…with a cool book on the topic. The half-century anniversary is upon one of my favorite pistols, the 9mm Beretta 92.  It’s author Chris Orr’s very favorite pistol, and that’s clear from the enthusiastic way he writes about it in “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”

Chris has shot the Beretta 92 and its variants extensively, and has researched them even more so. Through trial, tribulation and criticism the 92 series has earned many fans with accuracy and reliability. I enjoyed the book and if you’re into handguns, I think you will too. You can order it through Amazon

19 COMMENTS

  2. Beretta is the one major brand I have never owned over the decades (no, I won’t say how many…) but my trainer recently bought the .22 LR version so I will learn. It’s a great fit to my hand and feels like an extension of the arm. I’d never buy the .40 version but 9mm definitely if my own EP will allow 🫡

    • As they say about potato chips “Bet you can’t eat just one” also applies for 92/ 96 series as well. The .40 S&W (in Beretta slang “96 series”) is a snappier recoil than the 9mm but pretty much the same overall. Good deals by Beretta right now with some rebates that offer something like 75 cash back or 150 to spend at their website for parts, mags, ect. so many new variants of the 92 available right now… including frame mounted safety for those of you set in your ways, 1911 .45 era “boomers” 🙂

      • Christian I would love to read your book! About the 96, I know of one police department just across the border which had the 96D version and dropped it because they were getting too many cracked slides. They went to the SIG P226/229/239 in DAO format but stayed with the caliber and last I knew still use them. Thanks for your responses, I appreciate you!

  3. I bought my first 92FS back in 1993, still have it. A M9 was on my side in the USAF for deployments (when not toting the M16A2) and 92 on my side for CCW in the Compact L type M (single stack) variant. I have since moved to the PX4 for most of my CCW but a 92 compact (double stack) is still as comfortable in my hand as a pen or pencil. When I attended the Beretta Armorer course at the factory in Accokeek MD around 2001, it solidified my own opinion that the 92 series was outstanding is so many ways. I see soooo many people show off their EDC rotations of 3 or more this and that guns. For me, its two Beretta and one J frame. Simple, comfortable, familiar. No need fumble for the safety here or was it there? Beretta will be 500 years old next year… they are doing something right.

      • Hey brother, congrats and yeah book is in my shopping cart 🙂 USAF to another, i wasnt SF though,I was MXS working on the A-10’s for nearly 20 years… carried the M16A2 most of the time unless I complained enough to get a M9 instead 🙂 My Chief loved the fact i could disassemble and assemble with eyes closed. LOL, as if that was going to get me anywhere in life but it was a talent I guess. I had the PX4SD in .45 and found it just didnt fit my hand well so i sold it for another PX4 in 9mm. Personally the 8045 Cougar fits better and Im on the look out for one of those but for now a HK45 fiills the want of a .45

  4. I was commanding MTU#1 ’87-’89 at FGGM when the M-9s came out and as they were being fielded throughout the east coast we had lots of requests for unit training from my NCO pistol instructors. Being close to Accokeek,MD, Beretta assisted us by sending out their Gov’t Rep, retired USAF COL Russ Logan to familiarize us with them and also provided us armorer training class slots for both of our civilian gunsmiths. Russ also brought a long a 93R, the select fire version with a folding foregrip off the trigger guard and single tube folding stock for us to shoot. The M9s always worked if maintained, their clear sights improved qualification scores and they were a morale boost to our young MPs in my future commands. For the record, M1911/A1s were the pistols 7th Corps MPs took to Desert Storm and then turned in upon return as the Corps was stood down in 1992.

  5. I already can imagine my post being discordant, because I must express my extreme distaste for the slide-mounted, upward-sweep-off safety. I think they are simply one of the worst examples of Europistol mechanisms, right up there with the heel mag release! =P

    That being said, the 92FS is a marksmanship delight. Scoring Expert Marksman with the M-9 was probably the easiest achievement I ever made while USAF active duty; it fits well in the hand, has a decent weight, both trigger squeezes are good, and the overall accuracy is terrific. I won more than a few prizes in Base MWR-sponsored bullseye competitions with my personal 92FS, before I sold it for a Taurus PT92AFS (because I loved the safety’s orientation; too bad Taurus wasn’t nearly as great in the accuracy department!).

    More recently, I have bought a Girsan MC39SA, and have been quite happy with that as well. They’re apparently not that easy to acquire anymore the in the US, though.

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