Shot the Beretta 92 Vertech

Disclaimer: I shoot almost nothing but 1911s, Glocks, Hi-Powers and the occasional SIG or CZ. So my prejudices are based towards short single-action triggers. YMMV etc.

I had seen this gun in either the American Rifleman or SWAT (forget which) and was curious about it. I had a "free rental" coming up as a result of my frequent range trips so I decided to give it a try.

The first things I noticed were the weight and grip. It was a lot lighter than the standard 92 and a lot leaner around the grip as well. I liked the profile; which was unfortunately offset by the top-heavy and beefy slide. The thick metal slide on top of a polymer frame gave the gun a bit of an unpleasant balance for me despite a nice ergonomic feel otherwise.

The sights were nice, high-vis sights with three white dots. They were easy to acquire and line up. The double-action trigger seemed smooth and consistent (but then I avoid double-actions like a plague so its not like I have a great base of comparison). The big test of the DA trigger for me was whether or not it ended up anywhere near my original point of aim after I crunched through the trigger, The Beretta satisifed this requirement better than most DA triggers I've tried.

Then I switched to SA since that is what I normally shoot. Now maybe I'm spoiled by the nice trigger on my Hi-Power; but I thought I would die of old age before I got all the creep out of the SA trigger. When I finally did get all the creep out, the gun had a nice crisp trigger but it was quite a bit different than what I was used too and I shot rather poorly with it.

Personal likes:

Accessory rail
Lighter weight
Better ergonomics on the stock
Nice factory sights

Personal dislikes:

Safety is backwards (up to fire, down to safe) and slide mounted

Beefy, thick slide undoes many of the benefits of new grip frame, still too thick for easy IWB and now top-heavy to boot.

Didn't like SA trigger at all. I could probably get used to it but why bother when I can think of five handguns with SA triggers I like better as is?


All in all, a nice, well-made gun but not to my personal preferences. Shot about half a box of ammo and then decided I'd rather shoot my Hi-Power than continue playing with the Vertech.
 
I believe the Vertec has an alloy frame rather than the polymer you stated. You are right though, they are definitely nice pistols!

Pat Brophy
 
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