Paying Up for the "Border Marshall"

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I'm thinking about getting a Beretta in a .40. I've heard very good things about the 96FS, but a couple of buddies have told me to look at the "Border Marshall" model. They tell me it has a slightly shorter barrel but that the frame is considerably "beefier". Is it worth the extra money (assuming affordability is not a problem)? Your thoughts, as always, are most appreciated.
Matt
 
Matt,

I was in your shoes 2 months ago when i was looking to buy a beretta. The 96 is junk. I wouldnt defend my worst enimy with this thing. The 96 is a 92 bored over to handle the larger cartridge. All of them have feeding problems. The one's i fired wouldnt get through one full magazine without jamming. But the 92 is a masterpiece. If you want a beretta get the 92, if you dont want a 9MM get the cougar. Its been built to handle the 40 cal round and no problems have been reported as of yet (that i know of) I was very interested in the centurion until i found out it was simply a 96 with a shorter barrel. The border marshall is supposed to be updated and superb. So you have 2 fine choices here. the beretta cougar or the border marshall. the cougar is the less expensive of the 2. the only problem with both of these is neither of them come in anything other than blue. so if u want a shiny finish forget it. thats why i didnt buy one. I wanted a stainless beretta in .40
as far as i know there are none. Good luck. I recommend the cougar. Price is around $575

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TIM : )
 
A friend of mine has a Border Marshall. It is one nice gun. It has never had a malfunction. Ammo through it includes Winchester, Federal, USA, UMC, Eagle, and CCI Blazer. Accuracy is great, trigger pull seems better than any other Beretta that I have shot. It comes with tritium sights, bruniton finish, and 2 sets of grips (hard or soft). My friend got his for around $600.

All in all I really like it. In fact I want one now.
 
My dept issues the Beretta 96 centurion, this past month we have been doing dept qualifications. inover 15000 rnd fires so far, we have hadv only four failure to feeds. All four were do to dirty negelcted guns. I would not hesitate to get a model 96.

My only complaint with the gun is that it is to big for concealed carry. several other depts that touch my town also issue model 96s and have no problems. A major city next to us has over one hundred and fifty of them in service with minimal problems.
 
Jerky - I saw a stainless 96 @ Bass Pro of all places... I compared it to a blued 92 for consideration. The 92 felt lighter. There are stainless .40's out there but if the 96 is as bad as you say then go with the Border... my $0.02
 
I believe it is the slide that is" beefed up" and not the frame. Beretta makes a Brigadier model in both 9mm and .40 which are identical to the standard 92 and 96 with this exception. I love my 92FS's. Have no experience with the Beretta in that caliber. LEO friend says the Cougar is more sensitive to fouling than some other .40 pistols, so keep'em clean or they might fail to go into battery.
 
I have a 96 and have only fired 400rds through it but have not had a single feeding problem with it.I too heard that they have failure to feed problems,but have not had any.I have seen several local state troopers out at my range(which also handles all beretta 96's for the state police)and they have never had a FTF problem and recommend them.They think the FTF is just an urban legend.

KEVIN
 
I had the exact same dilemma when I bought my 92FS... I was considering 40 instead of 9mm, but rumors of the 96 FTF kept me from it... So it came down to a Sig in 40 or Beretta in 9. In the end I decided that I would get a Sig 40 when I join the force,which made it easy for me to decide so I went with the 92 and I am incredibly happy with the decision.

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"...you're thinkin was that 5 shots or was it 6? Well, you've gotta ask yourself one question: Do you feel lucky??? ...Well, do ya PUNK!?!?
 
The main difference between a std 96 and the Border Marshal is the heavier Brigadier slide and shorter barrel.

The INS/BP T&E of 40 caliber guns was tougher than the FBIs and tougher than the military 9mm T&E. The Beretta Brigadier was waaaaay more reliable than the SIG, Glock, S&W, Ruger. It was 3 times more reliable than the second place gun, and 5 times more reliable than the 3rd place gun.

INS/BP only authorized the Beretta and SIG. They have recently approved the HK USP compact for plainclothes agents (about 2000) though. I assume because it did better than the Cougar or Glock. :)

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I have a buddy who's in the Border Patrol and I was able to shoot his Berreta 96 Brigadier whe he got home from the academy. I can tell you right out that I hated it.

The DAO trigger is outrageous. The trigger pull was so damn long that as I was pulling the trigger, I kept thinking, "It's got to go off now, maybe now, this thing must be broken. Bang!" They train these guys to depress the trigger about 1/2 way as they draw the pistol. To me that defeats the entire purpose of the DAO action. To make up for a crap trigger you train people to do something that's inherently dangerous? As far as DAO is concerned, I have to agree with Jeff Cooper (one of the few subjects which I do) as being, "an ingenious solution to a non-existant problem".

The first 96 he was issued (they're issued NIB) malfuctioned all over the place. They replaced it and the one he's currently using has performed very well.

My buddy said that the Border Patrol is currently looking at replacing the 96 with a SIG in .40 S&W.
 
Matt

I have the Beretta Cougar 8040,Liked it so much I just bought the 8045 version. The 40 shoots flawlessly. I have had no problems at all and have put several hundred rounds through it. But as mentioned above does not come in stainless. Would like to pick up the 9mm version so I can have the whole Cougar line. For what its worth

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gun control is people control
 
I don't know about the Border Marshall in .40 but I've got an Italian made 92 FS Brigadier in 9mm and it's an outstanding weapon if a little large. I would trust my life to it.
 
GO with the border marshall. When Beretta first came out with the 96 it had all kinds of problems but then they fixed it and now it's a safe buy. But the border marshall has the Brigadier slide which can take a lot more than a normal beretta slide also comes with removable night sights which people like to put trijicon (glow at night) night sights into. As far as the DA trigger goes people swap out the trigger spring for a cougar trigger spring, people seem to love DA after they do that. I personally like the free play of double action, but that's me

But the Marshal cost more and what your really paying for is the slide(worth it), removable night sites(doesn't hurt), and a shortend barrel(???).

Over all berettas are good guns althought the original 96 had problems beretta fixed it (they are good at fixing their problems) so they are reliable. But if you do ALOT of shooting and want a long lasting slide go boarder. And if you like the kick of a .40 go 96
 
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