Broadly speaking, when it comes to 9mm handguns, I’m a Glock guy. This doesn’t mean the Glock is my favorite 9mm handgun…it isn’t. My favorite 9mm handgun is the HiPower. But the Glock has he qualities that I look for in terms of a tool for looking out for Number One.
I do have a stable of other guns, though. One of them is the Beretta 92 (or M9, if you prefer.) Because of it’s military ubiquity it seemed a good idea to have a couple. The 92 goes back to the wondernine school of handgun design where you had a heavy double action pull and subsequent rounds were single action. Additionally, you had a manual safety. The manual safety is the part that makes no sense to me…it has a heavy double action pull like a revolver, so why does it need a manual safety?
Beretta addressed this by making the ‘G’ series where the safety is mechanically rendered into a decock-only. Thumbing the safety decocks the gun and the safety then springs back to the ‘fire’ position. In this way you never have to worry about your safety accidentally getting engaged when you don’t want it to.
Fortunately the necessary parts to convert your Beretta to the G version are available for about fifty bucks. The instructions, as provided by Beretta, are awful. YouTube to the rescue.
Sadly, no matter how you slice it, the whole experience is still a springs-flying-across-the-room and need-three-hands experience. But…it’s done.
I can’t recall the last time I encountered anyone carrying a DA/SA pitol that had a manual safety. The heavy DA is the safety. I find them to be useless and will modify a pistol to decock-only if I can.
Anyway…took a half hour but now both my M9s are decocker-only.
Mass Ayoob has always been a fin of the safety but he may be the only one, I could never work out when they were picking the M9 why they went fot the one with it.
Read all about it here https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=7866 as it says
“By the way, the G conversion was a breeze if you ignore Beretta’s incredibly complicated online instructions and just YouTube your way through it. (ProTip: watch video, watch video again)” https://youtu.be/Ux4M__sig4g?si=l53oJ1f383QvuTMz
Thanks for that. I bought the G conversion kit but never installed it because it looked so damn complicated.
From what I’ve been told anyone with three hands can do it with ease, so get one out of the freezer and have a go.
Did you ever get a good look at the Springfield Armory SA-35 Hi Power that you liked so much? I know they were having some trouble with them at one time,
All of my Smith DA/SA M-39s have a safety along the lines of the 1911. Of course my Smiths are also 40+ years old, heh, heh.
I bought my Beretta 92 the year before your Military trialed it for service. I shot IPSC with it and they insisted that the safety be engaged at all times. So when the tone sounded, draw the gun and operate the safety and take your first shot double action. It took a lot of practice, but it was possible to get a good A zone hit. I must say the Browning Hi Power is much better. So is the 1911 platform. The transition to single action and the long reset of the trigger is manageable, with practice of course. Overall, I did well with the above mentioned guns in IPSC. While the de-cocker feature is good (I’ve had them on Sigs) I really don’t think them necessary. Know your kit, as we said in the Military. As with any equipment, use it, find its shortcomings and adjust for them. TTFN Phil
The reason for the safety is that the US .mil required one for consideration in the handgun trials.
Like the forward assist, it is a Thing That Should Not Be.
It could not have been one of the requirements as some of the guns in it but it may have been one of the optional 13
“The thing that should no be”…
That tells me that you’ve never actually trained or deployed with the AR pattern in 5.56. they will run dirty, they’ll even run filthy just fine. What they will not do is run dry and hot.
Lmt, dd,kac, they all require a tap when being ran hard eventually.
More fudd logic on the InTeRwEb.
“Like the forward assist, it is a Thing That Should Not Be.”
Tell that to Kyle.
Ruger P90 DC is the answer. the handgun that SHOULD have won the military testing trials, but due to hand doctored Beretta M9’s and some reason for the .gov need to throw money at Italy, the Beretta won, even though many thought it was underpowered. including the seals who had to learn the “2 in the head, one in the heart” room clearing terrorist drill because a 9mm didnt pack the drop hammer punch of a 230 grain round nose of a .45 ACP
not saying my P90 is perfect, but sure is darn reliable on feed and function with any ammo
Next to my Ruger SS Security Six 6″, my P90DC is the most reliable and accurate pistol I own.
Again a reminder that I need to convert my 92 compact over to a G model. AIM surplus is coming up with a bunch of 92 trade ins, just received a email from them this week.
Following. Yeah the Beretta .mil selection was a political trade for allowing nukes based, staged in italy during our cold war era. Nice duty stations for r&r if you got posted there, back in those days of course. Everything .mil or .gov is business hustle based now, no longer the best equipment or price required any more. This kit can help the 92s soldier on, as there is probably quite a few out there in peoples inventories anyways. What is old is new again, and those models will be encountered and in spicy play for a long time. More complex undertaking, but I am surprised those Chicago lads have not deployed 93 ‘switch’ models into the spicy quarrels always ongoing in that fine city. Soldier on with those 92/m9s frens, but please don’t paint them pink or purple. O.D. green is the only allowed color variant change. Stay frosty beretta bros.
Part of that quid-pro-quoi was that the Itie army would give up their beloved 7.62X51[BM-59’s (which the US military hated ’cause it was what the M-14 shoulda been)] and adopt the 5.56 as their standard caliber.
I recently stumbled into a Beretta 92FS. Someone once said that it is the most accurate widely issued service pistol the US ever adopted and I agree. Certainly I shoot it better than anything else.
Conceptually I like the G variation. However after a long career with the standard M9 and the safety being well a safety, I’ll stick with the standard variation.