Originally Posted by ken2925

I still like the two I own, a .380 and the Firestorm .45. My wife likes the .380 but she has a problem disengaging the the safety. She has arthritis in her thumb and the safety is stiff and quite a pain literally for her to operate. Any suggestions to help her to be able to use this pistol as her CCW will be appreciated!

Manually drop the hammer, or before placing it in the holster or bag use both hands to engage the safety(which drops the hammer) then disengage the safety. You now have a perfectly "safe" CCW. The double action on the first trigger pull will be in safe carry mode and if she has to use it to defend herself she wont be fumbling with the safety.

Thanks gilly! I have tried to figure out a way for her to be safe and still carry the pistol which she shoots the best and is most comfortable with. I appreciate your help and Thanks, Ken.

I bought my first Bersa 380 sometime back in 1998-1999 and have used it on a regular basis. Couldn't even guess at the round count. Not a single issue with it. I think I paid somewhere around $130 for it - best $130 I've ever spent!

Looks wise my finish on mine has worn quite a bit in the 2100 rounds ive shot it, But also remember that it is in a holster all day for well over a year. Function wise it has only gotten better with age. My trigger is as crisp as a DA/SA can get...

I have the Bersa DLX model and I haven't had one problem with it at all. It has performed flawlessly out of the box. I would purchase another one if I wanted one. I tell people about my Bersa when they ask. I had a set of custom grips made for it. The grips are made out of Zebra wood. Those black grips that comes on them are just ugly. I had a holster made from K&D holsters for it. Kevin does a nice job. I carry my Bersa about 30% of the time. I carry about 95 % of the time.


Well!!!!!!!!!!!! we waiting for the other shoe to drop.OK I'll bite.Witch gun you carry most of the time?

There are 3 of them in my house. I carry a UC45 pretty regularly and a 380CC form time to time. My wife carries a Standard Thunder 380. They all perform very well. the finish may not be Dan Wesson quality but pretty good in my opinion. Great firearms, especially for the price point.

I have a 'pimp-daddy' .380 black with gold levers, geat for SOB, accurate and easy to shoot. Traded a Thunder Pro .45 for a Ruger P345 that feels more gentle. You have to keep the magazines clean on the .45, otherwise no problems at all.

Originally Posted by Wandering Man

I was watching my wife clean her Bersa Thunder .380 this weekend and I couldn't help but notice how much more wear her little gun has already than any other gun I've owned for a longer period of time.

I'm not sure if the wear I'm seeing is just cosmetic, or if parts are actually wearing out.

Are you owners of Bersas still happy with your guns?



WM

I've owned several. Still have a Bersa Thunder 9mm Ultra Compact. GREAT gun. Very satisfied after 500 or so rounds...not a SINGLE misfire from day one.
My wife now has a .380 Thunder with CT's...she is very happy with it (except the cost of the .380 ammo) and it shoots very well, is comfortable and has never had a jam.

I have several "more brand name" 9's, like a Beretta Px4 Storm compact...it is absolutely a great gun, I love shooting it and never had a jam.
As for your question, would you not get Bersa and get a more expensive gun if you had it to do over...absolutely NOT.
I think Bersa is obviously a value priced gun but yet the quality in all I have seen, shot and owned is way past that price. I do think if I were intending to shoot massive rounds, it would be logical to consider normal wear and I might opt for a more expensive weapon.

Bersa also has GREAT customer service in the several contacts I have had with them. They have web pages, focus/forum groups...what's not to like.??

As in my earlier post,I am happy with my choosing of the Bersa Thunder .380.
The only reason I may put it up for sale,is because it is "out dated."
It shoots fine,don't get me wrong,but it is a little too big for the round,(.380)
it shoots.I have since purchased the much smaller Ruger LCP.Plenty of rounds
capacity,acuracy,and higher quality pistol over the Bersa.

Just sold my Bersa Thunder .380....$150..A great deal for the buyer.No longer was
a benefit to me.Like I said.It was just too big and outdated for a carry
pistol of that caliber.My next purchase for a carry pistol?Ruger LCR .357 Magnum.
Great carry pistol.Small,light,and deadly.

I've put 5k rounds through my UC9 with zero FTF or FTE... no matter what I cram into the mags.. not since the first day, with a limp wrist FTE on the very first magazine, has it done anything wrong.

Bersa steel pistols are a bit heavy, of course, and the UC9 is kind of big for concealing.. but really not any bigger than a Glock 26.. with the right gear it's useful enough, and I don't really like striker guns, can't fire them from uncocked state, much prefer DA/SA hammers.... I confess to have recently started pocketing my NAA .22 mag folding revolver and leaving the heavy stuff at home.. darn thing clips into shirt pocket and looks like a cell phone.. and it will shoot through both sides of an empty 55 gallon steel drum... a little powerhouse..

anyway, as to the thread, my Bersa UC9 and my Bersa Firestorm .22LR are both failure-proof in my opinion... completely satisfactory... great value for money... and should last forever..

Interesting thread. I've heard that the newer T380s take more break in to fire reliably than the older models did. True?? Who knows. My personal experience almost had me taking the pistol back after the first box of 50 rounds. 20 failures to feed, fire or extract (and yes, it was thoroughly cleaned before range time). Second box was 12 failures, third box 7, fourth box 5, fifth box 3.

