Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
| |
Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
|
 History of the Beretta 92 Phil Davis Speaking at the 11/5/07 SCRA Meeting December 2007 GunNews Phil Davis holds up his Beretta 92 FS The Beretta 92 FS is very similar to the M9 pistol carried by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 92 FS started out as the model 92. It was designed in 1972. It first went into production in 1975, developed by the Beretta Company. They only made 5,000 of the first Berettas. They were called just simply the model 92. The magazine release was at the bottom of the grip. It's the descendent of two very famous Beretta guns, the model 1934 and the model 1951 known to many as the Beretta Brigadier. The Egyptians made a copy of it called the Helwan. It was a very inexpensive but good quality gun. The family resemblance is unmistakable, the open tops, slide and the grip angle, very distinctive family resemblance between the 1951 and the model 92. Its available in the model 92. The model 96 which is a .40 caliber S & W model and a model that is popular in Europe and Mexico where it is illegal to own a gun that is of a military caliber, the model 98 which Davis did not know existed. It's available in 9 x 19 as well as 9 x 21, a European sporting cartridge. The first variation to come out was the S model. The original one had a safety down on the slide much like the Taurus PT 92 has. To meet the requirements of the Italian military and law enforcement establishment it had to have a frame mounted decocker, a slide mounted decocker so that it was called the 92S for safety. This decocks the hammer and has a block that comes up and locks the firing pin. The second model was developed in 1981 for the United States Air Force trials. The United States Air Force wanted to have one firearm for all of its applications to do away with the short 2 inch and 4 inch .38 caliber revolver and the 1911A1 for all air crews and ground crews. So they came out with the model S1, safety variant 1 that later became known as the SB because it had a firing pin block. The little rectangle up at the top is the firing pin block. The model SB was tried out in 1981 by the joint services firearms commission and was adopted as the M92 pistol. They moved the magazine release from the bottom of the grip to its current location. If you have a very old Beretta it cannot use the modern magazines unless it has a cutout, it's a half-moon shaped cutout. The next one came out in 1985. It was called the SB-F or the 92F. This was in 1985 when the United States military was trying to find a universal replacement for the venerable 1911A1, in Davis' opinion a poor choice. But then again Davis is old school, he likes the 45. They modified the 92SB in several ways to meet the design. The first thing they did was to cut down on the hand finishing required. Any part from any 92FS will interchange with any other part from a 92FS, no gun smithing required. That was one of the requirements of the design. It was modified so the front of the trigger guard was serrated and had a hook. The grip frame kind of swells back out of the bottom. That is a feature of the 92FS. A new surface coating for the slide replaced bluing. It's called Bruniton, a blackened version similar to parkerized, that is supposed to be more corrosion resistant. They chrome lined the bores and they black chromed the exterior of the barrels for durability. It was adopted in 1985 as the universal service pistol for the US military, 500,000 of them were issued. Of the first 500,000 firing the US military M882 ammunition, they started having failures. After the 5,000 round trial testing at Aberdeen proving grounds there were microscopic cracks found in the frame. There were also several instances where the slide actually cracked and broke. The US army claimed it was a defect on Beretta's part. Beretta said hold on a minute, we want to test some of your ammo. The US army said no, we'll test our own ammo, our ammo's fine thank you. So Beretta got ahold of some of the ammo and tested it. Standard NATO specifications for pressure on a 9 mm cartridge is 34,500 CUP, copper units of pressure. The US military's cartridges were running at 50,000. That is approximately 9,000 more than the Illinois State Police's +P+ loads which is pretty darn hot. Afterward they said oh, maybe we'll reformulate our powder to meet NATO spec on these cartridges. After they did that they ran it through the tests again at Aberdeen proving grounds and the average of 1,000 pistols tested was that the average M9 frame lasted around 35,000 rounds. the M9 locking block lasted around 22,000 rounds, and the M9 slide lasted approximately around 75,000 rounds. Well beyond the contractually agreed 5,000 round weapons life. The fact that the first ones were breaking, just like in the M16s, some of the first ones that had the problems, a lot of it was the ammo. The US has a tendency to issue one ammo for testing but they decide to start cutting corners using different propellants, different loadings when they go into production. This is a problem. There are various variants of this pistol. This is a 92FS. If it was a military issued weapon it would be identical to this but it would be marked US pistol M9. There was one other variant a US military sponsored by the US Marine Corps, the M9A1. It had an integral accessory rail on the bottom part of the frame. The 92 was originally chambered for the 9 mm luger 9 x 19. The 96 in 40 S & W. The 98 is made in a cartridge known as 9 x 21 IMI, Israeli military industries developed it. It was produced in 1991. The F series is a standard double action, single action which means once you put a magazine in the chamber you can drop the hammer and flick it back off. It now functions identical to a double action revolver. When it picked you pull the trigger, it cocks itself and bang. After that the next round cocks the hammer, boom, boom, boom. It's a single double. That is the F & FS series in the USM 9. The French military decided they wanted one that did not have a safety. They wanted one that was spring loaded so that when you pulled it down and decocked the hammer, it automatically flicks back up. That is the called the G model, developed for the French military. There is a D model which is double action only. It has no safety at all. It is designed for police departments that require a double action only automatic. There are other variants called the Vertak which has a more vertical grip, a shorter reach trigger, thinner grip panels, etc. There's the Brigadier which was made from 93 to 2006. It has a heavier thicker slide to cut down recoil and make it more durable and there's the Elite 1 and 2 which were competition models that had steel frames. There's the Inox which came out in the last year which has a stainless steel barrel and slide. The frame is anodized to match the color. It has a shorter barrel slide and has a more compact frame. It has a 13 round magazine. The compact M series has a shorter barrel and a shorter magazine holding only 13 rounds as opposed to 15. There's the Centurion which is one of Davis' favorites, kind of like a Colt Commander. It has a full size grip and a one inch shorter barrel. This would be an excellent concealed carry gun. There's the CB which is single action only for competition shooting. There's the Combat model and the Bicentennial model that was made for one year. Beretta has made a ton of money off of this. There is also one that Davis would dearly love to play with, they're very rare and it ain't gonna happen in Illinois. It's the Model 93R, R for repeat. There's a little lever that locks down in the front. It has a shoulder stock that locks onto here. It has a 7 1/2 inch ported barrel and it fires three round bursts. Davis thinks that would just be cool. In the 1970's many south American countries developed this for their police and their militaries. Beretta will often contract out. They sold machinery to make the original M92 to a factory in Brazil. It was later bought by the Taurus Firearms Company. The Taurus 92 still has the frame mounted safety. They've added a decocker and frankly, Davis kind of likes that, being an old 1911 style of guy. He kind of likes the frame mounted safety because he likes to carry things cocked and locked. They make almost as many 92 style weapons as Beretta does and usually about two hundred dollars cheaper. Phil Davis Index Return to SCRA Home Page |