the dirty on Beretta
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Opeybarr68
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Hey,
I am a US Sailor and have used the M-9. The weapon is not a bad choice for most civilian uses. Accuracy is there, reliability and ease of use are there. The only time I ever experienced a problem with a berreta was in extreme conditions. When rolling around in the sand and drenched in rain the weapon would fail. Nothing more than a sharp smack to the bottom of the mag to correct the failure but in some cases of a berreta in this situation I had to smack the thing around between each shot. This was not a one gun freak thing either. The entire group of us on the training course experienced simular failures.
Again for a civilian that may never be in these conditions while shooting, the berreta is a great weapon. 17 round mags, safeties, accuracy and parts availablitiy are all strongly in favor of the berreta.
Try not to the let opinions of a few decide for you. shoot one..
Good luck..
I am a US Sailor and have used the M-9. The weapon is not a bad choice for most civilian uses. Accuracy is there, reliability and ease of use are there. The only time I ever experienced a problem with a berreta was in extreme conditions. When rolling around in the sand and drenched in rain the weapon would fail. Nothing more than a sharp smack to the bottom of the mag to correct the failure but in some cases of a berreta in this situation I had to smack the thing around between each shot. This was not a one gun freak thing either. The entire group of us on the training course experienced simular failures.
Again for a civilian that may never be in these conditions while shooting, the berreta is a great weapon. 17 round mags, safeties, accuracy and parts availablitiy are all strongly in favor of the berreta.
Try not to the let opinions of a few decide for you. shoot one..
Good luck..
sfhogman
Member
I had a 96FS Inox. Wonderful gun, but didn't fit my hand very well. Reliability and accuracy were not a problem. Be sure to shoot before you buy. If it fits you, I would say it's an excellent value.
I would also suggest a look at the CZ line of pistols. Mine have excellent ergonomics and shoot beautifully. My 97B is incredibly accurate.
Jeff
I would also suggest a look at the CZ line of pistols. Mine have excellent ergonomics and shoot beautifully. My 97B is incredibly accurate.
Jeff
Gixerman1000
Member
No problems with any of my Beretta's
From the Army Times:
Stopping power? I do believe that is a cartridge based complaint.
Magazines? I do believe that would be the aftermarket garbage put out by Checkmate Industries.
SIG should be counting their blessings the P226 didn't win the XM9 trials. NSW, the SeAL command, uses OEM mags and the Mozambique with their SIGs. No complaints there about springs or stopping power though I have heard they are going to HKs.
Must be an Army thing to bugger the Beretta by saddling it with unwanted equipment handicaps then ordering tens of thousands more pistols.
Stopping power? I do believe that is a cartridge based complaint.
Magazines? I do believe that would be the aftermarket garbage put out by Checkmate Industries.
SIG should be counting their blessings the P226 didn't win the XM9 trials. NSW, the SeAL command, uses OEM mags and the Mozambique with their SIGs. No complaints there about springs or stopping power though I have heard they are going to HKs.
Must be an Army thing to bugger the Beretta by saddling it with unwanted equipment handicaps then ordering tens of thousands more pistols.
Island Beretta
Member
I give the Beretta a A+ for those criteria mentioned..
The Army problem with the Beretta was first due to submachine rounds being fired in the handgun. Beretta took care of that with a redesigned locking block and a slide overtravel stop.. Next came some contract magazines (won't call the name) with defective spring and follower setups..
The Beretta has performed creditably worldwide and in the recent US Shooting Champs shot very well. You need to see some of those groupings by the Army boys with the 'no-good' Beretta. The AMU rates the Beretta highly as well and you may see them competing in USPSA Production competition next year. I rate the CZs very highly as well but it is not as reliable as Berettas, must be due to that small ejection port- your ejector setup has to be well tuned for optimum reliability. As for Glocks, spotty QA, but when they shoot good, they shoot good and when they are a POS, nothing beats them at being a POS, not even Brycos
The Army problem with the Beretta was first due to submachine rounds being fired in the handgun. Beretta took care of that with a redesigned locking block and a slide overtravel stop.. Next came some contract magazines (won't call the name) with defective spring and follower setups..
