The Gun Digest Book of Beretta Pistols: Function, Accuracy, Performance

289 Pages·2005·22.46 MB·English

by  Massad Ayoob

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(cid:24)(cid:24)(cid:24)(cid:13)(cid:20)(cid:21)(cid:23)(cid:13)(cid:18)(cid:24)(cid:23)(cid:19) Massad Ayoob
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The Book Of
Gun Digest®

BBEERREETTTTAA
Pistols
Massad Ayoob
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©2005 Gun Digest
Published by
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(cid:33)(cid:78)(cid:0)(cid:73)(cid:77)(cid:80)(cid:82)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:84)(cid:0)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:0)(cid:38)(cid:11)(cid:55)(cid:0)(cid:48)(cid:85)(cid:66)(cid:76)(cid:73)(cid:67)(cid:65)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:83)
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005924818
ISBN: 0-87349-998-0
Edited by Kevin Michalowski
Designed by Sandi Morrison

Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
About the Author ....................................................................................................................................4
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................5
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................6
1
Magnifi cent Mouse Guns: The Smallest Beretta .......................................................................10
2
Beretta’s .22 Caliber Fun Guns ..................................................................................................19
3
The Beretta Tomcat ....................................................................................................................34
4
The Beretta .380’s ......................................................................................................................42
5
Model 92: The Flagship of the Beretta Fleet .............................................................................52
6
The Beretta 92/96 Combat Compacts ........................................................................................71
7
The Beretta Vertec ......................................................................................................................81
8
The Beretta 96 ............................................................................................................................88
9
Beretta Cougar 8000 and 8048 ..................................................................................................94
10
Beretta’s Big Blasters: The .357 and .45 ..................................................................................101
11
The Beretta 9000 ......................................................................................................................112
12
Beretta Oddities .......................................................................................................................117
13
Today’s Beretta Revolver .........................................................................................................127
14
Beretta Accessories ..................................................................................................................141
15
The Beretta Elite Series ...........................................................................................................170
16
Maintaining Your Beretta .........................................................................................................180
17
Careful Customizing Can Make Your Beretta Better ...............................................................195
18
Selecting Ammunition For Your Beretta ..................................................................................215
19
Beretta Field Performance: An Update ....................................................................................229
20
The Epiphany of the Beretta ....................................................................................................233
21
Shooting the Beretta .................................................................................................................239
22
Manipulating the Beretta ..........................................................................................................243
23
Drawing the Beretta .................................................................................................................253
24
Mastering the Beretta ...............................................................................................................261
25
The Beretta in the Training Environment .................................................................................277
26
La Finé .....................................................................................................................................287
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About the Author
Massad Ayoob got his fi rst
4
Beretta pistol at the age of 12 and
has been shooting them ever since.
He has shot them at local matches
and at the Nationals at Camp
Perry, and taught their use around
the world. He is the developer of
the StressFire shooting system
incorporated into U.S. Army
combat pistolcraft doctrine.
The long-time handgun
editor of Guns magazine, law
enforcement editor of American
Handgunner, and associate
editor of Combat Handguns
and Guns & Weapons for Law
Enforcement, Ayoob has served
as a sworn police offi cer for
more than 30 years and has been
head of the fi rearms committee
of the American Society of Law
Enforcement Trainers since
1987. In 1998, he was named
the Outstanding American
Handgunner of the Year. He has
won numerous state and regional
handgun championships, and held
two national titles, being one of
only a handful of confi rmed Four
Gun Masters in IDPA. Ayoob
currently divides his time between
New Hampshire and Florida.
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Acknowledgments
Some information has been given to me “off Thanks also to master Beretta armorers Bill
5
the record,” and therefore will not appear in this Pfeil and Rick Devoid. Their intimate knowledge
publication unless the verifi cation comes from of how Berettas work was particularly valuable
another source. For instance, I won’t name the to the chapter on maintenance. Huge thanks to
executives at other gun companies who privately the men of the U. S. Marine Corps RTU and the
admitted to me that they knew damn well that Beretta U.S. Army Marksmanship Training Unit for their
had won the U.S. military contract fair and square. insights into the accurizing of the Beretta M9 into
Some input has been given “not for attribution.” a match-winning bull’s-eye pistol.
This means a promise to the speaker that his or her And fi nally, thanks to my editorial assistants:
identity will not be revealed. If that compromises Herman Gunter III, Anna Gunter, and Gail Pepin.
credibility, so be it. Let the reader be the judge of the Without their efforts, the unforgiving deadline
information. never would have been met.
I would like to thank the many executives It is a monumental task to review all the
at Beretta, past and present, who kindly shared modern Beretta pistols and not one that can be
information with me. They include Cathy Williams, undertaken in short order. To that end, portions of
PR manager extraordinaire; Gabriele de Plano, Jeff a number of the reviews that appear within this
Reh, Todd Green and Brian Felter. And to the many book were fi rst published as magazine articles
I can’t name, you who know who you are, I am also when those guns were fi rst brought to market.
grateful. In all cases, my assessments of the pistols in s
I would like to thank Ernest Langdon, question still stand as they did when I wrote the l
o
who knows more about winning combat pistol original reviews. We gratefully acknowledge and t
s
championships with Berettas than anyone else thank the publishers of American Handgunner,
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because he has done it more than anyone else. Shotgun News, Combat Handguns, Gun

