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| Beretta 92fs |
More than 30 years ago (1985) the US Army held a competition and picked a new standard issue sidearm. The two finalists were the Beretta 92 and the Sig Sauer P226. In the end, politics dictated the winner because the objective results were effectively a solid tie. Some would say it was sad that the two best pistols in this event - at least by Army standards - were designs from across the pond (Italy & West Germany), in spite of the numerous American arms manufacturers in existence at the time. Both Sig Sauer and Beretta, however, now have large manufacturing and design operations in the U.S.
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| Sig Sauer P226 |
Both guns were of a relatively new design at the time, although both manufacturers had significant semi-auto pistol history from which to draw and both had well-deserved reputations for fielding products of high quality and solid dependability. Both guns feature frames made of high-strength aluminum alloy and both use a “hammer fired” design for ignition. There are some other similarities (size/weight, capacity, D/A-S/A action, etc.) but that’s about the end of the resemblance in design. Suffice it to say that both Beretta and Sig employed their own time-tested architecture to their new package and each produced a gun that has contributed significantly to their respective reputations for quality and durability. Both of the guns are truly “Aristocrats” in today’s large array of “service” semi-automatic weapons.
A history lesson is not our purpose here, nor is it our intent to call out one or the other as “better” so we’ll move on to other subjects. Each member of our dedicated little band of Pistoliers owns one or more variants of each gun; and greatly admires both. As we progressed through our testing exercises it became increasingly difficult for any of us to say which platform we’d give up if we had to. We think everyone should have at least one variant of each, but will try to give some insight for those who want to own only one or the other. Also, it should be noted that both designs are available in several calibers but we will be focused here on the most popular version - 9mm Luger.
Reliability
Both platforms have been, as Sig puts it, “To hell and back” in 30 years worth of actual combat and law enforcement situations without developing an adverse reputation, and that kind of extensive real world experience would certainly have revealed any serious “warts”. Regular maintenance (detail cleaning and spring replacement) is required to guarantee continued reliability but is minimal in cost and intervals are long for casual civilian use. With this kind of care and use of decent ammo a failure would be rare indeed.
We’ve put as many different kinds of “factory” ammo as we could find and plenty of our own handloads through our guns without any failures to fire, feed or eject - except with a few cartridges that proved to be definitely out of spec. I’d like to say we made that ammo poorly on purpose but, what the heck, journalistic integrity requires a bit of honesty, right. In any event, if you feed the Sig or Beretta a diet of regular maintenance and decent ammo, you’ll get 100% reliability - at least in our experience.
We rate the two guns dead even in this category.
Durability
If you buy one of these guns when you’re 21 and put 1,000 rounds a month through it, you may wear it out before you can pass it on to your grandchild. Probably not, though if you change the springs on schedule, use some good lube regularly on the moving parts, and shoot decent ammo. The typical points to show wear on these guns are the “rails” where the slide (upper) moves along the frame (lower) when firing, and this is true on both the Sig and Beretta. Wear at these points, however, can be minimized with proper lubrication and even so a small amount of wear in these areas doesn’t affect reliability or accuracy.
Other places where wear can occur are the various points at which the barrel locks up with the slide, and this is true with any semi-auto. If you never clean/relube the gun, and throw a bit of pumice or fine sand in the assembly, the barrel/slide engagement will wear over time and in this case accuracy will be affected. Regular cleaning, however, will eliminate this possibility and the intervals aren’t even that short unless operations take place in pretty hostile geography.
Speaking of hostile geography, the open top of the Beretta slide makes for easier clean-out of the slide if the gun is regularly submerged in mud or sand; or if the gun is used as a cranial battering ram against zombies. Normal civilian use, however, does not favor the exposed barrel nor does the design detract from the gun in any way we can foresee. It does not even affect the overall weight of the guns, which both come in at 34 oz.
For what it’s worth, the slide on today’s Sig is a milled, stainless steel unit while the Beretta slide is made from a proprietary carbon steel alloy. We have no reason to believe the Beretta version is less strong or corrosion-resistant.
Once again, we rate the two guns dead even in this category.
Accuracy
Lets remember that both of these guns are “service pistols.” As such, they are not designed to, nor expected to, print 1” groups at 100 yards, even out of a mechanical bench rest. Both of them, however, do better than most others in this class. In fact, Sig produces a variant of the P226 in its MasterShop (known as the X5 series) which adds a 5” match grade barrel and other improvements that make it into a world class marksmanship competition piece.
We regularly ring 6” steel and even put most holes in a 3” paper bullseye freehand from a standing position at 20 -25 yards using the basic versions of these pistols. So, for the casual shooter - self defense or practice/plinking - accuracy of the gun will not be a concern. If the sights provided do not meet one’s desires, the dovetail mounting design on both guns makes it easy to change into something more suitable, and a wide variety of aftermarket products are available.
