The slide is very long, and for that matter, tall. Right up front: this is a crazy big pistol! I pulled this thing out of the safe and was shocked at almost every dimension. Excellent accuracy is possible out of the Beretta 92FS – and you need only look as far as Ernest Langdon or Mike Seeklander for proof. There’s just something about it that doesn’t lend itself to top-level accuracy in my hands, but I’ve seen some pretty amazing things done with one. I have tried taking the DA/SA thing out of the equation by shooting it only in single-action. I can’t really rave about it here because I have some issues getting really good accuracy out of it. It’s not bad, but it’s also nothing to write home about. This 10-round, 15-yard group was fired in DA/SA pairs. Let’s take a look at some of its features, and see what this old warhorse is all about. Even so, I recognize this gun as a product of its time and to be honest, it’s a little dated. I’ll be honest, though: I didn’t hate the M9 and I surely don’t hate the Beretta 92FS. Infantrymen will tell you what a piece of crap their M9 was, and officers of any denomination will lay blame for their piss-poor marksmanship on the big 9mm. You can’t talk to a SF Weapons Sergeant for five minutes – about anything – without broken locking blocks being brought into the conversation. Military guys are often somewhat down on the Beretta M9/92. I have fired quite a few rounds through that gun, and I have also been issued a Beretta and carried during my first and only Iraq deployment.

The Beretta you see in these pictures is that exact same serial number. Being the closest thing possible to the military’s issue sidearm of three decades, it was the first handgun I ever purchased.

It is also a pistol with which I happen to have a fairly deep history. The Beretta 92FS is a full-size, semi-automatic, 9x19mm, DA/SA pistol.

Beretta 92s serial numbers