Beretta 92S

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How does one say “ya’ll ain’t from around here, are you?” in Italian? If you’re into used Berettas or follow the surplus gun scene, you’ve probably noticed that these Italian police trade-in Beretta 92s have been popping up all over the place at stupid cheap prices.

Seriously, you can get them from Palmetto for $250! Think about that for a minute, because what that means is you can get literally one of the best service pistols ever made for LESS than you’d pay for a brand new Taurus or Kel-Tec. Yes, the 92s is a bit older design, the sights aren’t great, but the samples of these guns that I’ve inspected are in great condition with just a little bit of holster wear. Most of the trade in guns date from the late 70s to very early 80s, before Beretta submitted the 92 for the M9 trials.

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I have a well known soft spot for older Berettas, and so I ordered two of these myself from Palmetto. Knowing PSA, they’ll probably ship in oh, a month or so. Be that as it may, if you’re looking for a defensive firearm on a budget, or just want a cool piece of history, you should probably grab one of these while the getting is good.

18 Comments

    1. Will they work on these older ones? This is a quote from their website: “NOTE: We do not work on 92 series pistols that don’t have the FS oversize hammer pin.” So it looks like they may only work on FS models with that type of hammer pin.

  1. I ordered an AR upper and some other parts from PSA on Halloween (a Friday) and received them the following Thursday. Hopefully, you’ll have a similar experience. Just for S&Gs, I looked up an order I made in 2012, and it was 5 weeks before it even left their shop.

  2. The main issue w/ the S is the location of the magazine release. It’s at the bottom where the F & FS models are higher up. That’s also where the ‘cut’ is for many magazines and grips so finding replacements is a pain.

    I got my S a few years ago and managed to find some ‘universal’ magazines and a grip more to my liking. Now it and my Makarov are my favorite handguns.

  3. Question: what would be involved in turning one of these into a modern carry or competition gun? Can you replace the sights or do you need to have the slide milled?

    1. The sights aren’t great, but they’re servicable. The biggest downside is the position of the magazine button, because you absolutely cannot reach it with your dominant hand.

      1. I bet it’d be interesting with an IDPA “reload with retention”…probably wouldn’t be at as much of a disadvantage as people think…I also suspect that it might be as quick as a revolver reload…if not faster.

  4. I found this video of another vendor (not Palmetto State, and I don’t really know who this guy is or if he might be pulling a fast one by only showing the nice Berettas coming in) showing guns from what I believe to be the same import shipment and they are *really* nice looking for 290 dollar guns.. I was prepared for a gun that looked like it had been kicked across a parking lot all day, if mine shows up looking like this?… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zckyMWA8OV0

  5. Berettas are terrible. When you’re ready to ditch retarded gimmicks like slide mounted safeties and open slides, pick up a used CZ-75 or P226. Anyone who’s spent 5 minutes with an Army M9 knows precisely which gun they’ll never want to pay actual money for.

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