Devonai
Member
Disclaimer: I'm not talking about trying to fire 9mm in a .40 barrel or vise-versa. This is strictly a conversion kit.
Some of you may have noticed that CDNN is selling .40 caliber Beretta 96G slide and barrel assemblies in both full-size and Centurion. They're advertised as "excellent to like new" and come with all slide parts and one ten-round magazine. Since I have a 92FS that I'm very happy with, I figured why the heck not and I ordered one of the Centurion models. It came to $159 and change with shipping.
I got it USPS in five days. I immediately noticed two things. One, the slide had Trijicons which was not advertised. Two, the .40 caliber magazine was marked with witness holes to ten but did not sport the furrow indicitave of Beretta's Clinton-ban mags. Upon disassembly I discovered that the follower simply had an extra-long keel. Swapping this follower out with a spare 9mm follower I had lying around resulted in a normal capacity of eleven rounds.
I would rate the condition of the parts at 97%. Fit to my existing slide seemed okay. At the range the next day, I put 50 rounds of Fiocchi 180-grain FMJ through the newly-assembled Centurion. Recoil was obviously heavier than the 9mm but this was not a problem; I ended up with groups comparable to my performance with the 9mm.
I did not experience any problems with the supplied magazine, but I was also testing out two of my 15-round 9mm mags which did result in problems. There were two failures to feed (nosedives) and they did not reliably lock the slide back on the last round. This is different from my previous experience with these magazines and a former 96FS that I used to own, in which magazines for either caliber were fully interchangeable and reliable.
Since the supplied magazine had the 9mm follower that I put in it, I am at a loss for why my existing 9mm magazines had problems. The nosedives were obviously an issue of the feedramp and I wonder if .40 caliber frames have wider ramps. Still, the failures to feed only occured with my 9mm mags, suggesting a relationship between the mag body and the feed ramp.
So, my plan is to order one more .40 caliber magazine and test it out. If I have no problems I'll simply stop trying to make my 9mm mags pull double duty. Overall I'm still pleased with this purchase. The Centurion has always been, IMO, a handsome pistol.
Some of you may have noticed that CDNN is selling .40 caliber Beretta 96G slide and barrel assemblies in both full-size and Centurion. They're advertised as "excellent to like new" and come with all slide parts and one ten-round magazine. Since I have a 92FS that I'm very happy with, I figured why the heck not and I ordered one of the Centurion models. It came to $159 and change with shipping.
I got it USPS in five days. I immediately noticed two things. One, the slide had Trijicons which was not advertised. Two, the .40 caliber magazine was marked with witness holes to ten but did not sport the furrow indicitave of Beretta's Clinton-ban mags. Upon disassembly I discovered that the follower simply had an extra-long keel. Swapping this follower out with a spare 9mm follower I had lying around resulted in a normal capacity of eleven rounds.
I would rate the condition of the parts at 97%. Fit to my existing slide seemed okay. At the range the next day, I put 50 rounds of Fiocchi 180-grain FMJ through the newly-assembled Centurion. Recoil was obviously heavier than the 9mm but this was not a problem; I ended up with groups comparable to my performance with the 9mm.
I did not experience any problems with the supplied magazine, but I was also testing out two of my 15-round 9mm mags which did result in problems. There were two failures to feed (nosedives) and they did not reliably lock the slide back on the last round. This is different from my previous experience with these magazines and a former 96FS that I used to own, in which magazines for either caliber were fully interchangeable and reliable.
Since the supplied magazine had the 9mm follower that I put in it, I am at a loss for why my existing 9mm magazines had problems. The nosedives were obviously an issue of the feedramp and I wonder if .40 caliber frames have wider ramps. Still, the failures to feed only occured with my 9mm mags, suggesting a relationship between the mag body and the feed ramp.
So, my plan is to order one more .40 caliber magazine and test it out. If I have no problems I'll simply stop trying to make my 9mm mags pull double duty. Overall I'm still pleased with this purchase. The Centurion has always been, IMO, a handsome pistol.
