Beretta 96D "Slickslide", yes or no?

T

Tamara

Moderator Emeritus
I miss my Beretta Border Marshal every now and again, and I think I may have found a cure.

A local gun store has a Beretta 96D "Slickslide" in 98ish% condition. As is usual for these DAO Berettas, the trigger pull is sweet; the absence of any single-action notches leaves the pull glass-smooth and they tend to be much lighter than the DA pull on the standard DA/SA guns.

Additionally, I think the big Berettas are very aesthetically pleasing guns and the Slickslides, with their absence of hammer spurs and slide-mounted "monkeytails", are probably the cleanest-looking of the tribe.

Should I plunk down for it?
 
Personally I would never buy a full size auto that is DAO. It is next to useless in my personal shooting style. If I wanted DAO I'd only opt for a revolver. I know that the DAO has a much better trigger pull than a DA/SA but the SA in IMHO is much better than any DAO pull out there. But if it suits you, drop the cash and don't look back! :D

Dan

P.S. Tamara, I have to complement you that you like just about everything, I'm tired of these Ford vs. Chevy gun debates lately :barf:
 
Depends on how good of a deal it is I guess. But you are right, they are good looking guns. Especially when you can find them with those black micarta special edition grips Beretta had for a little while. Very nice.
 
Depends on the price, but these are VERY smooth, stylish guns with a nice profile and wonderful triggers.

I found a 92D Centurion for a friend a couple of months back and have seriously regreted not keeping it for myself. I would love one if i could find one for a good price, but the only ones i see around here are ragged out police trade-ins for $500. If i found a nice clean used one for $400-450 i would jump on it.

If the price seems good, grab it!! :D
 
I've got a 92D. It does have a very nice trigger on it. Clean lines and a generally pretty pistol. It has never jammed even with cheapy 15 rnd mags and I shoot it OK. Hell, now that you bring it up I'll shoot it tomorrow, er, today I mean (guess it's past midnight, I HATE third shift).
 
I also have a 92D, bought it used but it was pristine. The only change I would make would be to update the locking block as mine has the old style but that's only a worry if you shoot thousands and thousands of rounds through it. The absence of controls makes it sleeker and the lack of a halfcock notch makes for a very smooth pull without the "click". The DAO versions have lighter hammer springs to make for a lighter pull; the Elite II's have the 92D hammer spring as well. Paid $400 for mine. Buy if it's a good price.
 
GO FOR IT!
Berettas are a fine piece of work. I am not big on DAO guns but Beretta is one that even I have considered in DAO. One has to feel the smoothness to appreciate it. :)
 
Tamara,

For DA, you can't go wrong with a Beretta.

My 92FS, although not a slick, is one of my favorite guns. Out of the box it felt as well made as a new Python (may the much loved snake rest in peace), very smooth action and trigger pull was perfect in DA.

My only issue with it is its weight (especially filled with 15 rnds of hydra-shok!) For my taste, it's a bit heavy for anything but duty carry or pleasure shooting. But shooting it is a pleasure...


On another topic, in the interest of "who is this Tamara chick", I checked out your web site. Very interesting, here are a few observations/comparisons:

Guns: Walther PPKs, HK USP Compact .357Sig (both for CC), Beretta 92FS, Beretta 85 Cheetah, Browning Hi-Power, Glock 23, Colt Delta Elite 10mm, Colt AR-15 A2 HBar...

Motorcycles: I ride a Honda CBR929RR (Red/Black), grew up on dirt bikes.

Books: Ender's Game is one of my favorite books, and RAH is one of my favorite authors. So are Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven.

Movies: Blade Runner (the theatrical release, not the Directors Cut), Braveheart, Tombstone - Three of my all time favorite movies.

Video games: Diablo 2, Civ2, Doom 2 - Three of my favorite games.

Music: Pink Floyd, Joe Satriani, Eric Clapton, Rush

Dramatic conclusion: Apart from the music category, we're a perfect match. I have next Tuesday open if you want to get married. ;)

[long pause]

I'm sure we can work something out on the music...

[long embarrassing pause] :( :)

Ah well, since you're probably busy that day, let me just make a recommendation on a good trilogy -- Elizabeth Moon's "The Deed of Paksenarrion". If you haven't already read it, trust me, you'll love it (EM is a retired Marine captain who took to writing science fiction/fantasy, and she's very good at it; her combat scenes are excellent.)


Oh, about the 96 - If you have the discretionary funds, plunk away, you'll love it. :cool:

Cheers,
Ken
 
Tamara,
You know you want it!!!;) Why ask us????:rolleyes: Just go for it!!!!:D You'll be glad you did!!!:cool: Just tell how it shoots!!!!
 
