Just picked up this extremely unique pistol, it's a Beretta M9 with a Phrobis slide. In 1987, 3 Navy SEALs were injured when a few M9 slides failed, so Beretta needed to redesign the M9 in order to make them safer. The government ended up buying the redesigned Beretta slides, but during this time Phrobis had created their own version of the M9 slide.

The Phrobis slide has a closed top on it, as opposed to the open top the Beretta slides have. This provided more structure and less points for failure. The slide is engraved with "USN" because it was specifically made for Navy testing. Its has the same assembly number as a regular Beretta M9 slide, 9346487, but has an "A" suffix to that number in order to distinguish it as a different part. The slide also has the Phrobis cage code, 75081.


The Beretta frame was produced in 1990 and has the US military style markings, but with a civilian serial number. The "BER" prefix and "Z" suffix are common on older civilian M9's. The "Z" suffix indicates that the frame was made in Italy. The frame is marked "USN" instead of "US," since this was made specifically for Navy testing. I've never seen another "USN" marked M9 frame, so I have no idea if this is a one-off or if there are others


What's interesting is that the frame has Phrobis' cage code in it (75081), instead of Beretta's cage code (65490). This is pretty unique, I have no idea why Beretta marked their frame with another company's cage code. Taking all these markings into consideration, it appears that this frame was specifically made for the Phrobis slide. These slides are extraordinarily rare, but there's still some information about them online. There's no information anywhere on the matching Beretta frame, so this is truly a unique piece of history. I assume that this entire pistol was submitted to the Navy for testing, not just the slide.


Marty told me that Rock McMillan actually made these slide for Phrobis, so I'm going to see if I can get in contact with him and ask about this pistol's history. Apparently a little over 100 of these slides were made and submitted to Crane, but they were all destroyed at some point. I'm also going to do a FOIA request to see if the government has any information.


If any of you guys have information on this pistol or the Phrobis slides, please post it here. Does anyone on here have one of these slides or pistols? If so, please post some photos!











Here's a website that shows one of these slides on a commemorative M9 frame (these all have the M9 serial number prefix). These are the only other photographs I can find of a real Phrobis M9 slide, everything else online appears to be airsoft shit.

https://www.collectordesignwerks.com/m9phrobis

Uncanny.  FPNI.

I've been looking for one of these since they were released!

Nice. Not a Beretta fan, but I'd FO!

I was actually going to ask you if you had any information on these pistols. You have a ton of knowledge and experience with military firearms, so I'm hoping this one isn't too obscure! So, do you have any info?

One of my friends has also been looking for a Phrobis M9 slide for close to 3 decades now! Unfortunately, these slides are insanely rare and this is the first time a matching frame has been discussed, so the odds of finding one is very low. My friend also has the original Phrobis slide blueprints, but he can't find a company that can do a small limited edition run (100+ slides). He's probably asked half a dozen companies over the years and none of them want to take on the project. A reproduction slide is better than no slide, I hope he eventually finds a company to make them.

I've never heard of those before.  Thanks for the pics and info!

@USMCSGT0331

What did you pay for it?  They are very rare.  Have you ran the S/N to make sure it's not stolen?

I've never had my hands on one.  I worked with one of the SEALs who caught a Beretta slide to the mouth/teeth.

I didn't know Phrobis submitted complete guns for trials.  I bought a P226 from the SIG rep from a lot JSOC bought when the SEALs ditched the M9, and gave it to my grandfather (it was one of the Bureau pistols at the time, and he admired FBI agents.  He gave me my first Colt 45 Auto).  

I have a Beretta National Match pistol built by Dave Sams with one of the alternate proposed solutions -- the Brigadier slide.

Never heard of/seen that before, very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

There’s a member here that has two of them. Can’t remember his name as he posted them ages ago.

I’d love to have one for the FS with a red dot mount and some Instagram worthy slide serrations.

