Well, the little spring goes in there, and goes around and around, whoa, whoa...

I may have made a mistake, or, I may have overestimated the 1985 stand-in for the M1911. I am now, the slightly less than proud owner of a Beretta 90 Series automatic pistol. I say that, because I have now owned this pistol for a few days, I have since field stripped it a couple of times, and I have felt its worth. Granted, this is not the exact pistol chosen by our military in 1985 to replace the M1911 as the standard sidearm of the US Military, but it is virtually the same design.

This Beretta, is a 96A1. It is a tactical version of the 92F, the civilian model of the military's standard M9 service pistol. The 96A1 is chambered in .40 Smith & Wesson, where most of the series 90 pistols are exclusively 9mm Luger (Parabellum). It also has a 1913 Picatinny rail dust cover that the 92F is lacking. I chose this caliber on the recommendation of my ex-military son. He carried an M9 in Afghanistan during his deployment there, in 2006.

My oldest never liked the 9mm as a pistol round, and thought the .40 S&W would perform better in the Beretta platform. He was interested in shooting the Beretta again, and I was interested in obtaining the pistol that dethroned the M1911 after nine and a half decades. My thought process lead me to believe that this pistol needed to be part of my M1911 collection, because of its winning the US military's testing of a replacement battle pistol. In fact, a Sig Sauer P226 won the contest/test, but it was "too expensive". This decision, from an entity that spends $600.00 on a claw hammer.

But I digress. I have the bloody thing now, and as God is my witness, I am not impressed. It is comfortable, it is lighter than an M1911, due largely to its forged aluminum frame. But by golly, there are a lot of little springs, and pins, and plastic, and a de-cocker, a rolling firing pin thingy, and more plastic. I look at it, field stripped, and I wonder to myself how long it would take to completely disassemble this thing. I'm thinking, a long time, a very long time. I bet those little springs are hard to find when they shoot out from their retaining place at the most unexpected time. I have not counted the parts in the exploded parts drawing yet, but I guaran-damn-tee you, it is a heck of a lot more than sixty. The M1911A1 has sixty parts, total. I can completely disassemble it in about 20 minutes (less the sights and plunger tube), with a .45 ACP cartridge and the firing pin or hammer spur.

In a previous blog entry, I said that I might purchase a Glock, to see how it compared to the M1911 in complexity. If the Austrian is anything like this Italian made pistol, well, let's just say, too much mustard for one hotdog. I will get back to you on that, in a later missive.

For now, I want my son to put 100 rounds down the pipe, then I will fire 100 rounds, then HE will clean it, I will watch, then I will put it in the safe. My opinion will need to coalesce further. Right now, as I type this, I am muddled. I need to see this gun do its thing in MY testing. I hope it does it perfectly. John Browning's design did.

Be well, and do the right thing.

Gaff