The Beretta 92FS is the most common pistol in the world

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George Hill

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http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/walk/gen55/dgca/beretta_92fs.htm

The Beretta 92FS, its predecessors and its copies are quite possibly the most common pistols in the world today, only the Browning Hi-Power can claim anywhere near the acceptance.
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Please, read through this guy's webpage. I like the Beretta, and think it's one of the finest handguns in the world... but I don't think it's the most common.
So I send him an email:
The Beretta, (while one of my all time favorites) is no where near that. Guns ahead of it are as follows:
The Hi Power, The 1911, The PP / PPK and The Makarov
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He wrote me back:
I did say the Hi Power might be more common. 1911s are only really popular in the US, you do encounter them in other countries but they're not as common as the Beretta. Note that the two countries that used the 1911 the most, the US and Brazil, currently use the Beretta or a copy of it and they are now in far greater numbers in military service. Yes, there are a lot of 1911s sold on the US commercial market but there's a lot of Berettas sold on the commercial market too and when you add in all the other countries outside the US that use it, I'm pretty certain it's more common.
Depends on what you define as a "1911". Depends on what you define as a Beretta too, if you add in the Taurus it gets complicated.

The Beretta totally blows the PP and the PPK out of the water, not even close, unless you include all the copies of the PP made in Eastern Europe, which aren't really PPs, although they are similar. Remember nearly all the police units that used to use them ditched them during the 1970s and most of them were cut up. (I think Iraq still uses it!) No military ever used it as their main sidearm, even the Nazis mainly used it as a police gun.

I'm not sure about the Makarov, I've never seen an official number of them produced, you might be right, depends on how many are still around.
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When I see police departments on the news from other countries, I never see Berettas. When I go to gunshows, I always see plenty of handguns... mainly variants of the above guns or all kinds of other handguns... I do see some Berettas, but not in numbers that would support this claim. Then again, I've not been to a gunshow in London, Paris, or Hamburg...

Is this guy right? Even close to the mark? Or totally up in the night?
 
What about military's around the world? would there be enough military handguns to make a big push in numbers? I think there are more maks out there than any other gun.
 
Well the most common handgun in the world is probably all of the variants of the .38 Spec. S&W. Traveling around the country, I see those things for sale everywhere and they still top the crime gun list here in America. S&W also used to do huge export business in its Golden Age of police revo sales, particularly in South America.

I'd say that the P-35, aka The Browning High Power, is probably still the most common pistol out there. It was used by both the Axis and the Allies in WWII. It was allegedly quite popular in the African bush wars of the 60s and 70s and the Mak doesn't have quite the military cachet of the AK for commie insurgents, and so I don't think the ComBloc did quite the booming pistol business as imagined. Totalitarians wouldn't like the idea of small, concealable pistols being as common as fleas or AKs.
 
I read an article recently, (wish I could remember where) that the US military only expect to get 5,000 rounds out of their berettas before they turn to crap. Ive owned one right after the military got theirs and I never did like the gun. If they can only expect to get 5,000 rounds out of each gun its a huge ripoff. Considering the 1911 will run forever. I find it hard to believe the article also. Considering all communist block countries use the mak and its variations. Of course the Italian police and military use it...who else does ecept them and our military and a few police departments. I know the pre 60s Berettas are excellent guns. But this is not the 60s anymore. Remember all the trouble the first ones had that were issued to our troops. Apparently they still have major problems with them.
Just my 2 cents worth.
 
Berettas are one of the most popular movie guns right now, so I can see where one might be mislead. Real world, the BHP outnumbers Beretta 92s by a wide margin. I can't believe all the 1911's (and knockoffs) ever made are outnumbered by all the Berettas.
 
I read an article recently, (wish I could remember where) that the US military only expect to get 5,000 rounds out of their berettas before they turn to crap. Ive owned one right after the military got theirs and I never did like the gun. If they can only expect to get 5,000 rounds out of each gun its a huge ripoff. Considering the 1911 will run forever. I find it hard to believe the article also. Considering all communist block countries use the mak and its variations. Of course the Italian police and military use it...who else does ecept them and our military and a few police departments. I know the pre 60s Berettas are excellent guns. But this is not the 60s anymore. Remember all the trouble the first ones had that were issued to our troops. Apparently they still have major problems with them.
Just my 2 cents worth.
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:rolleyes: Complete and utter BS.
 
i was the RO for the PMO armory for 4 months of my OKI tour in 95. the USMC pay $162 and change for 1 M9.
 
This statement is not far-fetched by any means. I would however change a part of the statement to 'quite possibly the most popular post-WWII 9mm pistol'.

Remember that the 9mm has been the popular round worldwide for military and police use and in addition many countries forbid civilians to hold a bigger caliber gun than the local police. So immediately the most popular gun would have to be on the 9mm or .380 platform. This rules out the .45ACP, hence the 1911- The US Armed Forces move to 9mm would also not have helped the .45ACP cause either. This move also helped a lot of countries to quickly adopt the Beretta has they would not have the resources to do such extensive military trials and pistol development themselves- so they followed the leader. Beretta has also won a number of other trials worldwide since the US Trials, interestingly with the Sig P226 playing bridesmaid on a number of these occasions. One other point is the Beretta had entered the Austrian pistol trials of the early 80s but was beaten by the Glock 17. The Beretta has since improved tremendously and did beat back the Glock in other trials.

