BORELLI CONSULTING: Tactical Equipment Reviews

Beretta M9 / 92FS: Love It or Hate It?
By: Frank Borelli, 4 April 2005

In the motorcycle community you are either a Harley Davidson fan... or you're not. Some people wouldn't be caught dead on one: others wouldn't be caught dead on anything else. Those who carry handguns are often just as loyal to a given manufacturer, model or pistol. Some folks like Glocks, or Sigs, or Rugers... Some folks wouldn't be caught dead with a Beretta, and some just won't carry anything else. My agency is a Beretta agency. The United States military is (by and large) a Beretta organization. Are you a Beretta fan?

I enlisted in the Army prior to the switch from the M1911 to the M9. I was taught how nothing ever had compared to "Old Slab Sides" and nothing ever would. Three years later, those same military instructors (I'm sure) were telling a new bunch of recruits how great the Beretta M9 was / is, and how nothing would ever compare to it. Well, they're right: nothing compares to it...

With most of today's handguns still incorporating some form of the Browning lock-up system, the Beretta uses a cam-locking system that allows the slide to move back and forth without the barrel tilting during recoil, extraction, ejection and chambering. The Beretta handguns are the only guns I know of that utilize this type of lock-up system. Every other handgun I'm familiar with uses a tilting barrel system of some sort. Still, my 1911 is the most accurate firearm I own.

To insure all statements made in this review are fair and impartial, I need to say up front that the Beretta 92FS pistol I used for the Test & Evaluation shooting is a police duty issue sidearm. It has had well over 5,000 rounds through in the course of firing for practice and qualifications. The pistol has been put into and pulled out of various holsters countless times and the wear does show.

With that said, let's get the basic information out of the way. The Beretta M9/92FS is a short recoil, semi-automatic pistol chambered for 9mm NATO ammunition. That's a 9x19 case with a 124g full-metal-jacket bullet. My agency issues Federal HydraShok 124g +P+ ammo and it functions well. Internal, external and terminal ballistics have proven sufficient for our duty use. The barrel length of the Beretta M9 is just under five inches (125mm = 4.92": designed in Italy = metric measurements). The M9 has an ammunition capacity of 15 rounds in each magazine. If you add a chambered round, you have a total of 16. Extended 21 round magazines are available but became harder to find when the now-defunct infamous Clinton gun laws went into effect.

With an aluminum-alloy frame, and a steel slide, an empty Beretta M9 weighs about 2.1 pounds. Add in the fifteen round loaded magazine and you get a total weight of about 2.6 pounds. The trigger pull in single-action is 5.5 pounds, with the double-action pull straining the scale at 12.3 pounds. Since reloads are inevitable, the magazine release can be put into the frame to suit either a right- or left-handed shooter.

The M9 incorporates three safeties:
1) The Manual Safety / Decocking Lever. I was around when these guns were first widely finding their way into the law enforcement duty market, and that Manual Safety was listed as such. After it was discovered that many agencies preferred to use it solely as a decocking lever it became labeled as such. Let's be accurate here: That's a Manual Safety. If you rotate it down, the trigger bar is disconnected from the hammer/sear mechanism, and the Safety does not disengage itself. The Manual Safety can be used as a Decocking Lever if the operator is trained to immediately disengage it after he/she engages it. If you engage the Safety while the weapon is cocked (which it is after you chamber the first round or fire it double-action) it decocks the weapon. Thus, the Manual Safety can serve as a Decocking Lever, but it wasn't originally designed for that purpose.

2) The Firing Pin Block. A contemporary standard, this device prevents the forward motion of the firing pin through breach face unless the trigger is fully pressed to the rear.

3) The Disconnect Safety. Also a contemporary standard, although sometimes only existent as a side-effect of weapon design and not intended as such. The Disconnect Safety prevents the proper function of the trigger system if the weapon isn't fully in battery. How much is "fully"? My basic in-hand experiments (with a triple-checked safe unloaded weapon) show that you have to get the slide out of battery about a quarter of an inch.

Sometimes improperly referred to as a safety, the Beretta M9 also incorporates a Chamber Loaded indicator that is visual but can also be felt in the dark. This bright red spot painted on the top edge of the extractor protrudes from the right side of the slide if the chamber is loaded. This bulge / edge can be felt in the dark, especially if the operator has been trained to feel it during training. While I believe that loaded chamber indicators are nice to have, I've never viewed them as mandatory for a combat weapon. My outlook is this: the operator either 1) knows that his weapon is loaded with a round chambered, or 2) he's going to make sure before betting his life on the weapon. I just can't envision a scenario wherein I pick up a pistol that I need to immediately stake my life on and trust that chamber loaded indicator. Too many "what if"s exist in my mind. I'm going to press-check or chamber a round.

The promotional material I have states that the maximum effective range of the Beretta M9 is fifty meters - or just over 54 yards. By the same token, it says that the maximum range is 1,800 meters - more than 1,900 yards. This is either a statement about the inadequacy of the 9mm NATO round, or the inability of operators to shoot accurately. With skilled shooters, I've seen the Beretta M9 fired accurately on eight inch targets at ranges over sixty yards. Now, given, those shooters are in nice stable shooting positions with no time limits or return fire. However, I believe that the M9 can be used effectively at distances over fifty meters. 'Nough said about that.

