Bersa Thunder 9mm (Full Size)

I have spoken before about Bersa firearms, and I'm just as big a fan of them today as I have been since the first time I had the opportunity to test one out way back in 1999.

Normally, I would push the Bersa Thunder .380, and it is a fabulous weapon.  However, over this past weekend I had the opportunity to test out the Bersa Thunder 9mm, full size semi-auto pistol.

A little pictoral review:

Now as you can see this is a fairly straight forward semi-automatic pistol design, however it comes with some great features that make them super safe and easy to use. 

Safety first, a Bersa pistol comes with an auto-decocking lever.  Since this is a DA/SA pistol, once you rack the slide you will pull the hammer back and it will be ready to rock and roll.  If this is not what you want, then you actuate the decocking lever and the hammer falls to the "safe" position.  Not a bad feature.  From there you depress the trigger and you can fire off a round in double action mode. It also has the standard safety switch should you wish to carry it in "safe" mode.

Also, please note that this comes with a 16+1 magazine... very nice, indeed.

Now, on to the shooting review:

This isn't a light gun, in fact, even their compact .380s have some heft to them.  I like the weight of all their pistols.  They are substantial without being heavy and this weight means a couple of things. 1. That the gun will have less experienced recoil, due to basic physics, and 2. The gun is made of metal.  Both of which are nice things.

The sights are good, the weight is good, the feel is solid and the trigger in double action mode is very light compared, say, to a snubby .38.  The single action trigger is crisp and has very little creep in it.

Now, when you pull the trigger you will be greeted by a "gentle" recoil.  I'm not going to say that this gun doesn't have recoil, it does.  But it's better than many guns I've fired.  It does not throw off your sight picture very much and doesn't slowly chisel away your desire to shoot any more either.  It's perfect for the size and is very comfortable to shoot.

The accuracy of this gun is fantastic.  Again, I'm not expert, but never having shot this pistol before, at 7 yards, I put 10 rounds in the head of a silhouette target just about as fast as I could pull the trigger.  So, the accuracy is there, no doubt about it.

Considering you get all of this, for about $400.00, you really can't go wrong with this gun.  If you can carry it (and a guy my size can) then you'd do well to carry it.  If you only want it for a home defense gun, it would fill that role admirably as well.  Heck, if you just wanted a cheap gun you can put thousands of rounds through and don't care if it gets a little wear and tear on it, this gun will work for you as well.

At the end of the day, out of all the full size pistols I've fired (and they are legion) I think this was the one I liked shooting the most.  I love my 1911s and the M&P 9mm is a honey as well, but when everything is taken in to consideration, I think this is the best full size pistol value on the market... period.

Stay safe out there.

Walther P22 - Not Recommended

I think, for the first time, I have to speak ill of a firearm I have fired.  Normally, I'm a fan of almost all firearms, they all have good sides most have similar downsides, but all in all, I'm pretty positive on almost all firearms. 

Today, however, I have to say that I just can't get behind the Walther P-22.  It has some good things going for it, I will admit, but at the end of the day I cannot, in good conscience, tell anyone this is a tool they could defend their life with.

Here's a picture, so you know what I'm talking about:

This is a double action/single action semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .22 lr round.  It is well built and well made.  The size is good, however, it is a little heavy for the size it presents. 

A little bit on the .22lr cartridge, some people will say that you can't defend yourself with a .22.  That, of course, is bollocks.  You most certainly can.  More critters and people have been killed with a .22 than you may think.  These are very, very fast bullets and there are some pretty impressive defensive loads out there in .22.  So don't think that the round itself will be ineffective, it will do just fine.  You may have to unload an entire magazine in to a bad guy, but that's not a characteristic of just the .22. 

Remember, I've said in the past that lethality and stopping power are two different things.  Will a .22 stop a man dead in his tracks and prevent his further aggression towards you, more than likely, it will.  It won't do it in one shot, but very few handgun calibers will.  You have to have good shot placement and keep shooting until the threat abates.

However, here's my shooting impression on this particular pistol.  It's bad.  It is woefully inaccurate.  We're talking missing broad sides of barns inaccurate.  I'm a decent shooter, I can hit what I aim at.  However, I had trouble making consistent contact at 7 yards with this pistol.  Some of that is the .22 itself; it isn't the most accurate round in the world.  However, I can bulls eye 10 head shots in a row with my XD-45 just about as fast as I can pull the trigger... if I did that will the Walther P-22, I'd miss 4-5 times out of 10.

I took a rather inexperienced shooter with me to test it out.  He shot his Model-10 Smith & Wesson admirably.  Got right on the 10 ring at 7 yards.   However, at the same distance with the Walther P-22, he had flyers going all over the place, one which was 18 inches away from center... that's not cool.
So, I have to say that I would not trust the Walther P-22 with my life.  If I can't rely on, at least reasonable, accuracy from a weapon, then I can't carry it.  I'll plink with it now and again, but I will not carry it. 

All in all a good gun, and not one that I would turn down were it given to me, but I just won't carry it.

That's all from me.  Stay safe out there.