Currently whilst the Makorov may be around in large quantities (probably because used in countries with large populations), it is not in use by many countries. So looking around the world, the BHP and its variants clearly leads the way, Sigs are usually assigned to more specialist units, Taurus and S&W seen here and there, Glocks gaining rapidly in popularity (even got a police department in Switzerland to switch from Sig to the G19; Vatican police now uses Glock) and the Berettas and variants seen in large quantities.

I had predicted that Glock would become the most popular by around 2015 but the HK USPs and Walther P99 have grabbed a bit of the Glock's market. The XD is also gaining in popularity and frankly I would buy a XD over the Glock now..

So again it is not a far-fetched statement and could POSSIBLY be the most popular post-WWII 9mm pistol;)
 
(continuing). The biggest threat I see to the statement is the CZ75 and its variants. A hugely popular pistol outside of the West. In fact I heard about the CZ as a top notch pistol long before I ever heard of Sig or Beretta. I still intend to own one of the classic CZs (all steel, DA first shot, cocked and locked SA carry) one day.

Best.
 
As usual, lots of hot air and no facts. Can anyone enumerate the countries whose militaries have adopted the Beretta other than the US, France and Italy? No doubt about it, the Beretta 92 is a good weapon, but there are many good pistols out there and most seem to sell, ie., Smiths, Walthers, H-Ks, Glocks, Sigs and Rugers.
 
Well, I know a lot of former Soviet Union countries all used Maks, and have since switched to CZ-75s and variants there of. If the posts on TFL were correct as I think they were.
Brazil, what does Brazil issue? Taurus?
 
Based on the fact that I regularly shoot my Sig P228, I seem to prefer guns that do not have manual safeties up on the slide. But this is really a minor point. My range buddy has the 92FS, and I can do OK with it, if I can get enough practice with it. He has gotten to the point where he has gotten pretty proficient with it, it is a reliable and accurate piece. Its all a matter of what you train and practice with, and therefore, what you are used to.
 
Considering the brief time the Beretta 92 has been in existance, I highly doubt it. I would think even the Walther P38 would be more common.
 
Yuck Yuck

akurat
Complete and utter BS.
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Maybe you should do your homework before you make BS statements. If facts get in your way do some research on your own. To just blatantly call it BS shows a lack common sense. :neener: If it bothers you than prove it wrong with facts not BS remarks.
 
I don't know how correct this is but I've heard that the cz75 is currently used by more military and police forces than any other handgun.

True? False?

-bevr
 
Hey Nevad, why don't you show your Math to prove him wrong?

I'm not wanting to start anything, nor am I taking sides. However I started this thread asking a question, and I want details.

Once we have some facts together I am going to email him back.
 
Nevada,

I figured thats what you were talking about. If you look at the dates there is not one over the year 1990.

The Beretta is doing just fine as far as slide problems are concerned these days. There was at one time a regulation to replace the slide like every 1000 or 3000 rounds or so. But it has since been done away with.
 
coltjeeper, thats not what I was talking about, I was saying the expected service life of the US Military beretta is only 5,000 rounds. When I posted that above I was told it was BS. Well heres the proof. As far as the slides go I wasnt even interested in that fact. Also Ive read alot of articles about the Berettas in use in Afghanistan.....the troops are complaining all over the place. They stop working and take to many rounds to knock down the bad guy. It will be interesting to hear what comes out of Iraq about the Beretta. If the Beretta 9mm is so good why do our elite troops disdain it for the .45????? I dont think to highly of the 9mm myself. Regardless of the gun that shoots it. Quite a few Police deparments across the US are getting rid of the Beretta. They just dont cut it. My nephew is a policeman in Colorado and he shot a BG 9 times before the guy dropped with a Glock 9mm. It scared him so bad he went to .45. Believe me it doesnt take 9 shots from a .45 to drop a guy.
 
Don't quote me on this, but. . .

I recall reading that the standard for a service pistol is 5,000 rounds. At 5,000 rounds pistol will undergo routine service (i.e. replace springs, complete takedown cleaning, replace/repair parts, function check, etc.). This does not mean that a pistol will have a catastrophic failure at round 5,001. It simply means the military has determined that time to be optimal for routine maintenance. . .

Shake
 
And some folks drop dead from a single .22LR.

Conversely, some perps take a mag full of .45 and live.

Shoot someone in the head with a pellet gun and you'll probably get a one-shot stop.


I've seen the figure 5 million bandied about for 1911s, growing every day.

I would think that limiting this guy's assertion, such as he has, to the 92FS puts him way down on the list.

The WHOLE 92 family, including Taurus and Helwan clones might be more competetive, numbers wise. I believe the 92 heritage goes back to the 1950s.

Still, BHP and knockoffs from Argentina, Hungary, John Inglis, etc. probably rule the roost for sheer numbers even now.

Probably the statement he should've made is Beretta 92s have a strong claim to 3rd place.
 
Pure BS

"I read an article recently, (wish I could remember where) that the US military only expect to get 5,000 rounds out of their berettas before they turn to crap."

I'll bet that article was written by a blowhard named hackworth?

Truth is, the Army knows that's a lie. Their minimum approval standard for the M9 trials was that it must average at least 15,000 rounds before serious failure (not fixable in the field). The test result was about twice that number, or 30,000 averaged across all the guns tested. pretty impressive considering how hot NATO ammo is.

The ARMY has range weapons with round counts far in excess of 100,000 rounds. The M9's are harder to kill than a cockroach.
 
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