I managed to slip away to the range Saturday morning to try my new purchase. It was a beautiful sunny day, but, oddly enough, the range wasn’t packed by the time I showed up.
The first thing I noticed was that the magazines were actually easy to load, at least until you got past the 10 round mark. This is in stark contrast to my Springfield XDm, and, to a lesser extent, my Beretta Px4. Both of those pistols make you thankful that you brought a speed loader with you after round 5 or 6. Maybe there’s a reason the Bersa didn’t come with one while both Springfield and Beretta supply one with purchase of those two guns.
I ran 100 rounds through it at 5 yards, and 100 at 10 yards. As should be expected, the pistol seemed to be more accurate than I am. I was able to create decent ragged holes at 5 yards, and things got scattered at 10 yards. Being completely subjective about it, I’d say it’s about as accurate as my Px4, which is pretty close to the same dimensions. As expected, the single action was pretty accurate, while the double action, while smooth, is heavy enough that it can be difficult to keep things lined up while pulling the trigger. The extra weight of it being all metal meant that the recoil is very manageable, and I was able to re-acquire target quickly and easily. The grip design that I noted in my previous post did feel better on the range than that of my Px4.
I do have to admit that I did have 2 failures. I’m not sure, but I think both were due to the extractor not grabbing the case properly. I failed to inspect the case of the first failure (somewhere around the 40 round count), but I did look at the second (rough at 160 round). It looked like the case’s rim was a little thicker than other rounds. I was shooting UMC bulk 9mm, which I’ve never shot before. I don’t know at this point if I should blame the gun or the ammo, but I have read that Bersa had a bad batch of extractors in 2010, and I wonder if I got one that’s been sitting around.
Assuming I can get the extractor issue ironed out, I might just run it when I try my hand at IDPA instead of my Px4.