The Beretta has performed creditably worldwide and in the recent US Shooting Champs shot very well. You need to see some of those groupings by the Army boys with the 'no-good' Beretta. The AMU rates the Beretta highly as well and you may see them competing in USPSA Production competition next year. I rate the CZs very highly as well but it is not as reliable as Berettas, must be due to that small ejection port- your ejector setup has to be well tuned for optimum reliability. As for Glocks, spotty QA, but when they shoot good, they shoot good and when they are a POS, nothing beats them at being a POS, not even Brycos
Sinsaba
Member
While I don't own a beretta pistol, I do own a Beretta CX4 (C stands for carbine). Why am I posting you ask?
A number of CX4 owners had issues with the extractor breaking (I was one of them). They would send the aformentioned CX4 back to Beretta and have the extractor replaced. Sounds good so far but read on...
When this happened to me I didn't have it replaced under warrenty. I just purchased a new one. They shipped right away and when I looked, it was differant. They had changed the design slightly. Since then no problems. Meanwhile the othes were still getting the OLD extractors. BUSA was shipping out known defective extractors.
At least one individual had a shell casing catch on the ejection port (polymer upper) and melt two small grooves into it. BUSA replaced the extractor (with one of the known bad design) and enlarged the port to cut away the grooves this is what they considered a "fix".
BUSA advertised a special deal with a lot of goodies if you bought one of their new CX4 and did eventually made good on it but it took months.
On the other side ... this was a totally new offering by Beretta so some teething troubles were to be expected. The only reason I bring all of this up is that I'm not sure if I would mark BUSA's customer service up there with all of the other comments.
A number of CX4 owners had issues with the extractor breaking (I was one of them). They would send the aformentioned CX4 back to Beretta and have the extractor replaced. Sounds good so far but read on...
When this happened to me I didn't have it replaced under warrenty. I just purchased a new one. They shipped right away and when I looked, it was differant. They had changed the design slightly. Since then no problems. Meanwhile the othes were still getting the OLD extractors. BUSA was shipping out known defective extractors.
At least one individual had a shell casing catch on the ejection port (polymer upper) and melt two small grooves into it. BUSA replaced the extractor (with one of the known bad design) and enlarged the port to cut away the grooves this is what they considered a "fix".
BUSA advertised a special deal with a lot of goodies if you bought one of their new CX4 and did eventually made good on it but it took months.
On the other side ... this was a totally new offering by Beretta so some teething troubles were to be expected. The only reason I bring all of this up is that I'm not sure if I would mark BUSA's customer service up there with all of the other comments.
jcinkc
Member
I bought my Beretta 92 Inox Brigadier in 1997. This pistol is easy to shoot, easy to clean, and just plain fun. I have taken several new shooters to the range, and they have all fallen for the Brig--except my girlfriend who won't give up her HK USPc 9.
IZinterrogator
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I took an M9 with my own factory magazines to Iraq. I had feeding issues with the magazines after I decided, for no particular reason, to replace the magazine springs with Wolff +5% springs. When I returned home, my other factory magazines (which had been left loaded for the year as an experiment) were still running fine.
When we shot a qualification table in Iraq, most M9s jammed. But when I took a look at them, they all had the Checkmate magazines and most looked like they hadn't been taken out of the holster for a good cleaning all yearcuss: officers). My M9 went through the whole qualification without a hiccup.
Now back at home, a 96G-SD graces my bedside as my HD gun. I can think of no higher endorsement than that. My personally-owned M9 Special Edition has been running strong with no replaced parts for over six years now, and it gets shot often since I use it to teach M9 newbies how to shoot.
When we shot a qualification table in Iraq, most M9s jammed. But when I took a look at them, they all had the Checkmate magazines and most looked like they hadn't been taken out of the holster for a good cleaning all year
cuss: officers). My M9 went through the whole qualification without a hiccup.Now back at home, a 96G-SD graces my bedside as my HD gun. I can think of no higher endorsement than that. My personally-owned M9 Special Edition has been running strong with no replaced parts for over six years now, and it gets shot often since I use it to teach M9 newbies how to shoot.
I have posted about this before and if it angers some or if they choose not to believe it so be it. I once operated an indoor shooting range with a rental handgun case that got a lot of use.
All guns were fed commercial reloaded copper plated ammunition. Berettas were the worst in DURABILITY, they seem reliable enough due to the open top slide construction but locking blocks broke a lot and so did the occasional slide, barrel and frame.
However as the average gun gets far less ammo through it and more care than a rental if someone likes the Beretta series autos I see no reason not to buy one. I own the Taurus clone of the Beretta 92F and 5 Beretta pocket autos so I by no means have an anti Beretta agenda.
