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Teach me about the Beretta 90-series pistols

kalash said:
Someone I know is interested in the Beretta (and only the Beretta) and I'm interested in helping them out. Problem is, I'm just a simple polymer brick fan so I don't know the first thing about these guns.

What's a 92? 92A1? 92FS? 92G? 92X? M9? M9A3? M9A4?

Are they all either blued or stainless?

Some are made in Italy vs USA vs France? Is there one that's better than the others or one to avoid?

What's a typical price for pre-ban mags? How do you even identify pre-bans?

They're all DA/SA, right?

Anything else I should know?
Click to expand...
  • 92?
    • General name of the series/old original model designation
    • Round Trigger Guard
    • Heel magazine release
  • 92A1?
    • Updated with different recoil assembly, not personally sure whether or not it's better. plastic guide rod as well
    • 1632443455518.png
    • See the blue inside piece above, only version that uses this set up, everything else has the same locking block and resting spot for the recoil spring
    • This was my first pistol in 2014ish, traded a base GP100 for it. Later sold it to buy a new 92FS Vertec around 2015-'16
    • Has dovetailed front and rear sight, and a rail.
    • Not great aftermarket support super limited holster choices for a pistol that generally already doesn't get many holster options
  • 92FS?
    • Base(d) model of the line. Has a lot of nomenclature variants which doesn't help people understand what's what.
    • No rail, round trigger guard, permanent front sight
    • No frills, goes bang accurately when needed
  • 92G?
    • Was for a little while a holy grail version of the 92FS for me
The 92G-SD & 96G-SD were fitted only with a decocking device (no safety), which, when pressed down, disconnected the trigger, rotated the firing pin away, allowing the hammer to drop without causing an accidental discharge. When released, the decocker levers return to their normal firing position. The pistol was ready to fire at all times. Initially, the Beretta "G" configured guns were sold only to government law enforcement and military agencies. -Wikipedia
Click to expand...
You can now get G conversion kits to make any of the 92s a "G", which is what I did to mine.
  • 92X?
    • New production of pistols to start integrating IDPA/USPSA shooters using the M9A3/92FS Vertec bones
  • M9?
    • Original mil-spec version
    • Square trigger guard
  • M9A3?
    • What was Beretta's entry to compete against Sig's M17/18s
  • M9A4?
    • New hypetrain optics ready M9A3
    • I might get one eventually

This is my baby...
1632444939302.jpeg

The 92FS Vertec and M9A3s have the narrower back strap (no hump), dovetailed sights, mine has the G conversion, the replaced D-spring to lighten the trigger pulls, and swapped out all the plastic bits for metal (trigger, guide rod, mag release). Had a gunsmith fit some Trijicon HDs on it for me since they didn't have a specific model for it at the time.
 
kalash said:
Someone I know is interested in the Beretta (and only the Beretta) and I'm interested in helping them out. Problem is, I'm just a simple polymer brick fan so I don't know the first thing about these guns.

What's a 92? 92A1? 92FS? 92G? 92X? M9? M9A3? M9A4?

Are they all either blued or stainless?

Some are made in Italy vs USA vs France? Is there one that's better than the others or one to avoid?

What's a typical price for pre-ban mags? How do you even identify pre-bans?

They're all DA/SA, right?

Anything else I should know?
Click to expand...
Here are a couple of versions
92 FS 92 FS Inox 84 and 85 Cheetah 92 Centennial with the safety not on the slide and the 92 X Performance
 

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I’m still new at this but if he has a specific question that I can help with I’d be happy to help that’s why I joined NES lots of good info here
 
I had a 92fs for many years. I loved shooting it, stupid easy accurate. It was a little heavy but not unmanageable. (And i was a smallish middle aged woman when i was shooting it). Never malfunctioned, easy to take apart. It was stock, no mods of any kind.
 
As for ITA v USA made, I don’t notice much of a difference. I think that’s personal preference. However, given the massive plant in TN they built a few years ago, I’m partial to American made models.

Pre ban mags are kind of a bitch. You know there’s millions of them out there, but there isn’t a clear delineation besides ones obviously marked with Gov Use Only or something similar, and even those I’ve not really seen. There are a few brands that made them that stoped existing before the ban so you could purposely look for those. The last I personally knew, the OEM mags with the round count located dead center of the rear face of the mag are usually the older mags. Newer ones had them offset to the side of the rear face.
As for price, I wouldn’t spend more than $50 per, seeing as they aren’t as “rare” or in as much demand as the Glocks are.
 
DarthRevan said:
Ehh I must have just assumed he knew what he was saying and I’m biased slightly against 226/229s.

Coffee isn’t helping yet this morning.
Click to expand...
coffee-iv.gif
 
So two questions as a potential 92 purchaser:

- Are MA triggers messed up comparatively? I assume not, since the gun has a manual safety. The two 92s I've fired were both MA-owned and had very mushy triggers, and I'm wondering if one I bought outside of MA would be crisper.
- How hard is it to change the D spring?
 
daekken said:
So two questions as a potential 92 purchaser:

- Are MA triggers messed up comparatively? I assume not, since the gun has a manual safety. The two 92s I've fired were both MA-owned and had very mushy triggers, and I'm wondering if one I bought outside of MA would be crisper.
- How hard is it to change the D spring?
Click to expand...
Easy peazy lemon squeazy.

Mod the trigger to your liking. Via just springs or an langdon tactical kit
 
eboos said:
The fix was to include an enlarged hammer pin head and a machined slot on the bottom left side of the slide for the hammer pin to track on. This would retain the rear portion of the slide if and when it will break. These slides do still break, but now with the rear of the slide retained the likelihood of separation and injury is greatly reduced.
Click to expand...

