Dear Colonel
After reading the most recent Sound Off, I felt compelled to write of my experiences with the Berretta pistol.
I am a Police Officer in a large Municipality in Canada and have been for 17 years. In 1993 all of the departments in my Province transitioned from revolvers to one of four pistols. The choices were the usual suspects, Berretta, Sig, S&W and Glock; all in DA and all in .40 cal. At the time there was a very strong push for 9mm. There was an equally strong effort to adopt a .45 cal weapon as well. A compromise was met and we ended up in the middle. Initially we were using ball ammunition that proved ineffective. However we managed to lobby for hollow point rounds and since then all has been well in the world of Police ballistics. You rarely read of suspects surviving Police shootings any more, it used to be a forgone conclusion with the old .38's.
My department adopted the Glock with little or no competition due to it's long standing with or SWAT people. I was a little dubious of this at first and my heart still wished for something with a juice-can bullet and made of steel, however, I kept an open mind. Anything would be better than my 1953 vintage S&W .38 with truncated cone target ammunition. It was not long before I became a strong believer, but I still wondered if there was something better out there.
I soon found I had the opportunity to answer this question when I was seconded to our Police College as a firearms instructor. I was required to become proficient in all four of the weapons that the students might someday carry. To accomplish this I had a range to myself and a key to the ammunition locker. I fired sufficient rounds through each weapon to become intimate with it. I spent three years teaching there and had a few observations.
Firstly, a weapon should be fit to the man, not the other way around. I had many a recruit who had difficulty holding the weapon issued to them. The Berretta was particularly bad. In fact I only had one recruit who was the correct size for this weapon. He was seven foot six and could pick up a basketball with two fingers. It was a hopeless task to try and get some of our smaller stature Officers to shoot well with the Berretta. A single action version would have only been slightly better, it was the width of the grip that caused the problem. The Sig and Smith had similar issues. I never found a person too large or too small to fire the Glock well.
Secondly, a weapon should be reliable. We had a store of weapons that were used by the recruits since they are not issued a weapon until they graduate. These handguns saw extreme use, firing in excess of one thousand rounds per recruit per course. This could amount to twenty thousand every three months. We wore them out with great abandon. With this type of use you can't help but notice trends. The Sig's trigger and recoil springs would break with annoying regularity. The Smith's rear sight would pop off which meant the hammer safety spring would launch. The Smith also had a weak magazine safety. When the fully loaded magazine was slammed home, as in a high stress event, the safety would break. Either of these things stopped the weapon from functioning. They were all replaced on a yearly basis, except the Glock's. They could stand in excess of one hundred and fifty thousand rounds with no sign of distress.
The Berretta was a story unto itself. On a daily basis we would lose a recoil lug. We would regularly have blown chambers (invariably blamed on bad ammunition, which surprisingly never happened to any of the others). Trigger springs broke often and we lost quite a few takedown lever studs and springs. This little beauty would fly out, never to be found, and on the next round fired, the takedown lever would fall down and the entire top-side would be launched down range. Imagine trying to build confidence in a new shooter when the top half of their weapon is sticking out of the ground like a grave marker? Another major weakness were the magazines. The spring is under such great compression and the butt plate is held on with a very weak detent and when combined it would routinely launch it's contents onto the ground. Much like the rookie holding the now defunct weapon did with his lunch during a high stress exercise.
I attended an MP5 instructor's course and was the only Glock amongst Smith's and Beretta's. One of the Berretta users regularly oiled his weapon using no less than three different types of lube for various areas. He had a stoppage on every live fire exercise and was getting frustrated when he asked the instructor why I never seemed to have to clear my weapon when all of the others were getting so much practice at it. The instructor answered in his mid western accent "Because, he has a Glock son."
Thirdly a weapon must be easily serviced in the field. All of these weapons, except of course the Glock, have far too many pieces to be field worthy. Have you ever tried to fit a Smith ejector rod assembly with cold hands? The Berretta is actually quite easy to strip, maybe too easy. In recent years the slide has been removed from Officer's handguns by suspects who have trained in this little trick. It does work and no you won't get a shot off before he has your slide. Another of the many annoyances of the Berretta are it's sharp edges. We kept a box of bandages handy for the unfortunates who were routinely bitten.
The only thing that Berretta has is the sales people. They swept down on our departments like a tide of locusts. They brought trinkets and expense accounts and hit the poor unsuspecting armorers hard. Many appear to have been bitten by the bug. Ten years later, many are regretting it. Their fancy high priced pistols are now in need of replacement.
The above issues are enough to negate the Berretta as a suitable side arm. The fact that the military are forced to use ball ammo is another, 9mm ball just doesn't work. The .45 is the obvious choice since it has a long-standing record. I don't, however, believe that the Colt platform is the way to go anymore. I may sound like a billboard for the Glock but I come by it honestly. The Glock 20 is cheaper, more reliable, easier to handle and tote, has more capacity and is infinitely more field serviceable than any other sidearm. I guess the main issue is to do away with the M9 altogether and worry about it's replacement later. I feel for the soldier in battle, I wouldn't have any confidence in an M9.
Sorry for the length of my letter, but I feel strongly about this issue. These charlatans have been foisting this poorly designed and overly complex pistol on us for years and it is costing lives. It's time for this to stop. When is the grunt going to be given the choice of which device he will defend himself and his country with? I, personally, would like to know who benefited from the US Army contract for the M9. I wonder if they can sleep at night?
Yours,
Dan Taylor
