**HELP** Beretta 9000S....heard it was bad

[J-Man]

I'm kind of confused about this gun. All the magazines I read and consumer
reviews say it's an awesome gun, however none of the local shops will carry
it and will only order it on special order because they say there are lots
of problems with it. Now I know that the first shipment had a recall, but
what about newer shipments? I'm trying to find someone who has one or who
has tried one. I've been told several things, like the decock on the single
action was really hard and that it wasn't much smaller or lighter than the
full 92 and that the overal quality was not very good. Please send me an
email ASAP to jma...@nwlink.com I'd also like to find one either in a shop
or someone that has one in the Seattle area that I could look at/try. I
don't want to just go off and buy it and then hate it. Thanks in advance.

J

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[Mike]

Your answer may depend on whether you want the 9mm or the .40 S&W version.
I have the 9mm and am quite happy with it. It has never jammed on me
although I've only put about 500 rounds through it. It has good accuracy
once I got the hang of shooting it. The decocker works really well as does
the safety. While not the smallest gun out there, it is significantly
smaller than the full 92 and I've been generally impressed with the quality.

The .40 S&W version had a recall and had a problem with the safety. These
two guns share a lot of the same parts - the slide is the same, the hammer
is the same, the recoil spring and the main housing is the same as well as
many other parts. The rear block does, however, differ between the two
guns. The rear block is an internal piece that contains the hammer pivot,
rear slide guides, and safety/decock mechanism. It always struck me odd
that the rear block would be different between the two guns because there is
no obvious need to differ in this area. The only thing I can guess is that
the .40 is a more powerful a round and perhaps they had to beef up the rear
block to handle this additional load while still meeting their life
specification. This difference could also explain why the .40 had a problem
with its safety while the 9mm didn't.

So I can highly recommend the 9mm version but I would need more information
on the .40 S&W. The only negatives with the 9mm I can think of is the gun
could be a little narrower and the double action trigger pull is a little
harder than I would prefer, but these are really minor issues and I'm
mentioning them just to present a balanced view. A hidden benefit with the
9mm is that one can buy and use the .40 mags with 9mm ammo and effectively
get 12 round 9mm magazines.

Hope that helps.