So, I had one of these little fellas years ago and someone stole it. I also have a bunch of .22 ammo that was passed down to me, so I decided to get myself a combination birthday/early Christmas present and replace it. And it was my lucky day, as the LGS had one in the used gun section. Anyone that knows me knows I just love it when someone else buys a gun, puts a few hundred rounds through it, then sells it back to the LGS in more or less perfect condition so I can pick up a nice piece at a good discount. This cost about $220 before taxes, which might be less than I paid for the original brand new.
Well, perhaps nice is in the eye of the beer holder. It does go without saying that in the years since there have been .22s released with more capacity. And that probably arguably function better. But for what it is, this little thing wasn't bad.
I started out shooting some of the old stuff, though I did buy it some newer ammo just to be fair to the gun. Results were...surprisingly favorable, actually. When the old ammo actually fired, the gun cycled well. I didn't have many malfunctions, aside from dud rounds, in that little bag of bullets. But the dud rounds were a pretty big problem:
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9 of the 40 or 50 total rounds I tried to shoot were duds. And the last of that batch I fired is that split case. Which to it's credit the Bersa did eject properly and lock back on. After seeing that and counting the duds, most of which came out of the last 2 magazines, I determined those rounds were just too old to be worth fussin with. When I left I passed them off to the RSO and asked him to dispose of them.
Then I moved on to some new ammo that I bought just because I had a feeling using old junk ammo as a test bed to the gun wouldn't exactly be fair to it. The next 20 rounds were Federal 29 grain 'personal defense' rounds. Which I have to say surprised me a bit. These things create a pretty decent fireball, legitimately made it sound like I was shooting something much meaner than .22 LR, and cycled fairly well. But I only had 50 and wanted to test the other rounds, so I moved on after 2 magazines to some 40 grain CCI Green Tag .22 LR rounds. I had a lot more of these so I shot a lot more of them, about 40 rounds or so.
Unfortunately at this point I think the gun was getting gummed up. Either that or it just doesn't like the CCI ammo. The FTE's became progressively worse, and the last magazine it was no longer ejecting. Just short cycling and pushing the spent case right back into the chamber so I had to hand cycle the action after each shot. Par for the course for a .22 pistol I guess - runs good until it gets good 'n dirty, then it becomes a malfunction clearing practice tool.
But for what it is, it shoots well. The trigger is OK in single action. Double action is a bit long and heavy, but it's serviceable. And the accuracy is not bad. picking out the best looking groups at 7 yards:
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I was actually Kinda bummed at first because I couldn't see the tiny little holes this was making on most of these targets. So I thought I was missing completely more often than not. Turns out the opposite was the case and most of the misses were either me jerking shots left due to impatience and poor trigger finger placement or lifting the front sight in an attempt to sort out where the gun was printing instead of just shooting properly.
I also managed to set the range on fire during the last magazine. It was probably the second or third round that I had to hand eject, and it landed right in a pile of spent brass forward of my shooting bench and along the wall to the left of me. Apparently there was also a lot of unburned powder in there, and a cinder from that case must have touched it off. Next thing I know there's flame slowly spreading along the pile and burning away the unburned powder. Imagine my joy at having to go tell the RSO that his indoor range was on fire. No harm done as it was brick wall and cement floor, but it did shut the entire bay down for a good 10 minutes or so in order for the fire extinguisher's chemicals to air out. That's something I don't think they covered in the range safety courses I've taken.
Well, perhaps nice is in the eye of the beer holder. It does go without saying that in the years since there have been .22s released with more capacity. And that probably arguably function better. But for what it is, this little thing wasn't bad.
I started out shooting some of the old stuff, though I did buy it some newer ammo just to be fair to the gun. Results were...surprisingly favorable, actually. When the old ammo actually fired, the gun cycled well. I didn't have many malfunctions, aside from dud rounds, in that little bag of bullets. But the dud rounds were a pretty big problem:
9 of the 40 or 50 total rounds I tried to shoot were duds. And the last of that batch I fired is that split case. Which to it's credit the Bersa did eject properly and lock back on. After seeing that and counting the duds, most of which came out of the last 2 magazines, I determined those rounds were just too old to be worth fussin with. When I left I passed them off to the RSO and asked him to dispose of them.
Then I moved on to some new ammo that I bought just because I had a feeling using old junk ammo as a test bed to the gun wouldn't exactly be fair to it. The next 20 rounds were Federal 29 grain 'personal defense' rounds. Which I have to say surprised me a bit. These things create a pretty decent fireball, legitimately made it sound like I was shooting something much meaner than .22 LR, and cycled fairly well. But I only had 50 and wanted to test the other rounds, so I moved on after 2 magazines to some 40 grain CCI Green Tag .22 LR rounds. I had a lot more of these so I shot a lot more of them, about 40 rounds or so.
Unfortunately at this point I think the gun was getting gummed up. Either that or it just doesn't like the CCI ammo. The FTE's became progressively worse, and the last magazine it was no longer ejecting. Just short cycling and pushing the spent case right back into the chamber so I had to hand cycle the action after each shot. Par for the course for a .22 pistol I guess - runs good until it gets good 'n dirty, then it becomes a malfunction clearing practice tool.
But for what it is, it shoots well. The trigger is OK in single action. Double action is a bit long and heavy, but it's serviceable. And the accuracy is not bad. picking out the best looking groups at 7 yards:
I was actually Kinda bummed at first because I couldn't see the tiny little holes this was making on most of these targets. So I thought I was missing completely more often than not. Turns out the opposite was the case and most of the misses were either me jerking shots left due to impatience and poor trigger finger placement or lifting the front sight in an attempt to sort out where the gun was printing instead of just shooting properly.
I also managed to set the range on fire during the last magazine. It was probably the second or third round that I had to hand eject, and it landed right in a pile of spent brass forward of my shooting bench and along the wall to the left of me. Apparently there was also a lot of unburned powder in there, and a cinder from that case must have touched it off. Next thing I know there's flame slowly spreading along the pile and burning away the unburned powder. Imagine my joy at having to go tell the RSO that his indoor range was on fire. No harm done as it was brick wall and cement floor, but it did shut the entire bay down for a good 10 minutes or so in order for the fire extinguisher's chemicals to air out. That's something I don't think they covered in the range safety courses I've taken.
