Why are berettas mocked so often?

[abrink]

I've heard some things people say about Beretta's reliability and i was wondering if they were true. I know there are some magazine problems but i know if you go and get a mag from Beretta they function well.

So what do you think about the beretta's?

 

[USMCDK]

From mine and others experience in the Marine Corps. They are the biggest piece of paper weight you can buy. Not accurate at 7yrd. That's right SEVEN &0d darn yards. and I am talking with a stablizer (Vice) maybe it's because they are old and over used and under kept, but still just they same.

I mean no offense to Berreta users, nothing against your opinion and or your choice to carry a berreta 9mm but I still didn't like them other than the feel of there grip.

OH BTW did you know that you can stop a berreta from firing by simply pushing on the barrel. i.e. hold gun and barrel tight to chest aand I do mean TIGHT!!! They teach us that in the Corps.

 

[strangelittleman]

Eh, most people that piss & moan about such things are usually those who've never been in a firefight. Any quality handgun loaded with ball ammo will perform it's intended role if the shooter will.

 

[texagun]

I think the Beretta is mocked primarily because it replaced the work horse of the military, the Colt .45 Automatic Pistol, a design that has been around for nearly 100 years and used a cartridge that has proven to be a superior manstopper to the 9 mm. ball that replaced it. The 9 mm. was chosen because you could carry more ammunition in the same pouch, and it was easier to shoot and qualify with than the .45 Auto it replaced, which made it easier for smaller hands (translate: female) to handle and control.

OK....I've got my popcorn and my flame suit is on. flame away....

 

[HorseSoldier]

In the military Berettas have a reputation for not holding up in units that train with them a lot. Locking blocks are almost always the problem, but it's a big problem. And it gets worse if the block does break, as the wear on the pistol that resulted in the first failure mean the pistol is prone to do it again.

Civilian shooters who don't feed their pistols steady diets of +P ammo and who change the springs out with perhaps a bit more prudence than official US military guidelines don't seem to have anything like the same problems with the M9/M92. I'd say it's not the most robust design out there, but it is a servicable pistol.

 

[CannibalCrowley]

The M9's biggest problem is one it shares with the M16. They both replaced a beloved weapons that can do no wrong in the eyes of many of their proponents.

From mine and others experience in the Marine Corps. They are the biggest piece of paper weight you can buy. Not accurate at 7yrd. That's right SEVEN &0d darn yards. and I am talking with a stablizer (Vice) maybe it's because they are old and over used and under kept, but still just they same.

I qualed with mine without an issue, it seemed plenty accurate out to 25 yards. I think the accuracy is more an issue of the weapon's maintenance history than a flaw with the pistol.

OH BTW did you know that you can stop a berreta from firing by simply pushing on the barrel. i.e. hold gun and barrel tight to chest aand I do mean TIGHT!!! They teach us that in the Corps.

What auto pistols do fire when out of battery?

 

[RNB65]

It's always tough to follow a legend.
.

 

[joab]

OH BTW did you know that you can stop a berreta from firing by simply pushing on the barrel. i.e. hold gun and barrel tight to chest aand I do mean TIGHT!!! They teach us that in the Corps.

It's called taking the gun out of battery and you can do that with just about any semi handgun including 1911s, and they don't even have to be held tight at all

 

[Blue Brick]

“You’re not a SEAL until you’ve tasted Italian steel”

 

[Lonestar49]

Some people are the reason.. lol

...

Maybe more, the type of people and, the way they shoot them.. ?


Ls


Watch:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1800709

 

[golden]

Not Perfect-but Nothing Is

I own several BERETTA pistols, but was initially turned off by them when the U.S. adopted them. I saw them as just an excuse to adopt the 9m.m.

THEN I USED THEM ON A REGULAR BASIS. In my own experience, the BERETTA 92 and 96 are as reliable as a 1911, GLOCK or SIG. I have seen them jam and gone through jam drills which are a real pain on the 96 because it is very hard to induce a jam in the first place, so clearing it is real work.
Overall, they jam very rarely. The do wear out if fed a steady diet of high velocity ammo. I HAVE SEEN THAT and my last issue gun was suffering from it when I converted over to the H&K. The 96 still fired every shot!

Their accuracy in all the guns that I have fired is superior. The 96 that I carried was more accurate than any COLT, GLOCK, SIG or SMITH & WESSON I have ever fired. I could hit a silouette target at 100 yards and I am not a great shot.

