Been looking at picking up another beretta real hard lately, and from what I can tell, WC brig tacs are cheaper and easier to find than LTT guns are at the moment.
I’m sure it’s been addressed here before, but what are the preferred spring rates for brig slide guns?
Weighed the slides last night :
Full size 92x RDO was 11.7
The Centurion with the Langdon cut and plate, and the RM04 was 12.3.
Last edited by CSW; 06-22-2022 at 09:42 AM.
"... And miles to go before I sleep".
Where the weight/mass is matters. Weight on the reciprocating slide is more energy that gets transferred to the shooter when the slide stops. A CZ-75 style design has a relatively small slide as a percentage of total mass, and then with the steel frame that metric goes even more in favor of the frame.Originally Posted by CraigS
Open bolt SMG's tend to have very heavy bolts because they're blowback designs. The movement of that much weight back and forth makes them more difficult to control than something like an MP5 which tends to have a much lighter bolt that locks.
Spring weights can also be a factor. Too little lets the slide run too fast and increases the impact when the slide goes to the rear, which also has a tendency to rob the slide of energy going forward. This results in more stoppages. Too much spring weight stops the slide from moving all the way to the rear and causes it to slam forward disrupting sights as the gun is supposed to be settling.
Wilson's Beretta is Wilson's basic design requirements with some consultation from Langdon. LTT's gun is Langdon's own spec based on what Beretta had available. Langdon himself prefers the lighter slide because it reduces muzzle flip.Wilson Berettas use a Brig slide but LTT uses a lighter Vertec slide. A Brig slide would make the gun heavier but I am not sure that adding weight to the slide is better. I think the trend is to make the slide lighter so there isn't so much weight moving back and forth. Do any of you have knowledge/thoughts on this question?
You have to be pretty skilled and familiar with Berettas to note a difference...or if you have the chance to shoot both setups back to back you'll notice a slight difference. In my experience the LTT gun tends to track a little bit flatter.
The brig design evolved from USBP's .40 cal adventures and slide cracking on the M9 pistol. Slides breaking on the M9 tended to be the result of not changing the recoil spring and changing/fitting the locking block at sane intervals. The USBP issues were the result of .40 being a chambering that the 92 series pistol was just never meant to deal with.
In 9mm on a gun that's maintained, you're exceptionally unlikely to ever crack a 92's slide. If you shoot it with no lubrication on the locking block (people don't know how to lube handguns anyway, but Berettas especially) and never change the recoil spring or locking block, you eventually will. Theoretically the brig slide will resist cracking at the area cut out for the locking block (which is where the slide cracks happen) "better" and go for a longer round count if you abuse the shit out of it, but I've never seen any numbers put to that to a quantifiable difference.
At the time I bought the Wilson gun because it was the best 92 spec I'd seen from Beretta in years.
I bought an LTT gun when they introduced the dot option. I think I was one of the first few to order one when that went live...and that was mainly because I wanted to try something other than a Glock with a dot.
3/15/2016
Mine runs reliably with the Wilson Combat flatwire springs at the factory weight.
On the LTT gun I run the roundwire chrome silicon spring that came in the gun...I believe it's 13 pounds.
3/15/2016
Thank you. Have you played around with spring rates in the brig tac at all?
No...I never felt adventurous enough to mess with different spring rates on the Wilson gun.
3/15/2016
Someone here, Les Kismartoni I think, has talked about setting up spring rates on these guns for less slide bounce. Since brig tacs are currently more available and generally cheaper than LTT guns, I figured I might want to mess with that setup after I pick up a brig tac. Honestly, I’m probably overthinking it though. I rarely shoot faster than .25 splits anyways.
The Brig slide on specialty Beretta guns goes back to the original 92G Elite and the 92G-SD in the late 90s/early 00s. It wasn't chosen due to the increased mass/weight, but rather it was the only available slide option (at the time) with a dovetailed front sight that would let competitors choose various options. At the time, the Vertec slide didn't exist. Once the Vertec came out, and offered the original slide profile with a dovetailed front sight, it became the option of choice IMHO. There's certainly nothing wrong with the Brig slide if that's your fancy, but I'd rather not have the extra mass, personally.
Matt Haught
SYMTAC Consulting LLC
https://sym-tac.com
Wait: Beretta side weight matters?
Man... I wish I would've known this years ago...
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