Has a chunk of media that includes a firearm ever left an enduring impression on you? I’ve been topic to a number of. From the Colt 733 featured in Warmth to the SPAS 12 in Jurassic Park, my curiosity in firearms got here from popular culture. Within the 12 months 2000, I used to be a little bit fella who was into sci-fi, and the Beretta 9000S turned a gun that captured my consideration. The Beretta 9000S discovered its means into Minority Report because the gun of selection by the Pre-Crime division.
Beretta additionally squeezed a pair of the 9000S weapons into the online game The Matrix. Enter the Matrix used live-action scenes between ranges, so it was greater than pixels poorly representing the gun in a PS2 online game. As a sci-fi fan, I beloved each these films, and at the same time as a child, I used to be a gun nut and took discover of those fascinating little Berettas. That being mentioned, I memory-holed the gun.
That was till I discovered one priced to maneuver at a small-town gun retailer. All of the blue-tinted scenes of Minority Report got here working again to me, and I knew I needed to have it. The Beretta 9000S got here in 9mm and .40 S&W and in DA/SA and DAO variants. The commonest mannequin I can discover on-line is the DA/SA .40 S&W mannequin. I stumbled right into a 9mm DAO mannequin.
The DAO 9mm mannequin appears to be the rarest but additionally the least fascinating. It’s an fascinating spectrum of rarity and desirability, to make sure. I’m a DA/SA man, however if you discover a 25-year-old Beretta that’s been out of manufacturing for many years, you snatch it up.
The Beretta 9000S – Design Points
The Beretta 9000S is fascinating, however in the identical means that infectious illness is fascinating. It’s not a horrible gun, but it surely’s most likely Beretta’s worst fashionable pistol. That’s a praise as a result of it’s nonetheless higher than good pistols from dangerous firms. Beretta went by way of a bizarre part the place they produced sci-fi-inspired firearms, which received us the 9000S and the 90-Two.
Beretta additionally teamed up with Giugiaro Design, which works with vehicles. Giugiaro Design has teamed up with Italian firms like Ferrari and Maserati, gone worldwide with Volkswagen, and even had a hand within the DeLorean. The design cues are clearly supercar-inclined, with swooping curves and a futuristic contact.
The design is affected by bizarre selections which are seemingly unexplainable to me. They stored the Beretta signature open-top slide design, however they reversed the slide rails like a CZ-75. This created a micro-sized slide with out a lot room to seize it to control it. They did use a three-position frame-mounted security on the DA/SA weapons.
This allowed for the consumer to decock the gun or to hold it locked and cocked. It makes use of a double-stack journal and detachable sights. The 92FS famously has the entrance sight as a part of the slide.
A Failure of Design
The 9000S was Beretta’s first polymer body pistol, and the grip was a completely embedded rubber wrap-around grip. This turned one of many gun’s greatest issues, because the rubber grip tended to chip away, abandoning a mutilated and ugly grip. That’s not the issue with my gun; hopefully, it gained’t ever be.
The grip’s width from left to proper because it sits in your hand is okay—nothing we don’t count on from a double stack. Nonetheless, the grip measurement from the entrance strap to the backstrap is way longer than wanted. It’s wider than my PSA Rock, which fires the for much longer 5.7x28mm spherical. It’s laborious to deal with for my 2XL-sized fingers. The set off attain feels ungodly for somebody with regular fingers, and for me, my set off finger pad falls naturally in keeping with the set off.
The gun did come to be in the course of the assault weapon ban. This restricted the double-stack journal capability to 10 rounds of 9mm, despite the fact that there’s clearly extra room. The magazines offered to LEO held 12 rounds of 9mm. Did Beretta use the identical sample magazines because the 92FS, which might offer you a ton of obtainable capacities and journal choices?
No.
The Beretta 92 magazines will seemingly lock-in, however they’re too skinny and can fall out with a wiggle. Beretta did produce {a magazine} adapter for 92 and 96 magazines, however that’s lengthy out of manufacturing. It’s loopy that the double-stacked magazines designed for the full-sized responsibility gun didn’t match the subcompact as a result of they have been too small.
Taking pictures the 9000S
The 9000S excels in a number of spots. It’s correct and dependable. The sights are a easy three-dot selection, however I can get them lined up and heading in the right direction. It prints respectable teams for a subcompact, and I can pile rounds into the black of a B8 at 15 yards. The set off is doing it no favors.
It’s very easy however fairly heavy, and the journey feels ungodly lengthy. Earlier than it breaks, you possibly can take a break and watch a YouTube video. It’s additionally troublesome to fireplace shortly, not less than for me. A protracted set off reset, as I’m slapping the set off guard and losing a little bit time to get again on the set off. It’s superb for self-defense, however I gained’t ever have a Sub 2-Second Invoice drill with this gun.
The gun runs reliably. I solely fired a pair hundred rounds by way of it, so it’s not an exhaustive evaluate, but it surely had no issues on that short-range journey. Throughout the web, the gun all the time will get factors for reliability.
The grip width from entrance to again makes it fascinating. I don’t really feel like I can get a stable grip on the gun, so I can’t run it shortly with most recoil management. Reaching the journal launch is an actual problem. You must rotate your complete hand to hit it. The grip and grip design are the gun’s greatest flaws.
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It seems that guys who design vehicles may not be the perfect at designing weapons. The Beretta 9000S didn’t must be all that totally different. Simply make a subcompact 92 and name it a day. I applaud them for making an attempt the polymer body and the reverse rails, however all the things else was simply bizarre selections that made no sense. The Beretta 9000S is now a relic, largely forgotten, but it surely actually has its personal degree of appeal.
About Travis Pike
Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine Gunner, a lifelong firearms fanatic, and now a daily man who likes to shoot, write, and discover methods to mix the 2. He holds an NRA certification as a Fundamental Pistol Teacher and is the world’s Okayest firearm’s teacher.
