As 1911 explained the problem might be that the mag spring is still too stiff. A way to test this problem is to
put only a couple of bullets in the new magazine and shoot the gun. If it fires without a problem reload the
mag with as many bullets as it's suppose to hold and fire it again. If it jams or FTE you know what the
problem is. I just witnessed the same problem at the range. The guy next to me was having all kinds of problems with his new Glock 17. As soon as he removed the top three rounds the jamming problem was solved.

This is a guess. If it was me I would have sent it back to the factory. That the point of a lifetime warranty.

Originally Posted by wildcatbrownhound

Did I clean and lube?? No it was a brand new gun.
What kind of ammo?? Remington and Hornady.
I have and have fired several guns through the years and I have never seen anything like this. When I get it back I will let you all know what happened. THANKS

a note on bersas:
1...all bersas need to be cleaned & properly lubricated before use....that goo that is on there is a preservative, not a lubricant. the gun is shipped that way to protect it.

2...don't try any SD ammo until you have 300-400 rounds of ball ammo down range.

3..WWB is more flat nosed than some other ball ammo & can cause feed problems initially.

4...if the gun has a nickel finish, DO NOT use anything that contains amonia such as hoppe's 9.

5...after market Pro-Mags are not recommended with a bersa, they are very unreliable.

6...wealth of info at.
http://www.bersachat.com/forums/forum.php.

thanx & happy shooting
trailblazer

Originally Posted by recoilguy

Please explain the physics or metalurgy of this to me.

Leaving a mag loaded "loads" a spring,springs are made to be loaded. I am under the metalurgical impression that cycling a spring is how one is weakened. That putting a load on a spring will have lttle or even no effect on it even if left loaded for years. You seem to speak with a vast amount of authority I would like to know how I could have been so mis-informed for so long. It is my impresion that to loosed a spring you need to load.....unload......load........ unload and repeat.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I may have been doing this incorrectly for some time now.

RCG

RCG...you are correct, loading a mag & leaving it set will not harm the spring...it's the constantly loading & unloading that harms a spring.

relative to bersas, after market mags are not recommended...on a new gun or mag, you may want to dis-assemble & clean the mag as well.

trailblazer

Originally Posted by kev74

Why didn't he send it back to the factory instead of to some half-assed gun smith? And why didn't he give you a refund instead of a credit if his guy couldn't make it right?

I'd be more pissed off at the local shop than I would at Bersa.

Many gun manufacturers have dedicated warranty repair shops or contractors. Many gun manufacturers will not accept returns to the factory (shipping to foriegn countrys can be problematic. Bersa mfg. in Italy?) and have "local" shops that will do the warrenty work/repair for them. Not uncommon; the dealer did as he was supposed to.

Originally Posted by Ricardokid

I have the Beretta .380 nickel Cheetah and absolutely love it. I have fired about 500 rds. through it right out of the box with no ftf or fte. It's great for concealment and 13+1 ability. Good luck with your's. I like to pay a little more for a lot less aggravation.

How about 3x's cost of the bersa 380. I have a bersa 380 that has been perfect. Since it has a life time warranty you should have sent it back. Why pay a gun smith who might know about Bersa's. I have a Beretta 84BB. The Bersa380 shoots just as good IMO.

Originally Posted by wildcatbrownhound

You are right; He should have sent it to the factory. He gave me full credit on the Beretta 84FS. If he had not done that I would not have bought the Beretta from him, and probally wont buy anything else from him anyway. Want to piss a man off? Throw the truth in his face. He didnt like it when I ask him if he would depend on the Bersa to defend his family. I have never had any respect for a man that would ask a man to do something he would not do. THANKS

I have two Bersas and both are superb and fail-free. That .380 has a fabulous reputation. It's an old, reliable and time tested design.

Guns come with sticky rust-preventative goop in them, not 'oil' per se. If you shoot without cleaning, the goop collects dirt from burned powder and the whole thing gets awful very quickly.

ALso, for you to have that many failures when the shop guy wasn't having them speaks ENTIRELY to technique. If you 'limp wrist' on the recoil, you can accidentally catch the previous empty case inside the ejection port, because the gun is 'following' the ejected case due to soft grip/limp wrist.

If a round doesn't slam all the way into the chamber, you probably don't have a clean gun. But it could be the newness of it as well, as many guns are overly 'tight' until you've put a few hundred rounds through them.

I have a Thunder 9mm and a Firestorm .22, which is the same design as your .380, and of my eight pistols they are my two favorites. I have Glock, Walther, Ruger and S&W and I like Bersa best. If yours was a lemon, it was rare.

Have you read the instruction manual? have you followed instructions for it's break in period? I own a Walther PPK/S in .380 and for the first two months I thought it was evil, really.
To make a long story short small guns are more sensitive to every thing than say a 1911. One big issue is the ammo you use. I've found that WWB works well in mine but it does not like JHP's. They seem to get hung up in the chamber and not fully seat. The solution for me, for PP ammo, was to use either PowR'Ball or Hornady Critical Defense. They mimic ball ammo shape.