Beretta 96 Reviews

[PJ3]

To: Daddymonster



The navy armory says 500 rounds so I would presume that to be a good number. The only difference between the 92 and the 96 is the caliber. You can easily turn a 92 into a 96 with a conversion kit. I hate to hear you're having issues with yours. I shot the 92FS in the navy and never had any problems. It is possible although rare that you may have a bad one. In any case I would spend some time on the range to determine what may be causing your jams. Hell, your life may depend on your weapon some day so find out as soon as possible. Be sure to oil every moving part when you clean it. I like to use canned air to blow the oil into all the tiny crevasses then wipe it with a clean cloth. From my own experience, jams occur mostly due to extractor problems or case quality. Not all brass is equal. Best of luck and I hope you find the answer so you can be confident your weapon will perform when needed.

[CONT2]

Daddymonster, If in fact , it is the break in period, then lucky you. That just means you have to get to the range a little more often. You've got 150, you could get in another 350 in no time...say, a couple of sessions.



Again, hopefully that's all it is. If you're bound to carry that weapon, it's in your own best interest to get that break in period out of the way as soon as possible...Good Luck

[DADDYMONSTER]

Thanks PJ

Im tryin to get the company let us take to the range more often but its an uphill climb, you know the bean counters.

[PJ3]

[DADDYMONSTER]

CIVILIAN CONTRACT ON MILITARY BASE. THAT GUNS NOT COMING OUT OF THE ARMORY UNLESS I'M COMING ON DUTY OR GOING TO QUALIFY. AGAIN NOT IN MY HANDS PARTNER

[PJ3]

Have you tried asking the armory if you can check out the weapon to practice? I would think they would want you to become proficient. It can't hurt to ask.

[DADDYMONSTER]

YA I TRYED THAT DIDNT WORK, OH WELL

[MSGAmling]

DM, I feel for you. The DA and DOD police, along with most Federal police agencies are in the same boat. The firearms are to remain in the armory unless you are on duty. Some agencies only allow you to take them home if you have to report to another duty location the following day. Only annual qualification sounds a little too infrequent. Most Federal agencies requalify semi-annually, with quarterly familiarization firing. Most agencies that contract out armed guard services write the contracts to require the contractor to qualify and familiarize at the same intervals that the Federal officers do. It sounds as if the contractor you are working for may be cutting a few corners to save a few bucks.



Our agency uses 92D's, and we only had a few isolated problems after we took delivery on them. One had to be sent back to the factory after part of the trigger broke off after about 50 rounds, and another had the magazine disconnect spring get bent. The firearms still functioned, but had to be sent to the factory to make them 100% again. All of ours have the metal spring guides. I have never seen a Beretta with a plastic one, although I have a few personal weapons with plastic spring guides and they work just fine. Overall, we really like the 92D's. The only times any officers have had problems with them is when they try to clean them with gun cleaning solvent and then oil them with gun oil. Many apply the oil too lightly to do much good, and this isn't what Beretta recommends anyway. The weapons get cleaned once a month, whether fired or not. But, Berettas love lube and a light coat of gun oil alone just doesn't cut it. Take a look at the manual, which recommends CLP for cleaning and lube. All of the weapons that are cleaned and lubed with CLP have never had a problem. There are a ton of lube points for the Model 92. A drop or two of CLP at each point does the trick, and then the excess wiped off. Magazines are a big failure point for these weapons, especially if you are firing on an outdoor range. Dropping the magazines in the sand or dirt will start causing failures to feed in no time. Disassembling the magazines and running a patch soaked in CLP through the insides and then another patch with CLP to wipe down the springs only takes a few minutes, and is a good way to prevent problems with this failure point. If you fire on indoor ranges, get the rubber base plates for the magazines. It doesn't take dropping the magazines on concrete too many times to cause cracks in the magazines. The rubber bases absorb the impact and save your magazines. We have about 25 magazines with the rubber bases for use on indoor ranges, and another 25 with metal bases for training at outdoor ranges. We don't use our duty magazines at the range, to avoid the problems inherent with the beating the training magazines take when they get stepped on, and ground into sand and mud during tactical firing.



Keep the gun well lubed with a CLP like Break Free, and take care of those magazines, and the 92 should work like a charm. If the weapon is well lubed and the magazines are cleaned and lubed and not cracked, ask the contractor to send your weapon back to the factory to be checked out, or if you have a Beretta trained armorer, have them take a close look at the weapon. The 92 shouldn't be causing you problems out of the box. They should work fine out of the box, and only get better after a few thousand rounds through them.

[DADDYMONSTER]

Ya gotta tell you till now I had never seen one with a plastic spring guide either but there it is. I agree with you i would rather qualify on a quarterly basis myself but no go there the contract simply wont allow it. oh well what can ya say wish things were different.

[Patrol]

Finally, our department got rid of the 96D's. The Double action only is like using a staple gun. The gun to me is flawed also because the slide release is always inadvertently hit by my support thumb because of how far back its located. Not a big deal to normal people but for L.E. quals that are timed its a big deal when the slide will not stay to the rear when the mag is empty because of poor design. The 92 FS and 96FS are okay but both need to be consistently wet to be reliable overnight outdoors especially in sandy conditions such as the Saudi desert. Im glad LE is going away from Beretta USA. They should have listened sooner to L.E.complaints about various problems before Glock jumped in. Oh well, they do still make that little 21A which is a great pistol.