This is the only difference between the 92F and 92FS, isn't it? Larger hammer pin and a slot in the slide to accomidate it.
 
milktree said:
This is the only difference between the 92F and 92FS, isn't it? Larger hammer pin and a slot in the slide to accomidate it.
Click to expand...
Can't say for sure that is the "only" difference. Apparently I don't know crap about Berettas even though I had my hands on about 1,000 of them over the course of my time as a Marine Corps small arms repairman (2111) and precision weapons repairman (2112, f/k/a rifle team equipment repairman).
 
daekken said:
So two questions as a potential 92 purchaser:

- Are MA triggers messed up comparatively? I assume not, since the gun has a manual safety. The two 92s I've fired were both MA-owned and had very mushy triggers, and I'm wondering if one I bought outside of MA would be crisper.
- How hard is it to change the D spring?
Click to expand...

No. The M9/92FS SA is just shit, lol.

Changing D spring is easy but its only marginally better, in terms that it takes the edge off the excess DA weight.

The 92X is much cleaner. Also lighter DA. Better trigger all the way around. Potentially other models as well. Skip the skinflint guns and go for one of the better ones.
 
drgrant said:
No. The M9/92FS SA is just shit, lol.

Changing D spring is easy but its only marginally better, in terms that it takes the edge off the excess DA weight.

The 92X is much cleaner. Also lighter DA. Better trigger all the way around. Potentially other models as well. Skip the skinflint guns and go for one of the better ones.
Click to expand...
I had been looking at the Langdon guns but just to have a representative 92, it didn't seem worth the $$$. I wouldn't be competing, carrying, or home defending with it. The 92X does seem to be the popular choice, though.
 
daekken said:
Are MA triggers messed up comparatively?
Click to expand...
Nope. Pretty much the same light touch. Remember this is a double-action pistol. The initial pull is heavy enough to pass MA's min trigger pull test. Together with the safety this makes 92 a super easy gun to get through MA regs.

S&W M&P's or Glocks have terrible stock triggers so installing a new trigger is almost a must. not so with 92. It is pretty darn good out of the box. Yes, you can futz with springs to get the feel "just right" but it's like going from 10 to 11. Meanwhile, with something like a Glock, going from stock to Timney trigger is like going from 1-8: pretty huge improvement.
 
Sammy said:
Nope. Pretty much the same light touch. Remember this is a double-action pistol. The initial pull is heavy enough to pass MA's min trigger pull test.
Click to expand...

There is no "MA trigger pull test." At least not one with a metric. And the examples you are likely to retort with, i have contradictory examples to respond with.
 
daekken said:
So two questions as a potential 92 purchaser:

- Are MA triggers messed up comparatively? I assume not, since the gun has a manual safety. The two 92s I've fired were both MA-owned and had very mushy triggers, and I'm wondering if one I bought outside of MA would be crisper.
- How hard is it to change the D spring?
Click to expand...
DarkJoker33 said:
Easy peazy lemon squeazy.

Mod the trigger to your liking. Via just springs or an langdon tactical kit
Click to expand...
It was easy enough for me to do it so I’m sure most everyone else could.

@drgrant tell us how you truly feel, it’s like you’re holding back… lol
 
Last edited:
Aren't there also differences with the Italian made and Maryland made INOX models? The Italians have the controls (safety, trigger, take down) stainless silver matched while the American ones are a black oxide
 
I will add that the Beretta 92 is a good gun to use to train novice shooters. The .22 conversion works quite well and is reasonably accurate (I tend to keep the standard hammer spring in it when using the 22 kit since the D spring seems to result in more frequent failures to fire). You can start them out with the .22 kit and get them use to the feel of the gun and when they are comfortable, move them up to the 9mm. Same gun, just different slide. Even full house 9mm loads are pretty easy to shoot accurately in the 92. It’s important for new shooters to succeed in hitting the target to enhance their self confidence.
 
daekken said:
So two questions as a potential 92 purchaser:

- Are MA triggers messed up comparatively? I assume not, since the gun has a manual safety. The two 92s I've fired were both MA-owned and had very mushy triggers, and I'm wondering if one I bought outside of MA would be crisper.
- How hard is it to change the D spring?
Click to expand...

there is no MA trigger on a 92. None on any beretta models of any pistols. AFAIK Beretta doesn’t generate MA sku’s

D spring swap takes about 90 seconds and probably the only essential upgrade to a 92. Of note the 92X models come with D spring installed.

the 92 F -> G conversion takes about 15 minutes for those capable of basic pistol work.
 
ThePreBanMan said:
Those were the pre FS models... The FS stands for "fixed slide".
Click to expand...

there is no conceivable history by which FS stands for “fixed slide”

the 92S was followed by the 92F, then finally by the 92FS. So unless the Italians named it the 92 Fixed, it ain’t possible. All of this crap is available on Wikipedia.
 
Here are the top three current Beretta 92's: Wilson Brigadier 92G, LTT 92G Elite RDO, 92X w/LTT RDOslide.
IMHO the best option is to buy a LTT or 92X directly from Langdon Tactical and have them drop in their optimized parts and do a trigger job.

For me the 92X checks all the boxes with a vertec grip and a rounded trigger guard.
The Langdon optimized trigger bar and hammer totally transform the DA/SA action from meh to f-ing sweet.


IMG_7588.jpg

Also the original 92 was one of the most beautiful guns ever produced.

OG_92.jpg
 

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