I bought mine sight-unseen, it looked like what I needed, and it's turning out I might have been right. I wanted something bigger than my Bersa .380, it was a great carry gun, but after almost having to use it, I wanted more horsepower in a similar-sized package. The version I ordered has a stainless steel slide, comes with two magazines, and fixed-but-decent sights.
I've had it to the range twice now, put a shade over 300 rounds through it, and I couldn't be happier with it. It's a hair bigger than the .380, noticeably wider but about a quarter-inch difference front to back and in width. It holds 7+1, just like the .380, and it has a slightly different operating system, but very easy to use. It cannot be carried cocked and locked, what looked to me like a traditional 1911-style safety is actually a decocker. Flip it up and the hammer drops, the slide is locked, and the trigger is disabled. Flip it back down, and it's ready to fire in DA mode. I was kinda thinking this was a typical SA/DA gun like my 40 Witness, but it's not, and I'm fine with that. As long as I know what gun I'm carrying, I know how to work it, even under stress
I tried two different handloads today, one with Unique, then a hotter one with Power Pistol, both using the 200-grain Laser-Cast bullet. Even with first-shot DA shooting, all groups at 7 yards were tight, combat-accurate, which for me, is about three inches in semi-rapid fire with a flash sight picture. Earlier range time with the gun found me milking the trigger and pulling shots low and left, but either it's smoothing out, or I'm getting used to it, or both. Nearly every shot was close to or inside the 3" paster I was using, some low, but very few above it. The trigger DOES seem a lot smoother this time around.
I paid right at $450 for the gun, tax included, with 100 rounds of ball ammo. The retail price on the website I checked was $336, but it hadn't been updated in a year or more. I think I got a good deal, given what I got. It comes with two mags, and the grip seems to please everyone who shoots it. I have medium-sized hands, small, but with long fingers, and the reach in DA is kinda long, but not hard to get used to.
It did lock itself open again once today with warm 230-grain ammo, as I said before, I think this gun was designed around the use of 185- and 200-grain ammo, and it functions 100% with those loads, even the hot ones. I'm convinced the recoil imparted by the heaviest bullets is just enough to throw the slide latch up hard enough to let it lock in mid-string, the lighter bullets do not give ANY problems.
My last 45ACP was a 1911, and after a case head blew, I swore off the 1911 design, with its unsupported chamber. It was a Remington factory load that blew, and it peppered my face with brass and powder, shattered a nice pair of custom cherrywood stocks, and blew the remaining rounds down and out of the mag well, and flared the top of the magazine so badly I had to crunch it back into shape to get it out. I swore after that that I'd never own another 45ACP gun unless it had a fully-supported chamber, and this one does.
In short, I think I accidently found the best compact 45 on the market. It disappears in a good holster, shoots everything to the same point of aim, has a good SA/DA trigger system with a decocker, (which I didn't need but still like) has decent, visible sights, and didn't bend the budget. It feeds everything I've fed it from ball to FP's to hollow-points, and I think I'll have to work hard to find something that will make it choke.
As to why this gun hasn't been written up in several magazines by now, I have no clue. Maybe they don't like Argentina, where Bersas are made. Maybe the other gunmakers spend a fortune on advertising, where Bersa spends little or nothing. When was the last time you saw an ad for a Bersa? I can't remember seeing any recently, and I'm guessing that's one reason the price is so reasonable. In any event, I now have the CCW gun I always wanted, didn't get raped on the price, and have full confidence that the next time someone tries to carjack me, I don't have to worry about the terminal ballistics of what I stick in their face!
Papajohn
