $340 including a nice soft holster and an extra magazine.
I noticed that the rear sight were different than the 92 FS, a big white central dot instead of the smaller 2 on the sides, but I di not pay attention too much.
At home I get it into my shop and I start cleaning it.....most of the "blemishes" and scratches were only just dirt and some sort of residue....the pistol does look beautiful, the finish did come out very nice......the slide is so tight. it looks like new....beautiful pistol......then I look at the slide engraving and my arms fell.....92F not 92 FS.......yes the models the army had problem with the occasional slide flying off before Beretta did fix it the metallurgy and the slide "catching pin" with the 92 FS.
My entire day went south....from joy to find such a gem to "what to do"??
I did contact the guy and he said that he does understand (he did the mistake too, my ad was clear, 92 FS) and he would take the pistol back....
What to do?? Give it back and keep looking for the 92 FS?? Or just keep it, since the conditions are so nice, and still look for the 92 FS and ending up owning 3 Berettas??
What are the chances of the rear slide breaking it??
Please help me with my dilemma!!!

 

[Old Shooter]

If it bothers you, give it back and keep looking. Otherwise just shoot the daylights out of it and don't worry about it. As I understand it (and I may be wrong about this) it took many thousands of rounds thru them to cause the failure you are talking about and not all of them experienced this type of failure.

If it was me, I'd l'd keep it at that price or mayby try to sell it for a bit of profit and then look for the 92fs you wanted.

I had a 92f and shot the daylights out of it and never had a problem, but some people did.

 

[Steve C]

You got a smoking deal and would be foolish to return it. No one ever had trouble with the F model except some issues the military with shooting some extreme overpressure SMG ammo. Stick with handgun ammo no hotter than LEO +P+ and you won't have any problems. I've had my 92F for 23 years and have had 0 problems. Can't even remember a jam.

From Wikipedia:
The FS has an enlarged hammer pin that fits into a groove on the underside of the slide. The main purpose is to stop the slide from flying off the frame to the rear if it cracks. This was in response to reported defective slides during U.S. Military testing.

 

[rellascout]

Shoot the crap out of it and enjoy it.

 

[918v]

Keep it. Older Berettas, like most guns, were better fitted than newer Berettas. Newer FS's have plastic controls, including the trigger.

 

[fatcat4620]

I will take one for the team and give you 350 for it so you can keep looking.

 

[ratt_finkel]

Like everyone else said: you got an amazing deal. Wear good eye protection just in case lol!!!

 

[Oro]

Even with my long-standing indifference to the 92, I would jump on a clean early 92F for that price.

 

[Claude Clay]

keep it for a bunch of reasons:

as a reminder to look past what you want to see, and

cause its a really good deal on a very good gun

 

[Hk Paul]

In all honesty, I'd rather have the 92F from a quality and collectibility standpoint. You can buy a 92FS all day long, but how many times are you going to find an F? I'd keep it, it's a gem!

 

[mljdeckard]

It's not going to break.

And my issued pistol had the single-dot rear sight. (Which fell off during routine cleaning.)

 

[wild cat mccane]

Devil advocate...
give it back and spend an extra $40 dollars on a brand new Taurus PT92 which if you ask here you will find has better controls and allows cocked and locked.

(ie decocker/safety is on the frame not the slide)

 

[SigMic]

I'm with just about everybody else. You are unlikely to reach a level where there is an issue with the slide. And if you do, you'll be spending so much money in ammo, buying a new gun will be the least of your concerns.

A small segment from the Wikipedia article.....

"Prior to its widespread adoption by the U.S. military, questions were raised in a 1987 General Accounting Office report after an incident where a slide failure on a Beretta 92SB injured a Naval Special Warfare member,[7] and two more failures were later observed in additional testing. These failures included both military and civilian Beretta models with very high round counts, and after investigation they were deemed the result of ammunition supplied by the U.S. Army which exceeded the recommended pressures specified by NATO but nonetheless provoked a modification in the M9 design to prevent slide failure from causing injuries."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M9

 

[saturno_v]

Ok guys you did convince me...I think I'm going to keep it......and still looking for a 92 FS...I will end up with 3!!!

I did check and it was built in 1989...maybe they already did fix the metallurgy problem on it!!!

 

[holdencm9]

Sweet. SigMic beat me to it, but yeah, unless you shoot a lot of +P+ through it you probably will never have a problem. Eye pro is always a good idea anyway though.

 

[IdahoLT1]

Beretta had a 3rd party test the ammo the US was using and found it to be like 13,000 psi over SAAMI max rating. Even then, only a few slides(I recall around a dozen) actually came off after high round counts, out of 10's of thousands of pistols.

The Beretta slide issue is way, way overblown. You're talking about a .025% failure rate. My 92F is an '89 model as well and I've never been worried about it. I'm about due to replace the locking block and springs though.

 

[jfowler2]

This gun is junk. You will never be happy with it. But, being the nice guy I am, just send it to with a money order in the amount of $75 and I will properly dispose of it to ensure it doesn't ever fall into someone else's hands.
Don't put this off. Take care of it as soon as possible.
Friends don't let friends shoot junk guns!

 

[JoeMal]

If this is a known problem, Beretta might fix it on their dime? Worth at least a phone call.

Otherwise, yeah it should like a great deal and I would keep it. If you find another good deal on a FS...snatch it up too.

 

[john wall]

If you run into ammo with the warning "for submachine guns ONLY", don't buy it!

Other than that, you got a smoking deal. Now, about wanting three of them?

You MIGHT be a Gun Nut.

 

[saturno_v]

If this is a known problem, Beretta might fix it on their dime? Worth at least a phone call.

Otherwise, yeah it should like a great deal and I would keep it. If you find another good deal on a FS...snatch it up too.

Interesting that you mention that.

An Italian guy told me that Beretta was converting for free the 92 F into 92 FS on their dime up to now.
I contacted Beretta USA and they told me that there is no such program in the USA.

Anyway, here are my 96 (on top) and 92 F

 

[balance 740]

Doesn't Beretta offer the service of cutting the groove on the slide and installing the enlarged hammer pin for the older non-FS 92-series pistols?

This would definately lower the already low chance of the slide breaking and impacting the shooter.

An Italian guy told me that Beretta was converting for free the 92 F into 92 FS on their dime up to now.I contacted Beretta USA and they told me that there is no such program in the USA.

EDIT: Well, nevermind then.

 

[JoeMal]

Interesting that you mention that.

An Italian guy told me that Beretta was converting for free the 92 F into 92 FS on their dime up to now.
I contacted Beretta USA and they told me that there is no such program in the USA.

Anyway, here are my 96 (on top) and 92 F

So ship it to Italy!

And BTW, you DEFINITELY need a third Beretta in that pic

 

[Miked7762]

Newer FS's have plastic controls, including the trigger.

Gah! I get so tired of seeing this over and over. Put a magnet to the 'plastic' controls and see for yourself.

 

[nyrifleman]

I will take one for the team and give you 350 for it so you can keep looking.

I'll one-up that and offer $360

You got a good deal on a great gun. I'd keep it.

 

[Clark]

I got a bunch of Italian police Beretta 92s pistols from Century for $250, 5 years ago.
I talked everyone I knew into getting them.
They each came with one magazine. Then Century ran out of magazines and sold the last few even cheaper.

I figured I would buy some 92fs magazines and mill the release slot. But the magazines turned out to be made of knife blade like hard steel.
I eventually did it with a carbide bit.

Look where they have the magazine release button.