In the 2000+ rounds since then, there hasn't been a single issue except one failure to fire. A subsequent DA pull and the round fired. That happened over 900 rounds ago and I attribute that to ammunition.

This pistol is a 'tack driver' and is my current daily carry. My deep concealment is an NAA .25.

As for the .380 round being effective, with todays technology, the only thing that might inhibit its effectiveness is shooter competence. I strive to perforate a lemon sized spot in the bullseye at 30 feet. Don't always get there, but an Israeli Colonel we crosstrained with, could consistantly do it with a Beretta .25, so it IS possible.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

The .380, in my opinion ,is adequate for a S/D carry gun.I carry the Ruger
LCP and feel more than comfortable with it.In my earliar post,I was refering
to the size and weight of the Bersa Thunder .380.I carried the Bersa for quite
some time and it was the gun I would always carry.Then along came the
"carry boom".All the big name manufacturers hit the engineering tables
and began a race for super concealment guns.A lot of lightweight
material,thiner,and a size compact down design made me give up my Bersa.
Are the new guns better?Probably not.Are they easier to carry than the Bersa?
As much as I liked the Bersa?I like my Ruger LCP 10 times better.It holds
the same amount of rounds as my Bersa did,much smaller,lighter,thiner,and
just as,if not more, acurrate.Now it's Bersas turn to get on the band wagon.

Mine still looks great after 6 years, but it lives in a rug mostly and is my truck/travel backup gun. It also goes boating/camping since although I would hate to lose it, if it went overboard or was terminally confiscated it would bother me least. 700 rounds and not a glitch.

It was my first semi-auto purchase since years ago I thought all I would want need was S&W 686 and "small" semi-auto. Hence if I were to do it all over again I probably wouldn't buy it, but it was something to get me started and the price was right.

It is a soft shooter, accurate and reliable. I have two extended magazines so 10 rounds of 102 gr Golden Saber is nothing to trifle with.

I've had my 380 Thunder since it was introduced here in the U.S. It still continues to operate flawlessly and is extremely accurate. I'm sure I have several thousand rounds through it. I have no reservations about using it as my summer carry gun.

i'm not sure if this has been covered in this thread, but her goes.

some suggestions for BT 380 owners.

1...thoroughly clean mags & clean & lightly lube gun before first range trip.

2...avoid steel case ammo.

3...run 200-300 rds of FMJ before attempting hollow points. WWB has a flat nose which resembles hollow points & can cause issues if used for break in. mine shoots Remington, Am. Eagle & Magtech & now WWB with no problem.

4... use only Bersa factory mags. pro-mags are totally unreliable. they're ok for range but don't trust them for CC.

i own 4 bersa & they have all been great pistols. best bang for the buck on the market, & don't forget the life time warranty.

TB

First off the lifetime warranty is ok if you are the original purchaser but not for subsequent owners....

I've had 2 Bersa 380 Duo Tones and both are gone to new owners...both had the famous "disconnect spring" issues that plagued the 380's for some time...they were both "fixed" by a Bersa warranty station in Colorado but I paid the freight to get the guns there for repair. I'll make a comparison here that I made when making my decision to get rid of the Bersa's. I can buy a surplus Makarov (any manufacture except Chinese or Polish) for a couple of hundred bucks...they shoot the 9x18 Mak or 380 depending on the model...they are all steel, about the size of a Bersa 380....are solid as a rock...will fire any ammo thrown at them (they were weaned on Wolf steel case ammo and shoot Silver bear hollow points all day without any issues....a Bersa will fall apart with Silver Bear in short time). The Bersa was a decent little range gun... I'd never use it for a defensive weapon as the disconnect spring issue is intermittant and leaves you with a weapon that is not usable...and the safety when the magazine is out is nothing I want in a defensive weapon....look at the posts about the magazine falling out that have been posted. If you drop the mag you can't shoot....another case of protecting us from ourselves. I don't know about the 9 and 45 cal and would think they might be a better choice for s/d based on what I've read...I personally think the 380 is not suitable for a s/d weapon that needs to be 100% reliable. I was told to fire 200-300 rounds to get it "broken in"....at 300 rounds the galling wear on the slide really concerned me (yes I properly lubed and cared for the pistol)...I'm just not a fan....the thread was how many have kept them...and I'm one that didn't and won't buy another.

Yep....still happy and would buy another ....JJ

I have a Thunder in .32 that I got just because I like .32 and it was the most solid of the ones I looked at. I've been very happy with it and it's been humming along with over 2000 rounds through it.

I've had a Thunder UC 40 for about a year now. Accurate, fires consistently and the finish is still good even though I had heard of problems with it.
It gets carried daily.

Can't beat the Bersa products with a stick! (No matter how big the stick is) JMHO.

I've got four of them, two I bought new, a 380 and the 9UC and two I bought used, another 380 and the Fire Storm labeled 22lr. I'm still impressed with them enough that I bought a new Duo Tone for my brother. My only complaint is that the finishes wear a little faster than what I would have figured. Actually, I'm giving consideration to adding to the collection the 45UC.

Still happy with both of my Bersas. I have a Thunder 380, and liked it so much I bought the Thunder 22 to keep it company. I would buy another one tomorrow, but don't think I will have to because these suckers will be around for a long, long time!!

I'm still happy with mine. No failures of any kind with it.