Trigger is the best of any double action I used. SMOOTH. I actually prefer the double action only models because the trigger is so smooth.

Right now I carry an H&K P2000 on duty and usually a WALTHER P99 off duty. I would have no qualms about carrrying a BERETTA 92 or 96 and keep a 92D CENTURION as my house gun.

 

[1911Tuner]

Can't say why. I had an older M92 for a while...the ones with the frame-mounted safety that didn't decock the hammer...and found it to be completely reliable with any reasonable ammunition, and more than accurate enough for its intended purpose.

I never pushed the envelope with the pistol or wrung it out in a brutal torture test, so I can't comment on the adverse condition functionality or durability of the piece...but from what I could tell, it was fine.

Those who have deployed it in far-off lands under harsh conditions have apparently found a few chinks in the design, so it may be at its best in civilian or LEO circles.

 

[USMCDK]

Those who have deployed it in far-off lands under harsh conditions have apparently found a few chinks in the design, so it may be at its best in civilian or LEO circles.

Like say a glock that is supposedly able to be dropped and submerged in mud and still fired????

I own an H&K USP .45 and have dropped that sucker in mud shook it off and fired it wasn't as accurate as dry but still worked fine. I have heard that the berreta can't do that, but have no physical proof to back that.

Please don't get me wrong on my last post it's just what I saw while in the corps.

I think that pretty much every firearm out there has the ability to be dead accurate, with the right fine tuning, ammo, and the shooter. Not to mention the weather conditions so let's say in an indoor range.

 

[Boats]

At least the M9 has BTDT. Ditto for the SIG P226 with the SEALs. The B92 saw plenty of mud in the joint service pistol trials. It's not Beretta's fault that only the SIG P226 could keep up with it.

When I was in the service, all the 1911A1s were clapped out. That's the way it goes with community property. The services were not expecting to go 40 years between acquisitions this time. There has been a series of M9 contracts, not just the one. Clapped out M9s should see the crusher after being stripped of serviceable parts.

The HK is the ultimate gear queer weapon--a lab tested range queen with no actual combat record. That might change someday, but no H&K model has proven itself where and when it matters save the crew served Tactical that not even the SEALs who adopted it like very much.

The Glock is picking up a little bit off of being a mere "cop gun" by seeing varied service in Iraq.

CZs are widely used across the planet, but not by anyone who actually seems to fight.

The SIG P228 soldiers on, mainly in aircrews.

If any of the above, from the 1911A1, to the latest HK lab rat, were saddled with crappy low bidder Checkmate magazines by the DoD's bean counters, their reputations would all suck.

 

[GRB]

USMCDK,

OH BTW did you know that you can stop a berreta from firing by simply pushing on the barrel

Do you mean exactly the same way it can be done to a Colt 1911, and many other semi-automatic pistols? If someone can push on your barrel, then you have let them get to close to you, and that is a fact.

They are the biggest piece of paper weight you can buy. Not accurate at 7yrd.

As for accuracy, I have carried and fired Beretta 92 series pistols since before the 92F, FS and M9 were conceived. I currently have a 92SB and two 92FS's. They are based on an earlier model used extensively in desert conditions in the Middle East, another Beretta Model. I have fired them all, I ahve carried the 92SB and FS models for years. All have been as accurate or more accurate than any other 9mm pistol I have ever fired; and I have fired a good amount of different pistols. I would tend to think it shooter error if someone could not shoot one accurately beyond 7 yards, either that or an extremely faulty batch of Berettas. Those to whom I have spoken to both still in the military, and those who have since finsihed there stints in the armed forces, for the great majority, liked the M9. Older guys, who used to carry a Colt 1911 miss those pistols because of the heavier wallop they packed in the .45 ACP, but certainly not because of any better function or inherent accuracy.

So I am surprised to here see this pistol being slammed in such a way. Guess you must have gotten a bad one.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

[USMCDK]

Like I said it was based off what I saw in the corps and I did say that they were not well kept by the armorers or their issueies.

I am not saying that all M9 are garbage just the ones that I have seen in the Corps.

I have no doubt that they are accurate. As for the H&K never being used in the field... That's a load of bull.