One of the design features that makes the Beretta M9 so reliable is it's open-top slide. There was a time when virtually all of the Beretta pistols incorporated this design feature, and indeed it was an easily recognized feature that automatically identified a weapon as a Beretta. Now there are widely accepted Beretta pistols (the Cougar for instance) that do not have this open-top slide feature. That open-top slide effectively makes the whole top of the slide one big ejection port. Forget about making your ejection port a little bigger and flaring it to get a couple thousandths of an inch of metal out of the way. Maybe it's just been my experience with the Beretta M9/92FS, but I've never seen a stovepipe occur.

Before I get to accuracy and performance, I'd like to take a look at maintenance. How hard is it? or easy is it? Field stripping the gun is pretty easy and cleaning / maintenance is about standard for contemporary firearms. As with all weapons, prior to field stripping the pistol you need to insure that it is safe. Eject the magazine, double check the chamber to insure that no ammo is present. While the Beretta M9 can be dissassembled with a round chambered, doing so is obviously dangerous and I can think of no good reason why anyone would want to do so. So, no magazine, empty chamber. You've double checked. On the right side of the pistol on the frame just in front of the trigger is a button that you need to push to rotate the dissassembly lever - located on the left side of the gun in the same place - down. Once the dissassmebly lever is rotated down, the slide assembly should pull forward off the frame. Carefully remove the recoil spring and recoil spring guide rod. The spring is not a captured spring so the recoil spring guide rod will shoot across the room if you don't hold it correctly. Then you pinch the front and back of the barrel locking block, forcing the locking cam out of engagemt with the slide, and you lift the barrel out of the slide. Field Stripping is complete. Reassembly of the pistol requires that you simply reverse your actions. Put the barrel into the slide, making sure the locking cam seats into the slide properly; put in the recoil spring and guide rod; mount the slide onto the frame; push it back and rotate the dissassembly lever back up into the locked position. Voila.

Cleaning is standard. Thoroughly clean the barrel (inside and out), the rails of the slide and frame, the breach face, under the extractor, etc. Inside of the frame can only be cleaned so well, but cans of compressed air are good for blowing out dust, gunpowder residue, metal flakes, etc. The magazines should also be cleaned. A light coat of oil should be applied to all surfaces, with a drop or two applied to each slide rail before mounting the slide assembly back onto the frame. Berettas, in my experience, like to be lubricated when they are fired. If you try to put a couple hundred rounds through a dry Beretta you will shortly see malfunctions that include failure to feed because the weapon won't go fully into battery, or failure to extract/eject.

Now I remember back in the mid and late eighties how there was an uproar about criminals being able to take the slide off of the Beretta while an officer had it pointed at them. Physically I know this can be done. Operationally I can't imagine it happening. For quite awhile Beretta offered a replacement dissassembly lever that required the use of your thumbnail or a coin to rotate it down. Let me ask you something: if you have your Beretta M9 in hand and pointed at someone, isn't it because you've assessed the situation and found yourself justified in deploying lethal force? If so, and Joe Dirtbag reaches out to grab your gun, what's your reaction going to be? Well, first, I'm not sticking my gun out at arm's length if Joe Dirtbag is anywhere near that close. That's what a close-quarters hold is for. Second, if I'm justified in shooting the guy already and he's reaching for my gun, then shouldn't I start stroking the trigger as I move away? Finally, if he takes my gun apart while it's in my hand, what threat does he then present? Yes, there are some sharp pieces on that slide he could use to strike me with, but let's not fool ourselves: he doesn't have a working firearm either. At that point there is no gun involved in the fight unless I have a backup. By the same token, to my way of thinking, that criminal has now shown his violent intent and what I can do in the physical confrontation is less limited. Rock on.

Now to performance and accuracy. See the notes above about the weapon needing to be clean and lubricated. With a host of different types of ammunition, I've never seen poor accuracy from a Beretta. My test gun, as mentioned, has had at least 5,000 rounds through it. At the range on the day I tested this particular weapon, I put several hundred more through it. For testing I used Winchester 124g FMJ, Federal HydraShok 124g+P+, and a collection of "grab bag" ammo that I picked up at a gun show cheap. The Beretta fed and fired it all without a hiccup.

As to accuracy, what is required? The Beretta M9 is meant as a combat weapon - not for precision work. From my point of view, that means that it should keep all of the rounds within eight inches at twenty-five yards. Shooting five-shot groups from a supported position, my test weapon had no trouble producing two- to four-inch groups at fifteen and twenty-five yards respectively. That is more than sufficient for combat work, and given reasonable expectations, sufficient for law enforcement duties as well.

The only thing to really argue about the Beretta after that is the caliber and whether or not the 9mm is an adequate "man stopper". I'm not going to argue about it. I know educated and experienced people whose opinions I respect. Some of them are of the belief that the 9mm is more than adequate to the task. Others believe that nothing but a .45ACP is ever going to be adequate. My outlook is this: both the 9mm and the .45ACP have been around for more than 100 years. Would either of them still be around if they had proven inadequate? By virtue of their longevity I consider them both acceptable for self-defense, law enforcement and combat use. I carried an issued Beretta 92FS for eight years on duty and never doubted its abilities. Now that it is also available in a variety of barrel lengths, trigger systems, etc, I'm sure you can find one to suit your needs!

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