Ernest’s work is also the gold standard for combat World, Guns, and Guns and Weapons For Law a
Beretta pistolsmithing, and his comments were Enforcement for their permission to use that tt
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invaluable to this effort. important material in this book.
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Introduction
It is a good-shooting pistol,
6
and I still have it. The previous
owner had gotten tired of its
awkward 180-degree safety and
removed it. He replaced the safety
with a plug of brass and apparently
just used the half-cock notch for safety.
Beretta ergonomics got a lot better later.
When my fi rst-born was ready for pistol shooting
at age 8, I started her with the littlest Beretta; the
Minx .22 Short. With that gun, she learned the
fundamentals of good handgunning. Eleven years
later, she used another Beretta at the National Tactical
This is the author’s fi rst Invitational, and her skillful use of that Model 92FC
Beretta. He received 9mm won her the women’s championship. She still
it from his dad for his owns those guns. The 92FC is one of the carry pistols
12th birthday. Ayoob
on her license.
has appreciated Beretta
quality ever since.
It was a pleasure and an honor to be asked to
write The Gun Digest Book of Beretta Pistols. I go
back a ways with these fi ne handguns.
I got my fi rst centerfi re handgun “of my very
own,” when I was 12 years old. It was a Beretta Model
34. The gun was a World War II veteran and so was
the man who gave it to my dad. The fi rst owner had
retrieved it from an Axis soldier who, in the words of
the day, “… didn’t need it any more.” The day came
when the vet wanted to avoid the memories the gun
n brought with it and he traded it to my dad who gave it
o to me for my birthday.
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u Cat Ayoob fondly reminisces with
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the Beretta 92FC she used to win
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her class at the National Tactical
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Over the years, I’ve tested a lot of Berettas 124-grain Federal HydraShok bullets. The bad guy
for various gun magazines including American went down dead, before he could hurt either Greg or
Handgunner, Guns, Combat Handguns and others. his partner. Greg proved, among other things, that a
Seventeen years as head of the fi rearms committee for Beretta carried on safe in a security holster could be
the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers operated fast enough and refl exively enough to win a
put me in touch with senior weapons instructors of quick-draw contest for the ultimate stakes.
many police departments that had adopted Berettas. Stacy Lim is a member of the LAPD. She was off
In the late 1980s, I experienced the humbling duty and carrying her department-issue 92F when she
honor of being asked to teach for the U.S. Army’s experienced a carjacking by gang-bangers. When she
Marksmanship Training Unit. Networking at various identifi ed herself, the point man of the bad guys shot
pistol championships has given me a chance to talk her through the chest with a .357 Magnum. The bullet
shop with the leading armorers of the Army and the tore her spleen apart, pierced her heart, and punched a
Marine Corps, and over the years, I’ve also made the massive exit wound in her back. Her 92F had already
acquaintance of a number of Beretta’s staff. This put been off safe, carried that way per department edict, 7
me in a splendid position in terms of resources to put and she brought it up and shot him a couple of times,
this book together. The source material is everything. chased him when he ran, and shot him twice more.
In the pages that follow, you’ll meet many pistol All four of the 115-grain Remington hollowpoints she
champions who swear by the Beretta and use it by unleashed found vital fl esh. He died. Stacy survived.
choice. You’ll see for yourself the pros and the cons She is, to my knowledge, the world’s only known
of the three primary fi re control mechanisms Beretta survivor of a .357 Magnum gunshot wound to the
offers on its modern fi ghting pistols: the F series heart. Eight months later she returned to full patrol
with manual safety, the D series with decocker only, duty. Last I knew she still wore at her hip the trusty
and the slick-slide, double-action-only D series that Beretta that had kept her assailant from fi nishing her
“shoots like a revolver.” off. The gun had saved her life.
Far more important than those who’ve won pistol Sgt. Marcus Young serves with Ukiah, Calif.
championships with Berettas are those who have used Police. A man armed with a knife and a fi ve-shot .38
them to win gunfi ghts and cheat death. They’ve used Special ambushed him. He was shot in the face, chest,
all three types, including Model F pistols both on and back and one arm, and had the other arm torn open.
off safe. Let me introduce you to a few of them now. While the homicidal attacker was trying to get at an
Greg Lee serves with the Nashville HK machine gun in the patrol car, Marcus managed
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Metropolitan Police. He was carrying a privately to aim with his badly damaged l
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owned, department-approved 9mm Beretta, on weak hand, the other arm being t
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safe, when a suspect drew a revolver and brought it paralyzed, and trigger four careful i
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up on Greg and his partner. shots. Each of the .40 caliber