The H&K Mk23 is the SOCOM pistol of today and get use a fair amount and is liked by some if not most of the SOCOM crew. Proven reliable and just as good if not better then it's predisessor the 1911. Then again just like any firearm, once again, it's really all the user, weather condition, circumstance and ammo.

I don't want you all to think that I am totally downing the M9, it's just not my style.

I will admit I like my gun blocky and big. I personally believe that it F%^&ing scary and with that said I might, hopfully, not have to shoot at all less scare the crap out of who I point it at. that's a whole other story aside from this thread.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

The only "mocking" stories I've heard are with some early military models that had slides break and fly off after a large number of NATO rounds (the numbers are probably exaggerated), and with the fine sand in Iraq in concert with non-Beretta magazines. In more normal usage, they run perfectly fine, I am told. I don't like the 92 series for myself because of the grip shape/size, reach to the trigger (something common to nearly all double-stack/double-action automatics) and unnecessary overall bulkiness for the small cartridge.

 

[esq_stu]

In addition to the points raised about people not liking change and people preferring .45, they got a bad rap because the US supplied non-Beretta mags that were unreliable in the field. I know of people that were fund raising and donating factory mags to send to soldiers in Iraq and others that bought their own factory mags and brought them to Iraq. The mags rendered M-9s into paperweights. (IIRC, there was a serious learning curve with the M16 in Vietnam as well, but we're still using it.)

 

[ugaarguy]

CZs are widely used across the planet, but not by anyone who actually seems to fight.

The Israelis built a CZ Clone, sold in the US as the Baby Eagle by Magnum Research. The Israelis fight hard being surrounded by enemies. I'm sure plenty of CZ-75s made it across the lines and saw action in all the religious & civil wars in that part of the world over the last couple decades.

 

[VHinch]

I agree that is has much to do with the maintenance the M9 gets in service. Every M9 I had my hands on in the military was an absolute piece of trash, but every Beretta 92 I own or have owned in civilian life (and there have been many) has been utterly reliable. I ran untold thousands of rounds through a 92 Elite shooting IDPA a few years ago and did nothing but clean the weapon and change the springs regularly with absolutely zero issues. That same 92 Elite also served as my carry weapon those days, so I obviously believed the gun would function when it counted.

 

[inherentical]

When I was an armorer in the Marine Corps we were damn glad to replace the junk 1911's we had with a gun that actually shot where you pointed it.

What a difference 15 years makes.

 

[wickedsprint]

"From mine and others experience in the Marine Corps. They are the biggest piece of paper weight you can buy. Not accurate at 7yrd. That's right SEVEN &0d darn yards. and I am talking with a stablizer (Vice) maybe it's because they are old and over used and under kept, but still just they same.

I mean no offense to Berreta users, nothing against your opinion and or your choice to carry a berreta 9mm but I still didn't like them other than the feel of there grip.

OH BTW did you know that you can stop a berreta from firing by simply pushing on the barrel. i.e. hold gun and barrel tight to chest aand I do mean TIGHT!!! They teach us that in the Corps."


I take issues with this, for one, when I qualed on the M9 I found it a joy to shoot, either you have bad eyes or your particular guns were junk, no doubt from being in the USMC inventory.

Two, you won't be close enough to push the barrel on mine, unless I missed 15 times.

 

[Navy joe]

We've done this so much I had to search my user name and Beretta 92. Ha, the fun we've had here.

I have carried one occasionally for work for 5 years. I owned one for a year, liked it, shot the crap out of it, sold it. I shoot max score on Navy handgun quals with crappy worn out M9s.

In short the Beretta 92 is a very accurate and reliable pistol that I think has sucky ergonomics, a stupid safety, and is too big for what it is. In military use they have been unfairly saddled by shoddy mags, broken locking blocks, and untrained operators and maintainers.

If you buy a personal one you'll probably love it.

 

[Jaenak]

Stop Quoting USMCDK!

Okay, USMCDK has explained his first post twice now and you guys keep quoting him and offering the same objections to his post as all the rest of the people that quoted it. He's also explained his post and defused those objections TWICE now. Could we let a dead dog lie and actually leave the poor guy alone? Perhaps actually reading the entire frickin' thread would help, hunh?

 

[DENALI]

"Beretta's Mocked"? Thats not what I've heard, I've heard the aftermarket mags are mocked along with the NATO ball ammo they're forced to run through them.:banghead: My one and only hit on the M-9 is the width of the grip. Otherwise this bird flies with the best of them...