Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Bersa Thunder 9 Pro XT


Kingman

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 103
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Ok, so this may or may not be long winded depending on your reading style....

Ok initial thoughts. Pulled the gun out of the box and it was dirty. It looked like it had definitely been fired, so I asked some questions. It turns out that all Pro Xt have a hand fitted barrel. So I pulled it apart and you can see where it was filed on the back edge of the barrel hood. After it is fitted it is test fired at the factory with at least one full magazine to ensure that everything is proper. It appears that they test and sight in with 115gr bullets as the Atlantic Arms ammo I initially tested with was dead center.

Trigger feels about 7 DA and around 3 SA. The DA is very smooth and does not stack at all. The DA pull is a bit shorter than I expected. The SA seems to have a short reset system in it. The reset is about 1/8" and stops with very little pre travel or over travel. I am betting the springs will loosen a bit as the more I played with it the better it feels. The SA is one of the best of the type I have felt out of the box, save the custom built DA/SA guns that are popular right now.

The weight of the gun is 34 ounces. This is interesting, as it is between the polymer guns and the solid steel guns that are both popular right now. They have used an aluminum frame on this gun in order to get the weight where the transition is fast, but have some to help soak up recoil. I immediately am thinking production optics possible gun right here. It seems to work, this gun is almost as soft as my CTS, both of my Xcal are out right now so I can't put them in comparison, but man this gun is flat. I don't know how they did it, but if you watch the video it is not moving much.

The safety and slide stop are interesting as well. The safety when raised also acts as a decocker. This may be a plus for those that don't like manually lowering a hammer. The slide stop and safety make a huge ledge to rest your thumb on. This is VERY high, higher than the GP sport paddles and higher than a CZ safety. This is an interesting feel in and of itself. The frame also has a nice textured area built in from the factory for your support hand's thumb to rest on. Again attention is in the details.

The sights from the factory are very good as well. The front is a fiber optic, the rear is adjustable. They sit up a bit higher than on most guns. It sort of shocked me looking at it, but it really is quite nice. They seemed to be sighted in with 115gr bullets from the factory. They were a bit off with my 147gr loads at 130PF.

The accuracy is right on for a game gun. I didn't bag the gun, but was able to easily start smacking the plate rack at 25 yards without much work. The system works well together. I will certainly bag it when the range isn't so busy.

It came with 5 mags in the box. This shocked me. I have never opened a box to see that many magazines. When I asked, it seemed the idea was that it comes ready to go to a match.

Down Sides:

The factory grip was pretty slick, even with the pressed in texture it was not great. So I took the soldering iron to the plastic grip. Overall it was easy to create panels above the built in thumb rest for the offhand, and then stipple heavily all of the bordered area where the pressed in checkering was. These grips are available Eagle's website if I messed up, but it turned out really nice. It almost looked like it was meant to be that way.

The magazine release is the other point I did not care for. I have pretty good size hands. I can hit the mag release on a 2011 without repositioning a gun. I could not hit the mag release on this gun without adjusting the gun in my grip. It is easy to do, but still by making it just a bit longer it would be much simpler. I did bring this to the attention of the folks from Bersa. I know they are looking for a solution at this point in time. I was also told in Argentina they have had some in the past.

Big Plus:

At least one store posted them online for $799. MSRP is a bit higher, but we all know what that really means.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

After handling and shooting one of the regular Pros, went ahead and ordered one of XT's from Davidisons. They had them in stock, and from what I have found, were the least expensive.

Not sure if I will have before the New Years holiday. Will report back once received and after some range time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Picked up mine today, haven't got it to the range yet but the trigger is really nice. My trigger is registering 2.10 SA and 7lbs DA. I like the way it feels in my hand, but the mag release is somewhat flush, small and a bit hard to reach.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Picked up mine today, haven't got it to the range yet but the trigger is really nice. My trigger is registering 2.10 SA and 7lbs DA. I like the way it feels in my hand, but the mag release is somewhat flush, small and a bit hard to reach.

Picked mine up on Monday. Like you, haven't had a chance to shoot it yet.

Glad I saw Kingmans post about his arriving dirty, as mine was very dirty. If I hadn't read his post, would have been on its way back to Davidsons.

Hope at some point there is a better mag release, as I agree, a bit small and flush.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shot mine today... I'm liking it, very accurate, the recoil is similar to the Stock 3 I have. I agree with Kingman about the grips, they are slick.

A bit more take up on the SA portion of the trigger than I'm used to but I think it won't be an issue once I get more trigger time with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would say that it recoils a little bit more than my Grand Power X-cal, about the same as the Stock 3 Xtreme and less than my Shadow custom. Accuracy wise for me, about the same as the Grand Power, Shadow Custom and a bit better than the Stock3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the price any way you look at it, I it's a good deal. Out of the box it's ready to run, but take in consideration the decocker... some might not like it and it doesn't spring back down so you can fire it double action the next shot. You have to manually lower the lever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...