Beretta M92FS .177 Caliber CO2 Pistol Review

Just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. Just like there are cheap cars out there (a colleague of mine years ago rolled into work in his new Kia Rio subcompact car, which he said cost him under $10,000) and there are your more higher end cars like Lexus and BMW. Hard to be able to compare a Lexus and a Kia.

I recently discovered that sometimes it's not just name or brand recognition that differentiates similar products in varying price brackets. Most of my CO2 air pistols I have purchased for under $100.00 each. And I can tell some of the contributing factors to the cheap price - more plastic parts, less features, etc. But I was OK paying for more cheaper construction, as long as there was a decent modicum of quality in the gun.

Well, I recently thought I'd splurge a bit (last month or December - don't remember exactly when) and I dropped over $200.00 for the Beretta M9FS .177 Caliber CO2 Pistol. I have seen this in the catalogs and have been interested in checking it out. Now, there is a BB version, but as an aspiring competitive sport shooter, I wasn't going to make the same mistake as I did when I bought the Crosman T4. I am not interested in backyard plinking or in shooting tin cans. My desire is to acquire rifled steel barrel pellet guns that are decent for accuracy on paper targets. I was pretty sure that the M92FS wasn't going to be match-grade, but I thought I'd pick it up nonetheless.

Now I know why the gunshop is constantly out of these (I had to put myself on a 3-month long waiting list, before mine came in). This is a fabulous gun in almost every regard, from presentation, look, feel, and especially performance. It was $200.00+ well spent, and I can honestly say that if it weren't for the fact that my wife and I are expecting a child anyday now, and I need to save my cash, I'd probably spring for the sister-version of this pistol, the Colt 1911A Government. But enough of my wish-lists - let's get on to the review of this pistol.

The first thing that you will notice when buying this gun is that it comes in a nice, compact, hard plastic, foam-insulated carrying case. It's not security lockable, but it is only a sub-500FPS airgun, afterall. The case does lock with standard plastic flaps, but it would have been nice to have a lockable loop where you can hang a padlock or a keyed lock. The pistol itself is fairly authentic in its look and feel (the weight is close to 3lbs, and if you've ever handled a "real" handgun before, you'll know that the weight is pretty close). The gun comes with two (2) 8-shot rotary cylinder magazines, though I already had a few that I bought for my CP Sport (the cylinder magazines are interchanged with the other Umarex guns - Walther, Colt, Beretta, Magnum Research, Inc., etc.).

By the way, as an aside, I should note that while this gun is branded Beretta, it's actually made by Umarex U.S.A. (who bought the branding rights for the airguns from the above manufacturers). Just like the Hammerli guns you see out there are all made by Umarex.

Asthetically, the version that I purchased was the all-black version (some refer to it as a slightly blued version), though it also comes in nickel (yuck) and you have the option of wood grips. Because mine was all-black, it came with the default plastic grips - in fact, the grips are the only thing plastic about the gun - it's solid metal pretty much everywhere else.

The gun is similar to the CP Sport in terms of how the 12 gram CO2 cartridge is loaded. In other words, it's a severe pain in the butt to load - at least for me. You need to press the grip release on the left-hand side, and that pops the opposing grip out. I originally assumed by sight that the grip and its connectors are all plastic, and inferred that over time I can see something breaking, with all the snapping in and out. However, as a subsequent edit to this review, it was pointed out to me by a couple of folks that there is actually a metal lining inside the grip, which I obviously missed. This reinforces the grip and really makes it difficult, if not impossible to break by indvertent mishandling. As a result, my assessment of the grip is no longer negative.

Anyway, after you pop out the opposing grip, you pull out the lockable feet (at the butt of the gun) and then turn the notched wheel to lower the CO2 retainer. Then you place the cartridge in, start turning the wheel again to more or less lock it in place (not too tight) and then snap the feet back into place so it locks - I experienced the need to do this a few times as I wasn't sure how tight to turn the wheel initially - I still don't have that sense). Now, some have suggested that this system is better than other guns, but from a simplicity standpoint, no one can convince me that the loading of the CO2 in this gun is comparable or easier than, say, a Crosman 2240 or a Crosman/Benjamin EB22, where you just unscrew a cap, put in the CO2 cartridge, tighten the cap, and press the trigger to puncture the 12g powerlet. But I digress...

After doing all this, then snap the grip back into place, and try to do a test fire after taking off the safety (which is conveniently one switch connected to both sides of the gun near the hammer in the back of the breech - you can flick it on/off easily, unlike the pressurized one on the CP Sport). As you probably know, it's OK to dry-fire CO2 powered guns, so go ahead and test it out.

This gun's metal rotary cylinder magazine is easy to load - the slide release switch is on the left hand side. Once the magazine is loaded, pull the slide to lock into place. As for aiming, you have the standard front and rear sights, with the rear site adjustable for windage. There are no rails on which you can mount accessories or sights (I originally thought there was, but a reader had corrected me on this).

Now onto performance. Surprisingly, this pistol is quite accurate. The trigger was a non-factor - I liked the feel and weight of the trigger and while I believe the trigger is adjustable, I didn't have to do any adjustments. For the first 16 shots, I was able to get decent groupings, though I was only at 10 yards. Add to this the adjustments I made in getting used to the pistol, and I was quite happy with the initial performance. I used Crosman standard .177 wadcutter pellets - I have lots of these el cheapo pellets, though I wouldn't mind trying RWS or even Gamo in the future to compare results.

The sound was reasonable, and didn't sound like a bomb exploding, like the EB22 does.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this pistol was its gas economy. On all my other guns, I get around 50-65 shots on one 12g CO2 canister. That is pretty good, all things considered...of course, that is standard fare from my experience (except for the EB22, which gets around 30). Once I hit the 60 shot range, I was expecting to call it a day. But for reasons I can't understand, the gun still had gas in it. In fact, it wasn't until I hit slightly over 100 (that's right, one hundred) shots - around the 106 mark - that the pellets started to bounce off the target, and I was literally out of gas. But by then, I had looked at my target and it was awash with cleanly punched pellet holes within about a 3 1/2" diameter (which I know from 10 yard is nothing special, but many of my other guns will group 5" or so - it could just be my unsteady hands and my bad eyesight - or the other guns).

Overall, this gun gets my highest recommendation. With only the cheap plastic grips and the obtuse Umarex CO2 loading mechanism as the exception, I cannot find enough good things to say about this gun. Apparently, there is a match/competition version, but that may be for another day. I was quite happy with the feel/look and performance on this pistol and for over $200.00, it was well worth the money, in my opinion, especially given its accuracy and its incredible gas economy. You won't be disappointed with the Beretta M92FS.