Also I don't know if the Beretta brigadier types with the beefier slide are better in the durability dept but I would assume so. If I planned on high volume shooting with a Beretta or any gun for that matter I'd just be more vigilant for wear and change recoil springs maybe once in a while.
Or better yet get a beater 9mm to do some of your shooting with. I have a Star 30M, all steel, gets some of my 9mm abuse and my Taurus does have a lifetime warranty if I do have a problem one day. Ruger 9mms can take a lot of punishment too, even Glocks at the range had more problems then they did.
All guns were fed commercial reloaded copper plated ammunition. Berettas were the worst in DURABILITY, they seem reliable enough due to the open top slide construction but locking blocks broke a lot and so did the occasional slide, barrel and frame.
However as the average gun gets far less ammo through it and more care than a rental if someone likes the Beretta series autos I see no reason not to buy one. I own the Taurus clone of the Beretta 92F and 5 Beretta pocket autos so I by no means have an anti Beretta agenda.
Also I don't know if the Beretta brigadier types with the beefier slide are better in the durability dept but I would assume so. If I planned on high volume shooting with a Beretta or any gun for that matter I'd just be more vigilant for wear and change recoil springs maybe once in a while.
Or better yet get a beater 9mm to do some of your shooting with. I have a Star 30M, all steel, gets some of my 9mm abuse and my Taurus does have a lifetime warranty if I do have a problem one day. Ruger 9mms can take a lot of punishment too, even Glocks at the range had more problems then they did.
Tecolote
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Not to flame but your experience is the opposite of the owner of a large range with rentals. They never had a problem with a Beretta slide or frame cracking. Sometimes a locking block would break but only after thousands of rounds but Beretta has since redesigned the locking block to extend durability. I talked to the owner of the range several times and he said that Berettas were the most popular rentals followed by Glocks because of all the movie and tv exposure.
Yes that is possible as the Beretta that were breaking were mostly but not all from the late 1980's to mid 1990's vintage. Maybe there has been improvements. BTW, did this place have breakage with any of the rentals besides the Berettas then? Even the vaunted 1911 cracked the occasional slide or frame too. Also rentals at my particular range were very popular and Berettas did get a lot of use because as mentioned they have a lot of media exposure.
I'd try to hide the Beretta on the bottom of the case or rent something else though sometimes to save wear on it if possible! I did never get a Taurus in the case as I figured the customers woul not like it wasn't the real deal. I'm curious how the Taurus would have done in the case.
I'd try to hide the Beretta on the bottom of the case or rent something else though sometimes to save wear on it if possible! I did never get a Taurus in the case as I figured the customers woul not like it wasn't the real deal. I'm curious how the Taurus would have done in the case.
BerettaNut92
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Your car might run for 150,000 miles but you still need to change the battery every 3 years.
Your Beretta might run for 150,000 rounds but you still need to change your locking block every 3 years.
(Nina is just about due. Too bad Langdon closed up shop)
Your Beretta might run for 150,000 rounds but you still need to change your locking block every 3 years.
(Nina is just about due. Too bad Langdon closed up shop)
Those articles are mostly quoting the late Col. David Hackworth, whose views I never held in particularly high esteem. He used to berate the 1911 as well, even making the outrageous claim that the 1911 had killed more friendly soldiers than enemy thanks to accidents!
By far the majority of the complaints against the Beretta lie with the caliber, and that isn't the gun's fault. It's also not the M9's fault that currently most are being fed with inferior magazines made by a third party, either.
The M9 does indeed have a few faults, but so does any weapon system. I am not by any means stating it would be my first choise in a defensive handgun, but the truth is I can easily think of a few that are worse. Properly maintained Berettas are extremely reliable, and given the limited role of pistols in the regular military it's good enough for its intended purpose. Special Forces are another matter, and their requirements are much different. For them I would definitely agree that the M9 is a poor choice, but more for the reason of its caliber and DA trigger than any fault in the basic design.
brewer90
Member
I bought a 92FS Centurion about 13 years ago. It has the full size grip but they shortened the barrel by .5". I have never had a single failure since I've owned the gun.
It's a breeze to break down and clean too. I cleaned my Kimber and my Beretta last night and was impressed with the simplicity of the Beretta. It took about half the time.
The only thing I don't like is the long trigger pull but the pistol is very accurate.
It's a breeze to break down and clean too. I cleaned my Kimber and my Beretta last night and was impressed with the simplicity of the Beretta. It took about half the time.
The only thing I don't like is the long trigger pull but the pistol is very accurate.
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