I am by no means a gun expert, but of the repeaters I have fired, it's my favorite. The only thing I don't like about it is that the sights are so solidly dovetailed in, they are nearly impossible to budge.
I took it to a gun smith. he put my slide in a press, then used a punch to try and adjust it. IT WOULDN'T BUDGE! It seems you need a special hydraulic tool from beretta to move it, naturally these run around $130.
I personally would prefer an all-metal frame, but as the song goes, you can't always get what you want, and the polymer is light weight.
Those are my only gripes. Everything else is perfect. the gun came with three different handle pieces to adjust it's fit in your hand, the medium one works fine for me. everyone who shoots it says they love the way it feels in their hand.
It has never jammed on me. the rotating barrel not only significantly reduces recoil, but assists in shell ejection.
It has ambidextrous safety, as the pics show, this rotates a portion of the firing pin out of line with the rest of the pin, making firing impossible. it also has a safety against accidental discharge, a little cylinder visible on top of the slide only un-blocks the firing pin when the trigger is pulled. if you drop it cocked and the hammer hits, it won't fire unless the trigger is somehow also pulled in the fall.
It has reversible magazine release. magazine capacity options are 10, 15, 17, and 20, though the 17 round ones are the ones it normally comes with, what I have. the rest must be ordered and state laws could get in the way depending. I imagine places with high capacity restrictions would either not sell this gun or sell it with the reduced capacity mags. Colorado now has a 15 round limit, but I had this before that, so ha ha.
It also has a chambered indicator, you can tell if it's loaded or not without pulling back the slide. naturally the manual says to pull it back to check anyway. this indicator is also part of the ejection system.
Taking it apart is so easy, it can be field stripped in less than 5 seconds, it is impossible to reassemble incorrectly, if it fits, it's right. elegant design.
One quirk. If you chamber a round, then put in a full mag, you need to push forward on the bottom of the mag until you hear a click. the mag will fall out otherwise. I guess it's a tight fit. this only happens in these circumstances and you just have to remember to push forward.
A while back the U.S. military had an event to see if they would change the official side arm. they did not change, but this pistol performed the best. I believe the reasons it was rejected are these:
Non-metal body. Not the easiest gun to chamber a single round with in absence of a mag, though it is possible it's not recommended. If you are familiar with the beretta M9, you know how easy it is to do this on these, and they have the all-metal body. I believe those are the only reasons the military doesn't carry these now.
Wow that was long. does that answer your question Livinloud? Beretta should pay me for that.
No offense. I'd never insult one more heavily armed than myself, and some of you apparently are:gun:
