Winning with the Manurhin

[jetfire]

So Beretta asked me if I wanted an MR73 and I said “do you want to ask me another stupid question?” Next thing you know I had a brand new MR73 Gendarmerie in my grubby little hands. I thought to myself “self, what’s a good way to see what this gun can really do?” I know! Shoot it at some IDPA matches. So I took it to the 2021 IL State Championship, and I guess I did okay. Here’s the hype reel

https://facebook.com/213740424000409

And here’s the end result



And now for the stuff people actually care about: support gear. Good news, if you didn’t know already, Safariland Comp-III for K-frames work great with the MR73. Holsters are a bit wonky, it’s bigger than a K-frame and smaller than an L-frame, so it wouldn’t fit quite right in my Combat Master. A Kydex gun bucket from Blade Tech for a GP100 worked well enough for matches, although I had to crank the retention down a bit.

Trigger was 8.5 lbs out of the box, I left it alone. It cracked everything that went under it, but to be fair all I fed it was Federal and Speer.

Now, the grips. How do they work for shooting at speed? Surprisingly well, actually. It turns out that my strong hand thumb rests nicely on the “hump” which leaves a lot of space for my support hand to establish surface contact area.



The only downside to my grip being this high is there’s the possibility of getting hammer bite from the hammer spur, but I’ll probably just delete that with a dremel at some point, because as I’ve said, single action mode is for the old and feeble.

The MR73 is stupid accurate and stupid easy to shoot well. If I wanted to make it into the ultimate Go-Fast speedloader gun for IDPA and ICORE, I’d give it a smooth trigger, chamfer the charge holes, bob the hammer, and give it a thinner front sight with a fiber optic. Proving once again that even if you give a competition shooter what is basically the best gun on planet earth, they still want to tinker with it.

This gun fucks though. It fucks so hard I’m going to shooting at the Hoosier Regional in July, and the Ohio Regional in September.

[Super77]

Nice shooting, and nice gun!

How would you characterize the handling/manipulation compared to a S&W, i.e. does it eject cartridges reliably etc.?

I'm really interested to see how the MR73 performs long term in the hands of someone who actually shoots it. By all accounts it seems like it should hold up to just about anything you can throw at it. Can't wait to see it with some holster wear.

[WobblyPossum]

I’ll be following this with interest. I can’t wait to see how you do at the rest of the big matches you plan to shoot it at. Assuming they’re still being imported in a few years when I can afford to drop $3k on a gun that I want just because it’s cool, I plan on picking one up.

[Totem Polar]

This thread is already the stuff of legend, and it’s still early in the day.

[Flamingo]

For the folks who don't facebook, could you put the video on your YouTube channel?

[RevolverRob]

Love this thread. But I still want to punch you in the face for getting one before me.

[jetfire]

Nice shooting, and nice gun!

How would you characterize the handling/manipulation compared to a S&W, i.e. does it eject cartridges reliably etc.?

I'm really interested to see how the MR73 performs long term in the hands of someone who actually shoots it. By all accounts it seems like it should hold up to just about anything you can throw at it. Can't wait to see it with some holster wear.

The manual of arms is the same as an S&W, which is nice. One note was that it needs to be held pretty vertical when unloading. If you do a Jerry-style reload (swap hands) the spent case that’s closest to the frame can get hung up on the grips. If you do my modified stressfire reload, everything falls away easily.

[willie]

The fact that these revolvers have been almost unobtainable contributes to their mystique and makes us want one. The manufacture of modern firearms has undergone many changes. Forged parts are not the norm. CNC machines produce parts requiring less hand fitting. My question is this: are they made today as they were in the past? Are some parts MIM parts? What is he degree of hand fitting? Knowledgeable revolver shooters are not as numerous as they once were. Some who buy these won't know the difference, but that's ok.

[OlongJohnson]

The fact that these revolvers have been almost unobtainable contributes to their mystique and makes us want one. The manufacture of modern firearms has undergone many changes. Forged parts are not the norm. CNC machines produce parts requiring less hand fitting. My question is this: are they made today as they were in the past? Are some parts MIM parts? What is he degree of hand fitting? Knowledgeable revolver shooters are not as numerous as they once were. Some who buy these won't know the difference, but that's ok.

All that is discussed in the "Beretta is importing" thread.

[willie]

Olong, please restate the part about forged vs MIM parts. I can't locate that in the thread. Thank you.