Maybe these guys could be convinced to do a closed top

About $5,500 with fees, tax, shipping, transfer, etc. added on. If this pistol were to come up for sale on gunbroker, it wouldn't surprise me if it hit 3x that amount. I've already had offers on this pistol and I have turned them all down. I've also never run a serial number on any of my guns to see if they're stolen. If it's somehow stolen, the government can pick it up from me and Cowan's Auctions can send me a refund. I usually assume that these large, well known auction houses have their shit together and aren't selling stolen property.


Very cool, please post some photos of those pistols when you have time, I'd love to see them! I didn't know they submitted complete pistols as well. In fact, I don't think anyone outside the people involved in the program knew about the complete pistols. There's no photos or even a basic forum post about these frames. Literally nothing. So this is completely new information for everyone!


I sent that thread's link to my friend. Hopefully he talks to them and hopefully there will be a limited edition in the near future!

That is VERY cool.

That would be epic. Picturing a full slide 92X or M9A4 with some Gucci slide serrations gives me a half chub.

Congratulations.

What a fantastic acquisition.

I have never had the chance to get one.

Enjoy.

That's really cool.

@combatdiver

First, I want to say I love the photos of your pistol.  I think it is AWESOME!  My generation shot out our M1911s and had to fall back on M9s by default.  

USSOCOM was in its infancy, 1st SOCOM at Bragg was either lazy, stupid, or immature and wasn't going to get us replacement .45s from Anniston, and Congress was forcing the issue by not funding new .45 ACP ammunition.

So please, not trying to sound like a Richard-head, you need to find out from Beretta or a Crane FOIA whether or not your frame is a legitimate number.  The "BER" prefix serial seems off for the year produced.

Just from your jpegs, take a close look at the U.S.N. and CAGE code number font sizes, and the "Z" serial suffix.  They look just a touch off-size and slightly deeper -- not sure if that's due to roll-stamping or lasing.

Phrobis or Crane could have done the numbering just as well as the manufacturer to enter into the DOD Master Small Arms Serial Database.

If it helps, I think it's 99% legit -- but at the price you paid, I'd like to have a provenance letter from some entity.

Buy the gun, not the story -- unless it has papers.

Army Reserve Shooting Team M9s with .gov/.mil markings, but direct private sale:  

Attached File

@USMCSGT0331

Some reading material...








Beretta finally came up with the Brigadier slide and open top (what the author eluded to).

Man, this site needs a "Like" button.

Thank you, sir -- I'm always glad to learn something new!

The markings are definitely legit, they look different than the ones in your photo because that's a USA made frame and mine is an Italian made one. They were produced on different machines and my frame has different markings (USN vs US, cage code, etc.). The serial number is correct for civilian pistols at that time, military and civilian M9's had different serial number ranges. I've seen other civilian M9's in this same serial number range from the early 90's, so nothing out of the ordinary here. Like you mentioned, the Army Reserve Shooting Team pistols also had this prefix and suffix. Those were the only M9's released that had military markings and a civilian serial number. There's actually one up for auction right now, if you're interested in it I can send you a link to the auction.

Mine falls into a similar situation. Everything on it is military markings, but with a civilian serial number. The frame was probably custom made for Phrobis and then used for internal company testing or possibly even provided to the government for testing. A Beretta factory letter should show where it was delivered and a FOIA request might show any government testing. The serial number (BER086363Z) is legitimate, you can look it up on Beretta's website, they say it was made in 1990. It's definitely the real deal, I just have no idea if it was made for Phrobis or the government. Even with a civilian serial number, they can still take it in on a submission for testing. The frame was clearly made to go with this slide, since they both have the Phrobis cage code and both are marked USN. Here's the Beretta serial number lookup:

http://www.berettasupport.com/applications/tech_data/schematics_search_2.htm

Let me know if you're ever in MN, we can take this pistol and a ton of other cool stuff to the range!


Thank you for posting those pages of the book! I need to go find a copy of that book now. Very cool that only 20 were made, I thought it might have been more than that. I wonder what happened to them, most likely destroyed during testing or destroyed because the government loves to feed Captain Crunch (which is extremely unfortunate, lots of our military history gets destroyed). I'm working with one of the guys who runs the M9 archives over on the Beretta Forum. He's never seen one of these frames and they only have a few photos of real slides. I'm going to get the pistol professionally photographed and do what I can to help research it. I'll keep this thread posted on what I find. Thanks again for posting this information!

