Picked up my new Bersa 380 and Sig P239 (.40) ...
- Thread starter Rhino
- Start date
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and it only took 23 days. Seems to be in line with most wait times these days .... anyway, I received my Utah permit just before Christmas, so as a late present, I picked up a couple of new guns. Can't wait to get them out to shoot this weekend.
Nice!
Tankfixr
Ultimate Member
Good choices.
fivepointstar
Thank you MD-Goodbye
COngrats!!!! LMK how you like the P239 with a range report
- Nov 2, 2009
- 5,001
I love my Bersa Thunder .380, which, BTW, I am having NO trouble finding ammo for. 
Rhino
Active Member
I love my Bersa Thunder .380, which, BTW, I am having NO trouble finding ammo for.
I am finding that to be true.
I already had a ton of .40 for my XDM, but I had no problem locating close to 1000 rounds of .380 at fairly reasonable prices during my 23 day wait, so after this weekend I should have plenty to report.
Jbbtwb
Active Member
Beauuies
NickZac
Ultimate Member
Nice picks! The Bersa is one of those hidden values that often gets forgotten. They did a great job with the .380...and I bet you will enjoy the discounted .380 prices as others have noted while I pay inflated prices for 9 :p
Rhino
Active Member
Well I snuck over to the NRA building today just after lunch, one of the advantages of working in NoVa. I had three mags for the sig, which I installed the extended mag floor plate on, this not only gave me an extra round (8 v. 7 from the factory) but it also gave me just a slight increase in realestate for my pinky, as I have fairly large mits. For the Bersa i brought along one factory 7- round mag and two of the factory 9-rounders. I managed to throw two hundred rounds through each, so understand that my thoughts and opinions here are based on very preliminary amounts of use.
All of my previous experience has been with my full frame pistols, Kimber 1911, XDM .40, and H&K P30 in 9mm. My thoughts going into today were that these smaller framed, more CCW purposed pistols would not be comfortable enough in my large hands to use as a high volume range gun. I also figured that the Sig at almost 3 times the price of the Bersa, would shoot circles around it. Well I can say that neither of these preconceptions were 100% true.
First off the Sig. The modified 8 round mags were easy to load and handled the 8 rounds with ease. They functioned perfectly throughout the 200 rounds. I feel as though I could shoot this gun all day long. The trigger in DA is long and hard, but quite smooth (insert "that's what she said" joke here). Once in SA the pull is very short, very crisp, and quite light, reminded me alot of my Kimber. The recoil from the gun is very manageable, and didn't stick out as being particularly excessive or snappy ..... just smooth. The aiming of the gun was very instinctual for me and returned to target fairly naturally.
Now the Bersa. The 7-round mag loads with ease, while the 9-rounders are just a bit resistant to that last round, however once you get it in there, these mags functioned perfectly. I did, in the middle of the 200 round foray, have the last round in the the factory 7 round mag FTF. I dropped the mag, racked the slide, round fell out the well, inserted another mag, racked it again, and was right on my way. The Bersa is noticeably lighter feeling in my hand. Even with the reduced load and a bullet at about half the weigth, the recoil is fairly similar (maybe a little snappier), but the back of the gun, where it sits in the web of my hand is just a little more pronounced (slightly narrower, I guess) causing it to be a little less confortable than the sig when fired. With the extended 9 round mags the Bersa feels better to hold, is very quick on target, but is also quick off target.
I was able to shoot very comparable groupings from both of these guns, however, I found it was easier to get that pesky straggler outside of the normal grouping with the Bersa, especially as the rate of fire increased, however with taking my time, I think my best grouping came out of the Bersa.
I don't know which gun would be my goto carry, but i feel as though the sig is generally a little more steady in my hand under fire, although I prefer the static feel of the Bersa. I guess only time and practice will tell.