As with most pistols, judicious choices in ammunition can improve accuracy dramatically for target shooting, while almost anything is good enough for short range defense purposes. The Beretta barrel has a slightly greater inside diameter than the sig which is not enough to detract from its short range effectiveness but shooters who demand minimal group sizes on paper targets can enhance the Beretta’s performance by using bullets of .357 in size instead of the nominal .355 or .356 9mm projectiles. For some reason the Sig doesn’t seem to respond to this anomaly, firing either bullet into acceptably small groups.
We rate the two guns even in this category when comparing the basic models of each platform.
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is more than just how well the gun fits the hand of a shooter, although that’s a big part of it. The two guns are practically the same in overall size and weight, and both come nowadays in a “compact” variant which is about a half inch shorter and about a quarter inch less grip length. This doesn’t sound like much but makes a pretty big difference in concealment ability. The Beretta is a tad “fatter” in slide width giving the Sig a slight edge for carry and is also a bit “fatter” in the grip. For shooters with regular-to-large hands and fingers, the amount of extra grip girth is noticeable but not an irritant. For those with smaller hands and/or shorter fingers the Sig gets a pretty big plus in the grip feel department. For those folks, today’s Sig can also be had with what it calls a “E2” grip which diminishes the bulk even further.
As mentioned above, the dovetail design for sight mounting makes it easy to install sights tailored to the needs of the owner if the “factory standard” are not right for a particular individual; except for the front site on the Beretta 92fs and M9, which are not dovetail mounted. Sight radius, especially in the full size models, is sufficient to give even average shooters a chance at decent marksmanship, and the compact versions (92c for the Beretta and P229 for the Sig) shave only a slight amount off of that dimension.
The Sig design incorporates a de-cocker mounted on the frame that lets the hammer down safely with a round in the chamber. Sig intends the gun to be carried in that configuration. The Beretta design also has a de-cocker but it is mounted on the slide and incorporates a firing pin block safety in its operation. The Beretta design results in the addition of a manual safety feature but it must be disengaged by pushing up the lever prior to firing the first shot, which would be in D/A mode. Most D/A pistols do not have a manual safety as a standard feature.
Advantage (slight) Sig. The two guns compare to each other very favorably in this category but we give the edge to Sig here because the grip size/design better fits a wider variety of hand/finger sizes. We also believe the manual safety feature of the Beretta de-cocker is unnecessary on a pistol in D/A mode. If someone wanted to carry the Beretta with the safety engaged, the operator would have to remember that its activation is backwards to most other manual safeties; certainly for 1911 operators.
Capacity
Both the Beretta and the Sig are delivered in “non communist” jurisdictions with 15 round magazines (apologies to readers in restricted areas but I just couldn’t resist). The manufacturers and aftermarket are, however, replete with dependable alternatives that raise the capacity to 20 rounds and even 30 in the case of Beretta. Of course the higher capacity mags stick out from the bottom of the grip when installed and affect the balance of the firearm when in use - dramatically so in the case of the Beretta 30rnd.
With loaded standard capacity magazines installed, both guns balance well and, in our humble opinion, 15 rounds - or 13 in the case of the 40 S&W caliber - is sufficient for personal defense. If one wanted to have a loaded pistol (properly stored, of course) in the home, one of the larger capacity magazines might be appropriate because “balance” would probably not be a major concern for use in a home invasion scenario.
We rate the guns even in this category, keeping in mind the 30 round Beretta capacity for those who place a lot of value in that sort of thing.
Conclusion
We did hold a round or two of test firing by our whole group, sharing all our variants of both guns to verify our long-held beliefs about them, but nothing much changed. We came back - after plenty of “I like ...”, “what i ...f”, and “zombie defense scenario” debates - with the same conclusion as did the Army in 1985. The two pistols are functional equivalents, with only minor pluses and minuses to color the debate.
We all agree that the Beretta’s slightly larger grip girth makes it less than perfect for shooters with small hands and/or short fingers even with extra thin grip panels available in the aftermarket. Others notice the difference but don’t find it displeasing.
We all also find the Beretta’s inclusion of a manual safety into the de-cocker to be unnecessary and even a bit objectionable, but you can leave the safety in the “off” position all the time and the gun would be the functional equivalent of the Sig in this area.
Buy both: you’ll like them equally, even though they’re a bit different in many ways. If you can’t, the Beretta will cost you a few bucks less but the Sig makes many of us feel like we’re holding a bit more “polished” piece of machinery.
Respectfully Submitted
The Bunker Bunch
September, 2016
