Recoil level of Bersa Thunder 380?

[ShadyGrove]

I am considering picking up a Bersa Thunder 380 just to use as a range/fun gun. I always wanted to get a PPK, but they are just too expensive for me to justify buying one.

Obviously the PPK is a higher quality gun, but I figure the Bersa comes pretty close in both looks and function, but at about 1/3 the price. A way for me to kinda scratch the itch without a huge investment.

With that said, I have never fired a blowback 380 before. My local ranges don't have any rental guns so I can't really try one out beforehand. I have read wildly different opinions on the recoil of the Bersa Thunder 380. Some people say it is super mild and a joy to shoot, others say it is downright painful and the beavertail beats up the web of their hand.

I know recoil is subjective, but there seems to be a weird 50/50 discrepancy with blowback 380s in general, between people saying they are super mild and others saying they are no fun at all.

So if you have a Bersa Thunder 380 (or a similar size/weight blowback 380, such as PPK, Beretta Cheetah, etc.) i'd be interested in hearing your take on this. Also please include your general hand size, as i'm wondering if small hands vs. large hands has anything to do with recoil perception on these. I am including a poll in this post as well, just for kicks.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

FELT recoil is both objective and subjective.

How recoil feels is a matter of force applied over time. The higher the force, the higher the felt recoil. The shorter the duration that same force is applied, the higher the felt recoil.

Force is, of course, mass times acceleration. One often forgets that "deceleration" is also acceleration...and that the reaction of the pistol to being fired is also "acceleration" in a vector opposite the direction of the moving bullet.

For blowback pistols which have a barrel physically fixed to the pistol frame (like the PPK/S), this means there are no moving parts (spring/slide) to help mitigate the acceleration experienced in the reverse direction. This means the hand/arm does all that work.

A way of explaining this:

If I am working on a roof and drop my hammer down to you to catch, what you feel when you catch it is one thing.

If I am working on a roof and drop my hammer down to you to catch and your hand is resting on a concrete step at the time, what you will feel is quite another matter.

If I am working on a roof and drop my hammer down to you to catch and you're using a catchers mitt while resting your hand on a concrete step at the time, what you will feel will be something between the first two examples.

So a lot of things go into felt recoil. Hand size, how the pistol fits in the hand, the size/mass of the hand/arm holding the pistol, the bullet mass & velocity when the gun is fired, the grip angle, grip strength, the shooting experience of the person, mass of the pistol/slide, and more.

My wife's PPK/S hits my hand pretty solidly, and I'm not a stranger to shooting. I have not shot a Bersa Thunder (yet), but I have handled a few. I think they're grips are a bit broader and would go a ways towards more comfortable shooting with respect to felt recoil. Perhaps I'll find out some day.

Certainly the price of a Bersa is more affordable, so I think it's worth a shot for you.

Given the cost of ammo these days, the price of many pistols seems pretty cheap.

I say give it a "shot"!

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

My Bersa thunder is a joy to shoot. It does not aggravate my arthritis. And is decently accurate. My hand size is average.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

It feels like a smallish 9mm Para. Not painful or anything, just a bit surprising since you expect it to be lighter.
If anything, I found the Bersa more comfortable than the PPK, and I have medium paws.

The single-stack Beretta .380 is even more ergonomic, but the double stacks are a bit too chunky for my liking.

My Walthers were not very reliable at all. The Bersa and Berettas were perfect feeders, but the Bersa did suffer a broken hammer. Found a spare and replaced it, though it did take some fitting.

 

[GBExpat]

... or you could get a locked-breech .380, e.g., a Glock 42, and have a pistol that may be a bit more comfortable for you to shoot.

 

[drband]

Comfortable. Shootable. I can shoot as long as I have ammo and suffer no soreness or pain. 100 rds in a session is nothing.

 

[Hokkmike]

The only thing I can offer is that my recollection of shooting a Bersa in 9mm is that it was more fun than painful.

 

[12Bravo20]

It feels like a smallish 9mm Para. Not painful or anything, just a bit surprising since you expect it to be lighter.
If anything, I found the Bersa more comfortable than the PPK, and I have medium paws.

The single-stack Beretta .380 is even more ergonomic, but the double stacks are a bit too chunky for my liking.

My Walthers were not very reliable at all. The Bersa and Berettas were perfect feeders, but the Bersa did suffer a broken hammer. Found a spare and replaced it, though it did take some fitting.

My experiences with both the Bersa 380 and Walther PPK match yours. I found the Bersa to be more comfortable to shoot. Though neither are even close to the FEG PA63 when it comes to recoil.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

... or you could get a locked-breech .380, e.g., a Glock 42, and have a pistol that may be a bit more comfortable for you to shoot.

PPK/S, Bersa, and Beretta...curvy and beautiful.

Glock anything...chunky, square, and ugly.

Nah! You can keep the Glock!

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

PPK/S, Bersa, and Beretta...curvy and beautiful.

Glock anything...chunky, square, and ugly.

