I ended up purchasing two of them: one in standard finish, and one Operation Enduring Freedom USAF Commemorative Edition (one of 1,000 produced). I had no issues at all with the Model 92’s ergonomics, instead finding it to be a delightfully comfortable and sweet-shooting pistol.įast-forward to 1999, in my first year as a USAF Security Forces troops (HOOAH!) The Beretta M9 helped me earn a device for an AF Small Arms Expert Ribbon.įast-forward now to the 2010s, and this beloved pistol helped make me the top shot in training classes for my Japan and Kosovo security contract assignments, as well as being recognized as the most accurate shooter at my local International Defensive Pistol Association matches in Southern California. Well, this may be strictly anecdotal, but as that 14-year-old lad, I was 5-foot-2 and 100 pounds soaking wet, with a corresponding hand size. The Beretta’s detractors claim the pistol is too bulky for small-handed shooters.
(I mean that strictly in the platonic sense, folks, lest any hoplophobe out there start throwing Joyce Brothers-style insinuations my way.) That was back in November 1989, at the tender age of 14. Speaking from personal experience, the Beretta 92 was the first pistol I ever truly fell in love with. Both have gone on YouTube with some pretty strong endorsements of the Beretta: Wilson says that “I shoot it just as well as the 1911,” and Hackathorn concedes that while he was skeptical at first, now “If I could only buy one firearm, the gun I would most likely trust would be a Beretta 92,” adding that it’s “the most reliable handgun I ever used.” Massad Ayoob of the Lethal Force Institute, a contemporary of Bill and Hack’s, not only lavishes praise on the Beretta 92, but has written plenty over the years to dispel a lot of the misconceptions and exaggerations about the pistol’s alleged lack of reliability and durability. Going back to what I said in my opening paragraph about “big-bore fanatics,” two of the more open-minded members of that demographic are Bill Wilson-arguably the greatest M1911 gunsmith of all time-and Ken Hackathorn.
BARETTA 9MM HANDGUN SERIES
Moreover, if anything, the Beretta 92 series of pistols is actually surging in popularity. Air Force contract stint in Germany, I can confirm that while the majority of the Air Force Security Forces personnel I observed at Ramstein Airbase were already carrying the M17, I still saw a decent number of sky cops with Berettas in their holsters. For one thing, having recently returned from a one-year U.S. While the Beretta M9 may no longer be the official carry pistol of our boys and girls in uniform, it is far from obsolete. Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon film franchise). law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the LAPD ( as immortalized by Mel Gibson as Sgt. From there, the Beretta 92 gained even more prestige after it was adopted by a myriad of domestic U.S. Long story short, in the 1984 pistol trials that involved grueling tests for accuracy, reliability, and durability, Beretta beat out SIG, Smith and Wesson, HK, Walther, Steyr, and FN to become the official sidearm of the U.S. 45s that “the remaining examples were beaten to hell after their decades of heavy use.” Eastwood, “We sometimes forget the M9 was born for a very specific reason and its history: the M1911 was becoming outdated.” Or take it from USMC Afghanistan veteran Travis Pike of Sandboxx, who puts it more bluntly when he says about those old. Those are some strong credentials.Īs for the M9 itself, as stated by my 1945 colleague and fellow military veteran Brent M.
The M9’s predecessor, the M1951 Brigadier, was adopted by the armed forces of Egypt, Iraq, and Israel. Beretta has supplied weapons for every major European war since 1650, and it has supplied pistols for a fair share of Middle Eastern wars as well.
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