@SecretSquirell, you like cool military shit, so you can't miss out on this thread!

Weapons sent for government testing fall into a few different categories:  did the government buy it, or was it provided by industry solely for the test?

If government-purchased (with as small a lot as it was) the other items may have been retained as samples or logged into the service's museum system as artifacts -- at worst they would have been demilitarized per policy and the de-mil manual.  A FOIA to Crane might show what's in storage / mothballs or destroyed, or returned to vendor.

If industry-provided, the weapons would have been returned on completion of test and/or trials, and the manufacturer could do whatever it wanted with them (kept, sold, given away, auctioned off, or destroyed).  There are a few other examples:  Colt provided an M4A1 from first year of delivery, displayed in the lobby of USSOCOM headquarters; an M4 from the Regular Army purchase is on display in the Infantry Museum at Fort Benning; and both Colt and Beretta provided weapons for permanent trophies on display at Fort Benning's Maneuver Center of Excellence for the Army Small Arms Championships.


Attached File


So, if you're an optimist, your pistol could very well have been one of the original twenty guns -- Beretta might have an idea how many they made and marked, and who they shipped the serial number lot to (per ATF documentation, i.e., "Serial BERXXX00Z to BERXXX21Z shipped to United States Navy Property (or Test) Officer, Crane, Indiana").

If so, you have The Unicorn still in civil circulation.  

The sun just might shine out your back-side.  

If you shoot it, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD VIDEO IT AND POST IT TO YOTBE!!!"

Congrats, and well done OP, well done!

Whoa!

@USMCSGT0331
You sir, are the fortunate owner of a unicorn from unobtanium.  I personally, would not shoot it.  It will only appreciate!  

I chased for one (slide) in the 90s, but the deal fell thru.  Nice to see pics of a complete gun!

Cool piece of history. I like that replacement slide better than the Beretta version.

Thanks again for the information and compliments! I just submitted a FOIA request for this pistol and I also asked for any information pertaining to the Phrobis slides. I guess we'll just wait a few weeks/months and see what comes back. We already know the slide is insanely rare, but hopefully they'll send historical information back on the frame! I really think this is the M9 unicorn! I can't think of a better/cooler M9, unless someone has a transferable with a fun switch, lol.

And of course I'm going to shoot it! I don't know how to make/upload videos, so you guys will have to settle for some pics. I've got some other interesting/rare military pistols I can bring with.


Why not shoot it? It's quite literally the safest M9 on the planet, there's nothing to worry about! Out of all the M9's ever made, this is the one I feel the most comfortable shooting, lol. I'm going to shoot it this week.


I like it better as well, too bad more weren't made

The only thing cooler and perhaps more rare would be a steel-frame 92 with a Phrobis slide.

I hate you.

Awesome, thank you for sharing this

Echoing my everyone else. I love this place exactly for stuff like this. I had never heard of Phrobis and to see so many jump out with knowledge makes me wish to he able to do that too, someday.

@USMCSGT0331

Definitely post pictures/video and a target group!  

Congrats!

Neat! Thanks for sharing a piece of history.

- One contractor can not mark another’s cage code on an item. I’d have to make an inquiry or two for the specifics but I know that is a huge no-no.
- The Phrobis slide project was shelved several years prior to that frame. I don’t even think they were still in the bayonet game at that point and I’m not sure but I thought Micky Finn would have been working with KAC by 1990.
- All marks are rolled onto M9’s and if I had to guess based on the photos, the “USN…etc” looks like it was electro etched or maybe lasered.
- I’ve also never seen an M9 with anything service specific on it like USN and that alone would be a red flag for me.

The slide certainly looks legit (just like mine) but if I had to guess the frame was a force-match for looks. In any case, the slide is the money and you’ve got a cool thing there.

Very nice find. I think I would shoot it some. Enjoy

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