Beretta 92FS 9mm

W

Wolf_1989

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Mar 30, 2007
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We got a flyer in the ads today from a local gun store.

They were advertising police trade Berettas.

So I drove up there to check them out.

Checked out one in very good mechanical condition. The bore was still crisp and bright, the safety/decock was excellent and so was the trigger & hammer action. The firing pin and everything else inside looked great... so I bought it ($300).

There's a lot of wear on the finish on the back of the grip, and it has an old heavily worn set of rubber Hogue grips on it which I'll replace soon.

Fired off two full 15 round clips when I got home. Flawless performance and VERY accurate. I'm very pleased with it.
 
I'm tempted to go back up there monday and snag another one in .40cal. :D

This isn't my only Beretta, but I couldn't pass it up for that price... and it came with two spare high-cap mags!

The barrel looks almost new. The only things I could find wrong with it was just the normal wear you'd expect from a cop carrying it every day for years.

I might carve my own grips. Wood carving is one thing I'm very good at. Cherry with an inlayed seven pointed Cherokee star might look pretty snazzy on it.

But then again... the factory plastic standard grips are cheap and easy to come by.
 
Hey Wolf, does the store do mail order? $300 for a Beretta 92 in decent shape sounds like an awesome deal!

Heber
 
That is a good deal.

Get it re-finished as you like, two-tone, green, etc, (if it matters to you, doesn't to me usually) and you're still way ahead on a quality gun!

For others looking for them, contact CDNN, they had a bunch for sale lately, a bit more but not much.
 
Did some more shooting this morning. We have about four acres out in the country and I have my own pistol range here.

Shot well over 100 rounds today and it functions perfectly. My other Berettas function smooth but not quite this smooth. The cops did a good job breaking it in for me. Thanks officer!

I don't know if they take mail orders but they didn't have very many left yesterday. Most of them were .40S&W, which is also a great caliber.

And now my wife* and my younger brother both want one.

Dad likes it too but he's sticking to the 1911A1 .45acp. That's still my favorite pistol too but I don't worship the things like he does. He has an old WW2 era Colt with many thousands of rounds through it and it's still going strong.

Tell me about refinishing. I think this one is worth the extra $ to restore it to it's glory. The slide isn't worn much. I'd guess the finish on the slide is about 98% and the barrel looks fairly new but the back of the frame is worn to the point it's mostly gray on the grip area.


:thumbup:


* When I met that girl back in 1990, she was a city girl who had never even touched a gun. Now she's hooked. She's only 5'4" and her favorite pistol to shoot is my .44mag Ruger Bisley-Vaquero. Quality women are hard to find and I've got one.
 
As an LE firearms instructor, I will confirm that a vast majority of police trade-in pistols have very little actualy firing and usually lots of holster wear on them. You get a very good deal for a gun that has been fired little but carried a lot. Some rebluing or NP3 coating or something like that and you will be good to go.
 
I just got Masad Ayoob's volume on Beretta handguns. Excellent info on all things beretta(Barnes and Noble has them, as of last week, for $5.98 on their bargain section).
He's a firm believer in the ability of the 9mm as being a great combat round. That said. You have to be very particular about the ammo you choose to feed it for defensive purposes.
Ayoob advises that early production .40's don't hold up all that well in the 92 platform. Later production had been redesigned to address issues with the pressures of the .40 beating up the gun. You might want to be careful with checking them out. Good luck.
 
moblues said:
As an LE firearms instructor, I will confirm that a vast majority of police trade-in pistols have very little actually firing and usually lots of holster wear on them. You get a very good deal for a gun that has been fired little but carried a lot. Some rebluing or NP3 coating or something like that and you will be good to go.
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Yes, and not only that but a cop's life is in the hands of his pistol. If a policeman carried it all that time and it's still in great condition, you can bet your life on it. It's a good gun.

My observation on police trade-ins is it's often because their dept want to go to something different. My mother obtained a nice S&W .38special this way when a local PD went to Glocks back in '98. I had a friend from High School who was a cop in that town who told me about it. We went to the store the next day and Mom bought an old S&W for $200, a lot of wear on the finish and a slight wobble on one of the grips, but otherwise in excellent condition. It's her CCL self defense pistol. She loves that thing.


The holster wear on the frame doesn't bother me much. It adds character... but that worn out rubber grip set has to go. That's a cheap and easy fix
 
Sutcliffe said:
Ayoob advises that early production .40's don't hold up all that well in the 92 platform. Later production had been redesigned to address issues with the pressures of the .40 beating up the gun. You might want to be careful with checking them out. Good luck.
Click to expand...

All the .40's I recall seeing there were model 96.
 
Many LE trade-ins are a result of changing to better or improved platforms. There were a batch of revolvers that hit the markets in the early 90s as agencies traded to autos enmasse (late trickle started in the late 80s). But here is an example: Glock has a killer LE agency trade in program. For the cost of completely rebuilding all of my department's pistols, I can trade for a brand new gun. Those older Gen 2 and early Gen 3 guns are traded in, inspected by Glock, then resold. Same with the CPO program Sig has. Some wholesalers will trade in one brand for another (i.e., agency formerly shooting Smith autos now goes polymer to either M&Ps or Glocks).

Most agencies have policies that duty issued handguns must be armorer inspected yearly so the internals are looked at and parts replaced at least yearly.
 
Had to carry and work on them when I was a young pup in the Corps. To me they were never really that comfotable in my hands. I have large hands but they still felt like it was too big and it felt like it would shift while I was firing.
 
HPIM0789.jpg
 
So far this pistol shoots as well if not better than any other pistol I own, including my 1911's.

Yes I know, that's blasphemy :eek:

I'm so impressed with it, I want to buy a new one, just to store away for the future, and use this one for my anti-wild dog gun when I'm out in the woods.

It's very accurate and so far 100% reliable even with these old beat up mags.

The Hogue rubber grips are so worn there's barely any texture left. Instead of feeling 'grippy', they feel just plain nasty. They've got to go. But that's the only thing I can find wrong with it.

Beretta makes a fine weapon :thumbup:
 
They just upped the caliber and changed the model number. If you do opt for the 96 check it closely for excessive wear.
The 92's are big handguns and not at all like more modern, compact 9's.
 
aliloff said:
Had to carry and work on them when I was a young pup in the Corps. To me they were never really that comfotable in my hands. I have large hands but they still felt like it was too big and it felt like it would shift while I was firing.
Click to expand...


+1 I'd rather a smaller grip like the 1911. Haven't tried a Glock though are they comfy?
 
philthygeezer said:
Haven't tried a Glock though are they comfy?
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Based strictly on my ability to shoot it a heck of a lot more accurately than I can the Glock I used to own, I'd pick the 92fs everytime. YMMV, for me they pointed high. On the other hand, an old friend of mine shot circles around me with the Glock so I really can't blame the gun...
 
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