Range Report - Beretta 92

So, we went off to the range, and since I had company, I let them pick what we would shoot. #1 Son chose the UMP-40 - range report forthcoming on that, but picture at the link. We hadn't been able to shoot a Beretta over the holidays with our Italian sister-in-law, and so she wanted to try this one.

Now both my regular readers will recall that I have a bit of a tempestuous relationship with Berettas. The folks at the range mentioned that this isn't the world's greatest rental gun, from their perspective. "Fragile" was the term that they used, although they hastened to add that it's a great personal defense pistol.

I don't know about the fragile bit, but it performed flawlessly for us. Maybe it would be different if we put 10,000 rounds through it, but we didn't have time for that many.

Anyone who's shot one of these knows that it's a large pistol - it has maybe the largest grip of anything I've ever shot before. Noticeably large, and I wondered how #1 Son would do with it. Silly me:


That's not my target, it's his. 30 feet, 14 rounds, slow fire.

The trigger is the military trigger that I don't care for, but seem to be learning how to shoot. There's considerable "take up" as you first start squeezing, and then it becomes pretty obvious that you've taken up all the slack and a little more pressure will release the hammer. It's certainly not accidental, as every Beretta I've shot has this trigger. With practice, it is less distracting, and I daresay that you'd stop noticing after a while. Certainly it didn't hurt his shooting.

The sights are good, black square front post with a white dot provides high contrast. The rear sights were somewhat curved, which I thought not as nice as square, but everything lined up naturally and the groupings were satisfactory.

Since #1 Son doesn't come shooting a lot with me, it's pretty clear that neither the trigger or the sights hurts your accuracy.

Would I buy one? Maybe, after a 1911 and some wheel gun goodness. I certainly would not dismiss it out of hand like I would have six months ago. As I've become (slightly) more experienced, I've started to realize more what is wrong with the gun, and what is wrong with me. A bit humbling, that.

Oh, and the standard disclaimer:

I'm not any kind of gun or shooting expert. I like shooting, and shoot a fair number of different guns, but I'm really a dilettante. Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited.

I don't do scientific, repeatable tests. There's no checklist, although that's not a bad idea. I write about what I like and don't like, but it's pretty much stream of consciousness. Opinion, we got opinion here. Step right up.

I'm not a shooting teacher, although I do like to introduce people to shooting. Maybe some day I'll take the NRA teaching class, but until then, you get a dilettante's view. You'll get opinion here, but if you get serious about shooting, you'll want to get someone who knows what he's doing to give you some pointers. It can help.

And oh yeah, shooting things is fun.