Nah! You can keep the Glock!

Then there's the Astra Constable, a cheap but wholesome date, if you can find her.
And, of course, the Sig P230- a high class callgirl, by comparison.

 

[JERRY]

I've owned both a Walther PPK and Sig P232. Their recoil wasn't intolerable but more than it should be for a sub-caliber round. Thus is the nature of fixed bbl. Semiautos.

 

[GBExpat]

PPK/S, Bersa, and Beretta...curvy and beautiful.

Glock anything...chunky, square, and ugly.

Nah! You can keep the Glock!

Say many folks.

That was simply the first example that came to my mind. The G42 is not the only locked-breech .380 out there.

 

[JERRY]

I owned Bersa model 383 I believe it was back in the early nineties and i was surprised that it did shoot better than my PPK.

 

[entropy]

I found a friend's Bersa to be tolerable. I wouldn't want to put box after box through one, but not fierce.
I had a CZ24 that was the mildest shooting .380 I have ever shot. I can't say that about my TCP738. Not fun at all.

 

[Tallball]

NBD. Kinda like shooting a smallish 9mm.

I don't have a Bersa, but I have a couple of FEG's and a Makarov in 380 and a Sig P230. They're all okay to shoot.

 

[kje54]

I was looking at a myriad of 380 gun reviews recently and while a lot are positive at least one reviewer went further and asked people all throughout the industry their opinions. He found the responses mixed with the LGS people stating the Bursa was the most sent back for warranty work out of all the 380s they sold.

The one I found that I would buy is the Tisas Fatih 380 which is a Berretta 83/84 Cheetah clone.

It's slightly larger than the Bursa but also much better made and about $100 more.

 

[doubleh]

After playing around with a few 380's I do not want any of them that are blow back operated. My wife has the fancy Walther PPK/s and although it is a very nice example of workmanship it is a little beast in every way when you shoot it. I would think the Bersa would have the same characteristics as its predecessors, the Walther PPK family of 380's but it is only a guess.

 

[bannockburn]

I have never been a big fan of straight blowback semi-autos, finding delayed blowback guns like the Colt Mustang and SIG P238, much more pleasant to shoot and capable of some surprising accuracy with the help of a decent SAO trigger.

Having said that, while I have no range time with the Bersa, I use to own both the Beretta Model 84 and the Model 85 and found that they were never a problem with felt recoil. While I did find them to be somewhat large for a .380, they had very nice DA/SA triggers and serviceable sights.

 

[5-SHOTS]

With a blowback 380 I think the problem is not the recoil but the grip, sharp edges on the beavertail and things like that.
I mean, I used to own a Beretta 84F. The recoil was very manageable but the decocker/safety lever hitted the inside of my right thumb badly. Sold after a couple range trips.
So, the first thing I'd look in a blowback 380 is the shape of the grip and the beavertail. If it is rounded and well moulded around your thenar eminence, you can shoot it all day long.

I also used to own a locked breech Colt Government 380 Stainless: that was a real pussycat.

 

[MutinousDoug]

I own a Colt Mustang, a Bersa Thunder and a Browning 1911 380.
The Colt is a Pocketlite so I bought the Bersa to give the Colt a break with round count. I carry the Browning daily unless I'm going jogging in sweats.
Both the Browning and Colt are definitely more pleasant to shoot than the Bersa but it is no more than slightly annoying and surprisingly accurate out to 10-15 yds.

 

[tark]

It depends on the weight of the gun for starters. And the grip angle in relation to the bore. An Astra 300 in .32 ACP has quite a snappy recoil. The same gun in 380 can be uncomfortable to some.

 

[WheelGunMan]

As someone mentioned the recoil is subjective. I own a Bersa Firestorm in .380 which like the Thunder has a blowback operating system. The fixed barrel design offers a better accuracy but is also known to have a bit stouter recoil than a locked breech design.

My LCP Max, though smaller and lighter than my Firestorm, has less felt recoil to me.

 

[AK Hunter]

I bought a Bersa Thunder 380 for my girlfriend so she wouldn’t be scared to shoot it. She liked it for a while then she wanted a 9mm Glock so I bought her one of those. She found out real quick that her Bersa Thunder was easy to shoot compared to the Glock because the Thunder is a metal gun & has a little weight to it, as the Glock is polymer & much lighter. The thunder just has push for recoil the Glock will snap your hand back & needs to be held a little tighter.
But that all depends on what gr weight & power you shoot out of it too. The +p will give you more recoil than the normal light weight hard balls.

 

[hutch51]

Had a Bersa Firestorm. Same weapon as the Thunder with some minor changes.
Shot fine, reliable. The recoil felt hard, sharp snaps. After about twenty rounds my hand was complaining pretty loudly. The hand was good the next day so no long-term problems.
Sold it after a couple of sessions.
It's just a little too light. My Sig P238 is all steel, better on the hand, but on the pricey side too.
Forgot - Medium-size hands.

 

[bannockburn]

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