Beretta slides breaking are common?

[03RN]

That's what a SME AD Marine over on Arfcom says. He's been a wealth of information in the past, I'd just like some more info from some different sources.

I posted a lighthearted "I love my new M9A3" in GD and it kinda started some bickering but did lead to him chiming in.

Anyways, what's the word on slides breaking ?

"It is relatively common. It’s a basic engineering flaw. It’s not just due to ammunition either. M882 is hot, but not nuclear hot.

Round counts = Zero (out of the bag) to unknown."

I'm waiting for some more info to read. There's just a lot signal to noise in GD so any more info would be great.

[GJM]

No, not common at all these days. There was an issue many years ago, probably around the time they figured out that the M16 needed lube.

[03RN]

Hmmm, that's not what is being passed on.

[WobblyPossum]

Everything I've ever read about Beretta 92 slides breaking said this mostly stemmed from Navy SEALs firing really hot submachine gun ammunition through the pistols. Beretta beefed up a few things, including enlarging the hammer pin to catch the slide and prevent it from coming off the frame if it did happen to break, and the Navy guys stopped shooting SMG ammo through their 92s. My understanding is the problems pretty much went away after that.

[jkb4c]

There are several high-volume Beretta guys on this forum who will hopefully chime in, but I know there are a lot of 92s with high round counts out there. I think I remember reading that Ernest Langdon expects ~50k out of a standard 92 (and I would absolutely take his word for it). There's also that "high round count pistol observations" thread on arfcom where the guy has a standard-slide 92FS break after 100,000+ on his rental range.

The slides will eventually crack at that thin area where the locking block interfaces, but I would be surprised if you didn't get your money's worth and then some out of your M9A3 before that happened.

[MSparks909]

Hmmm, that's not what is being passed on.

Take everything on Arfcom with a *huge* grain of salt...even from SME’s. It’s a non-issue, period.

[El Cid]

If what he says is true it's likely a product of the conventional military still refusing to do any kind of preventive maintenance on small arms. Anything will break over time especially if springs and such are not replaced as needed. Some places take leftover parts from a broken gun and use them in other broken guns. It's an endless cycle of worn parts replacing worn parts.

[TGS]

I've never heard of slides breaking on the M9 in a systemic manner, either in the .mil or private sector.

Is he claiming this is specific to the M9A3?

[HCM]

That's what a SME AD Marine over on Arfcom says. He's been a wealth of information in the past, I'd just like some more info from some different sources.

I posted a lighthearted "I love my new M9A3" in GD and it kinda started some bickering but did lead to him chiming in.

Anyways, what's the word on slides breaking ?

"It is relatively common. It’s a basic engineering flaw. It’s not just due to ammunition either. M882 is hot, but not nuclear hot.

Round counts = Zero (out of the bag) to unknown."

I'm waiting for some more info to read. There's just a lot signal to noise in GD so any more info would be great.

A big ball of horse shit with a tiny kernel of truth in the middle.

The U.S. military adopted the Beretta 92 in 1986. The early guns were manufactured in Europe. In the late 80s (87-88) Beretta had also secured a contract to supply French the G model 92’s. As part of this arrangement Beretta was obtaining steel and /or steel slide forging s from France. The steel was contaminated with Tellurium which can cause steel to become brittle and prone to premature cracking.

In 1987-88 there were several Beretta 92s which experienced slide failures, they were a mix of civilian (1) U.S. military (14) and French Military /LE Guns (unknown number).

Of the 14 U.S. military guns which failed, three were naval special warfare guns which failed during operational training, the other 11 failed during lab testing.

Another 1800 slides were found to have cracks but were replaced before failing.

The actual cause of the slide failures was bad metallurgy in a bad batch of slides. For reasons unknown, Beretta tried to blame the failures on the use of “high pressure” “SMG only”ammo but per the GAO the real reason, was bad metallurgy.

Either way, Beretta addressed the problem and it has not re-occurred.

So 14 Guns (really 3 Guns) suffering slide failures 30 years ago due to a bad batch of materials has turned into a giant ball of derp passed on in perpetuity.

AFAIK since Beretta began producing M9s in the U.S. around 1990, there have been no slide failures with the U.S. made guns.

[HCM]

Everything I've ever read about Beretta 92 slides breaking said this mostly stemmed from Navy SEALs firing really hot submachine gun ammunition through the pistols. Beretta beefed up a few things, including enlarging the hammer pin to catch the slide and prevent it from coming off the frame if it did happen to break, and the Navy guys stopped shooting SMG ammo through their 92s. My understanding is the problems pretty much went away after that.

That was Berettas story at the time. The GAO determined the actual cause was bad metallurgy. Basically bad batch of slides made with French steel contaminated with Tellurium.

https://www.gao.gov/products/T-NSIAD-88-46