First the obligatory photo...



I picked up one of the Italian Police 92S imports on Saturday.  LGS had it in the case for a price I found acceptable, and since I've never owned a 92 of any kind I figured this would be a good way to try them without breaking the bank.

Shot it this afternoon for the first time and it did not disappoint, well, except for the magazine which I will get to.

Accurate, buttery smooth, tame recoil. All in all a very nice pistol.

Now to the mag problem.   The pistol came with one 15 round magazine marked PB CAL. 9MM PARA  MADE IN ITALY, so I'm assuming it is probably a Mec Gar.  As is my custom, I took the mag down last night and cleaned it out and inspected it and saw no issues.  However, once I got to the range I found it very difficult to load beyond six rounds.   It will jam up like it's fully topped off, and my Uplula is of no help.   I found after fiddling with it that sometimes I could top it off if I loaded the rounds at a pretty steep angle and pushed the top round in the stack down a bit as i did so, but this did not always work.

Any ideas on this?

I do have two new mags coming from Beretta that will work with the heel button release of this S model, so I'm not too upset, but, I'd like to get this one working if possible.

Oh, these are the rounds I fired at the range...

50 GECO 115 fmj
50 Federal Champion Aluminum 115 fmj
50 Perfecta 115 fmj
25 Golden Saber 147 jhp.

All worked properly, and the Golden Sabers were actually pretty darned accurate as well.

Not Mecgar.  PB = Pietro Beretta.  My factory mags for my 92FS and 84F Cheetah say the same thing.

I'd pull the mag apart again and see what's going on.  Did you put the follower in correctly, front side to the front?

Yes, have the follower and spring in properly.

I did just find the issue.

The mag has what appears to be a die cast follower.  What was happening was that the left front corner of the follower was catching  in the slot that allow this mag to work in an FS.  I pulled it and stoned a small radius on the lower edge and bingo, the mag now can easily be loaded to 15 rounds, and the Uplula works properly with it now as well.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Looks very good! I'm seeing a little variation on these. Some of them have blued slides and others have matte slides. Most of them have grips like yours (and mine), but a few I've seen have grips with checkering that stops just short of the top. I have every intention to buy another one. With a little luck, someone will have a sale with them priced at something like $259 again.

@BlitzPig

Nice 92S... love mine!

If you would like some slightly better grips for that thing (free of charge) IM me your address and you are welcome to either set pictured below.

The factory set has been cleaned up and Duracoated, and the other set... not really sure where I got those.

While on the topic of grips, can G10 grips be cut/trimmed/drilled etc. ?

I'd like a set of the Wilson very thin G10 grips but of course they would need to be relieved on the left panel to clear the low mag release button on the 92S.

LOK grips will custom cut G10 grips for the 92S, but they aren't any thinner than factory. You could probably buy the Wilson's and trim them as necessary, but not sure how the outcome would look (it's been done though).

Here is my 92S (left) w/ LOK G10 grips, for what it's worth...

Those look great.

No thinner than the stock grips though?  They do look to be in photos.

Thanks for the heads up in any case sir.

If you order a set from LOK be sure to tell Jayson to delete the front (92fs) mag release indention. I did not, so mine have it and look strange, but he will get rid of them if you ask. I just didn't think to... oh well.

Still great grips! Much more grippy.

Not sure where I saw it, perhaps on the Beretta forum, but someone took the 92s mag release button, reversed and pinned it IIRC, which made it stick out more. He then only had to drill a hole in a pair of new grips to make them work. He didn't have to cut out the corner.


ETA:
Link

Interesting.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!