Doesn't .40 really beat up the Beretta action. I had thought the Border Marshalls we're getting away from them for that reason.

My past comments on Berettas aside, I don't think scaling up 9mm's is always the best plan when it comes to .40's. The 96 seems to be a case study for that.
 
Handy,

In the heavier "Brigadier" style, I have no problems with .40 in the Beretta (heavy slide's biggest durability benefit: reduced slide velocities).

This gun, however will be a toy. I have plenty of serious guns for CCW, serious target shooting and whatnot. It'll probably get dragged to the range once every third or fourth visit and have 20-50 rounds shot through it. I'm not too worried about the durability issue with a gun that'll take forever to see 1000 rounds. ;)
 
P.S.

Bought it!

What an absolutely beautimous handgun!

(Now to go sneak my roomie's 92FS from his closet and brush up on my Chow Yun Fat double-gun stylings while listening to The Matrix soundtrack... ;) )
 
Tamara,

Congrats on your purchase.

Now to stock up on locking blocks, slides, trigger return springs, frames, etc.

Just kidding.

People can say what they want about Berettas, but my Elite II has about the smoothest slide to frame fit of all my handguns. You rack the slide and it feels like its sliding through butter (according to Wild Romanian its sliding through the closest thing to butter. . . aluminum :D ).

Enjoy it.

Shake
 
Tamara-

I have carried the "D" versions of the Beretta on and off duty for the last 8 years, one being a standard 96D with an NP3 finish and my current pistol being a 96D Brigadier with Bruniton finish. Prior to enlisting with my current department I carried a 92FS at my old department. At that time I thought the DAO idea was almost the dumbest thing in the world. Upon enlisting with my current department I had no choice but to carry the D while in uniform.

Much to my amazement I have actually come to prefer the DAO concept, and even though my current assignment allows me some latitude in weapon selection, I continue to carry my 96D Brig. Off duty, IWB, and all. I also use it to compete in IDPA. It is a great gun and I think you will be well satisfied.

Handy-

I must respectfully disagree with you about the durability of the Beretta 9x series of pistols. My agancy issues over 4,000 96D Brigadiers. No problems other than the occasional lost/broken spring. I shoot my Brigadier (and my standard 96D before it) quite a bit and have had no problems at all. The alleged fragileness of the Beretta 9x series of pistols is, in my opinion and experience, a myth.

Again, Tamara-congratulations on your purchase!

Enjoy!

Tom C
 
Tamara
What you need now is a rig like Angelina Jolie's in Tomb Raider for those quick reloads and the fire fight in the castle ;)
 
tcurtis,

You'll find on this BB that the Beretta 92/96 gets maligned for its supposed lack of durability and its alleged parts failure (locking block, slides, frames, etc.). Everyone seems to know someone who has eaten a Beretta slide, cracked several locking blocks, cracked a frame, or had some other serious failure. The funny thing is that very few have actually witnessed this phenomenon.

When someone like yourself comes on board and testifies to the durability of the Beretta they are ignored or their experience is written off as not being valid because "most likely there were not enough rounds put through the gun to truly know how durable they are".

The people who own these guns and shoot them report very few, if any, problems. Those who don't have the stories.

I'm sure Handy and others will have something to say about this.

Shake

Sorry for ruining your thread Tamara. . . I just couldn't resist!

:p
 
>the trigger pull is sweet; the absence of any single-action >notches leaves the pull glass-smooth and they tend to be much >lighter than the DA pull on the standard DA/SA guns.

There's two reasons for this, neither of which has to do with whether or not the hammer has a SA notch. The first is that the D model use a different hammer spring, the D hammer springs gives a really nice SA and DA pull on a FS or G model. This is the spring used in the Elite II to give it a nice SA and DA pull. The second reason is the absense of a sear. You can make a FS into a DAO simply by removing the sear, sear spring and pin and you'll have a lighter DA pull because you are removing the friction from the sear and hammer rubbing together add the D hammer spring and it'll feel just like a 92/96 D.

Robb
 
Shake,

Working in places that do gunsmithing for most of the last 10 years, I've seen a fair number of Berettas come in with cracked locking blocks. I'll repeat the patterns I've noticed from my previous post:

1. Seems to happen far more often and far more rapidly to U.S.-manufactured 92-series guns than to Italian-made ones.

2. Doesn't happen anywhere near as often on the newer "Brigadier" type guns. (We've got a serious IPSC-shooting customer who's got 12-ish thousand and counting through an Elite with no hiccups other than an original recoil spring that seemed to get soft awul fast)

3. Dirty little secret: cracked locking blocks on Maryland-made Berettas that come in our shop got replaced with Taurus locking blocks. Much better steel in the opinion of many gunsmiths. (Don't hear about Tauri cracking locking blocks much, do you?) :eek:
 
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