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In one smooth, practiced bullets went exactly where he
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movement, Greg cleared aimed his privately owned, t
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his 92F from his SS-III department-approved Beretta 96G r
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security holster, popped and the suspect slumped B
off the safety, and lit up dying in the front seat,
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the would-be cop-killer his orgy of violence o

with a stream of permanently k
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Author, left, with Sgt. Marcus Young, who won the NRA’s Police Offi cer of the Year award and saved many lives when,

despite multiple severe wounds, he killed a heavily armed criminal with his privately owned, department-approved e
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Beretta 96 service pistol.
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Marcus at this writing is still recovering from multiple the truth that I’ve investigated and experienced.
surgeries, working light duty at the department, and You’ll see why CCI may not be the best ammo for
very glad that he chose to carry a Beretta pistol that a customized 9mm Beretta, but why it is the best
allowed him to shoot straight under some of the worst ammo you can put in your little Beretta Minx. I will
circumstances imaginable. point out where there were weaknesses with some of
Then there is the armed citizen I don’t have the guns and how to fi x them if they haven’t already
permission to name. This man got a permit and chose been fi xed. I will show you how and why the Model
to carry concealed a Beretta 96D Centurion. In a road 92 has earned a reputation as one of the all-time
rage incident a man attacked and injured him severely. great handguns and why the Model 9000 was the
Realizing he was about to be beaten to death, he drew worst piece of crap that ever left a Beretta factory.
the Beretta and fi red a single, accurate .40 caliber In some of the quotes and reprinted passages,
bullet into his antagonist’s chest. The assailant reeled reference will be made to the magazine ban. It
back, mortally wounded, and the fi ght was over. The lasted for ten years and defi nitely affected sales and
8 shooting was ruled a justifi able homicide. purchasing patterns of pistols. The references are left in
to be true to the times the words describe and refl ect.
The Shape Of Pages To Come There will be some intentional repetition,
but only when it is a point worth repeating. For
Don’t expect a puff piece. I don’t work for example, there is the life-saving potential of the F-
Beretta, I work for you, and my job is to tell you series Beretta pistol when carried “on safe.” In the
accounts rendered above, any
number of quality handguns
might have saved the lives of
the brave men and women who
wielded them. However, in
studying the deaths and injuries
of police offi cers in action I’ve
seen again and again when the
on safe pistol in general – and
the on safe Beretta pistol in
particular – saved the Good
Guy’s life when the Bad Guy
gained control of it.
After seeing cases in which
the Beretta had saved their
deputies’ lives in such incidents,
the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
Department made it mandatory
for their thousands of armed
personnel to carry their 92Fs on
safe. Within just a few years of
that policy change, according
to that department’s veteran
trainer, Harold Flynt, four more
saves were documented. The
North Carolina Highway Patrol
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u Beretta 92F after shooting a
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perfect score. Berettas have
o
earned an impressive reputation
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has carried Beretta pistols on safe since 1983. The if he just mentions them once up front when he
department progressed from the 92F 9mm to the 96F knows that many of his readers will dive into a
9mm to their current Beretta Cougar Model 8357F in book in the middle at a chapter heading that most
.357 SIG. One of their instructors told me that in 20 interests them.
years of on safe carry, so many lives have been saved For the same reason the importance of proper
in gun grabs that the department has lost count. Yet care of the gun and using only proper magazines
LASD and NCHP have one more thing in common: is emphasized again and again. The war in
No deputy or trooper in those departments has ever Afghanistan and Iraq reinforced the lesson that
been hurt for failure to remember to disengage the using cheap aftermarket magazines, even if the
safety on a Beretta during the draw to fi re in self- Government buys them on bid, can cause the fi nest
defense. pistols to jam. The advice is clear: Use only Beretta
That is a point that bears repeating. To say, and MecGar brand magazines in these guns. Since
“On safe carry saves lives” just once is to leave MecGar of Italy is a primary vendor of magazines to
fi ve words fl oating in the sea of a book that spans Beretta, a MecGar magazine for a Beretta is, for all 9
130,000 words. It understates the huge importance of practical purposes, a Beretta magazine.
the documented information being imparted. On safe The history of the Beretta fi rearms company
Beretta F pistols have saved many lives. While many is huge and rich. It is worthy of a lavish book of
other pistols have this feature – and many such saves its own and I won’t cover it here because that book
have been documented with them – it is worth noting is already in print. It is The World of Beretta: An
that no such pistol’s slide-mounted safety lever is International Legend by the man who is probably
easier to operate than the Beretta’s. The easier the the world’s leading fi rearms historian, R.L. “Larry”
safety catch is to operate the more likely the user is Wilson. Larry has been both my teacher and my
to employ it for its intended purpose. student, depending on the discipline involved. I’m
The importance of keeping the fi nger off the proud to call him my friend. My respect for his
trigger when not in the act of intentionally fi ring the work will be apparent in the following pages from
weapon is likewise huge and is likewise repeated the frequency with which I quote his exhaustive
throughout the text that follows. Auto mechanics and scholarly work. This book will focus on the
know how motorists drive cars and authors know Beretta pistols currently in wide use, and how to use
how readers read books. Many jump from chapter them. There is not room to do the company’s history
to chapter. When talking about things that can save justice, and no one is ever going to beat Larry
s
lives and prevent tragedy, the writer is irresponsible Wilson at that game in any case. l
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