There’s a reason millions of United States service men and women carried the 92 for forty years into combat.

The 92 series of handguns from Beretta was the military-issued sidearm from 1985 with the final one being issued in August of 2021. You don’t become the issued sidearm of the most powerful military the world has ever seen for thirty-six years without being an amazing weapon. Soft shooting, incredibly reliable, and better magazine capacity that the vast majority of the competition (when it was initially chosen at least).

I’ll admit I’ve always liked the look of the 92 series. There’s something about the exposed barrel that really stands out to me, add in the hammer and I’m sold. My first hands-on experience with the pistol was a used 92G that I bought off GunBroker back in the early 2000s. For those unfamiliar the “G” models did not have a manual safety, instead, it was a de-cocker, safely lowering the hammer without a round going off. I had it for several years but sold it off when I was thinning my collection as it simply did not see much use at the range.

I’ve since looked back at buying one again but never did until I was deep into teaching concealed carry courses. I have several firearms that I display to show the different action types and to allow my students to feel the different guns. For some people, they’ve never touched a firearm before coming to my class and I wanted to have as many options as possible. Plus the average American has had some type of exposure to the 92 series firearm through movies, television, family and friends who served in the military, etc… so it made sense to add it. Not to mention I wanted to get one again.

If you look through the different firearms that I post here you’ll see the vast majority of them have weapon lights attached. This is due to my work in law enforcement where having a light is extremely important in knowing what’s in front of you, I also keep lights on any weapon that may be used for home protection for the same reason. More times than not if a gun can be purchased with and without a rail, I’ll buy the rail model, as seen with my 92a1. I also bought it with the intention of keeping it in my business’s office as a self-defense firearm that any of the staff would have access to. (After completing my safety training of course.)

The 92a1 is different from the normal 92FS in more than simply having a rail. For a short time, Beretta made one in 40 calibers as it was for a while the most popular self-defense and law enforcement round. The 40 caliber is a hotter round than the 9mm and as such they had to build the gun up to handle the extra abuse it would be seeing. So what are these differences you ask?

The 92a1 has a heavier slide profile, an enlarged front lug, a captive recoil spring, and an aluminum insert that takes the brunt of the recoil pressure and can easily be replaced when needed. In fact, the 92a1 shares everything from the 40 caliber except the barrel and magazine. While the standard 92 models handle the 9mm just fine I am a fan of it being built to a higher standard, I have zero doubt this firearm will long outlast me and I for one, love that.

I for one hate the safety on the 92 pistols. Having to push up is counterintuitive and makes it much more likely that your trigger will come against a hard wall when you need it most. I love 1911s and have zero issues with their safeties and my thumb automatically disengages when I get a proper grip, with the Beretta this simply isn’t the case. Because of this, I ordered the G model de-cocker kit directly from Beretta and now it’s no longer an issue. Honestly, any firearm that starts with a double action trigger doesn’t need a manual safety in my opinion.

Anyone who’s shot any 92 series pistol won’t find any surprises here, it shoots straight and reliable as they all do. With this model being overbuilt and having a Streamlight TLR-1HL attached to it the felt recoil is even less. It was extremely easy to stay on target for follow-up shots and even for magazine dumps.

My one and only real complaint is the amount of travel the trigger requires to reset. More than once at the range I have fired a round, went to shoot another round and nothing happened when I pulled the trigger again. It’s because I didn’t allow the trigger to return far enough in order to reset. With practice this wouldn’t be an issue but every other firearm I own has less travel so my muscle memory simply won’t be there for the Beretta. Because of that, I cannot use it for home protection. But as stated earlier it stays at the office and all office staff are trained on it. They are also all given a free CCW class so most are carrying their own firearms on their person anyways.
It’s not an issue for me but I know for people with smaller hands the grip can be too big for them. If you have smaller hands I highly suggest you hold or better yet, shoot it before you buy one.

Even with the deal-breaking trigger reset length where I can’t use it for self-defense, this is an amazingly well-built weapon and one I have no problem suggesting for others to carry. While I would have preferred an American handgun to be issued to American soldiers I completely understand the reasoning behind choosing the 92 as its sidearm.

Stay safe, be kind, and help those in need.