The naked M9.
A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from my photographer, Preston. “Man you’ll never believe the gun I just bough.” He said. “I got a Beretta M9!” I instantly face-palmed. Nothing against the Beretta—but the M9A1 solves a lot of the issues inherent to the M9, and there’s a new version on the way. But Preston was a Marine and had wanted one ever since he got out. The M9 was nostalgic.
The next week at the range, he broke out the M9 and began to slow fire. No jams. No hiccups—just the crisp sound of steel singing. I loaded a few magazines and ran it through its paces. I instantly fell in love. But how could I justify carrying a gun like this? After all, this would break my very own rules. After searching the web, I found a possible solution. Recover Grips for the Beretta 92/M9 series pistols.
The M9 with the ReCover installed.
Made in Israel, and designed to rejuvenate an old workhorse, Recover brought the old gun up to the 21st century. It added grip texture, rail space, and a gave the M9 a new revitalized look. That old M9 began to resemble Beretta’s newest entry into the tactical market, the M9A3.
These grips take the gun to a new level of comfort. The pistol begins to feel less and less metallic. The additional polymer at all contact points eats a bit of recoil, and makes shooting the pistol that much sweeter. The full length 1913 rail allows for the addition of lights and lasers in multiple positions.
The only negative of the system is a little too much material around the trigger guard; it doesn’t effect function, nor is it a hindrance to performance, but it feels foreign for the first 50 or so rounds.
Finding a holster may be more of an issue, as the dimensions change. But ReCover offers holsters, and there are soft-sided options, too.
Installation of the grips is easy with the simple instructions and supplied tools necessary for the conversion. You will need a flat head to remove the grip screws on the M9. The process takes a little more than a two minuets to complete.
If you own a M9 or one of its nearly identical brothers, this new offering from Recover is more than worth a second look. They sell for $50, ship for free, and are backed up by a lifetime warranty. And they make them for 1911s, too. I could train around the missing rail and work with the tools I’m given, I guess–but reverting to stone age tactics seems futile. Maybe I’m just a young dog that refuses to learn old tricks.
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The extra material around the trigger is distracting at first.
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The grips screw into place where the old panels were, so there’s not to much change in the width.
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The new Beretta M9A3.
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All of the controls remain accessible, of course.
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The trigger guard looks good like my old Taurus PT-92.
This is actually better than the New Beretta. Would it work on a Beretta 96 ?
It looks like a practical attachment and it will attract those owners that like tinkering a bit too much or are unhappy with their pistol’s original configuration specially since it is a cheap alternative. But, if you are displease with your Beretta M9 or 92F (same thing just military vs civilian nomenclature) just get rid of it; sell it and get the money into a totally upgraded version like the M9A3 since it not more expensive. I for one, like my 92F just like it was when I first bought it. I was stationed in Frankfurt A.M., Germany in the mid 80’s and bought mine at the Wiesbaden Rod and Gun Club in 1986. The difference was that it was made in Italy instead of Maryland USA and had beautiful and shiny Italian walnut grips (it still does) not the plastic military grips. It has photo luminescent sights instead oft tritium and they must be activated with a UV light for darkness and they will last about 15 minutes before having to reactivate them. After 28 years, they still work. It has a heavy trigger pull but once you get used to it and learned to manipulate it with proper technique, the pistol becomes very accurate. Now I only shoot it occasionally since it have several other pistols, but it is always fun to take it out and shoot out to 50 yards. Other than a lighter trigger pull the only thing I would change would the front sights; this version’s front sight is not dove tailed but built in as integral part of the slide and cannot be changed. My pistol is fine the way it is and if you try to change it too much, you just take the pistol’s original essence from it and is not a Beretta but an ugly hybrid and I do not want to change the traditional and elegant Beretta looks of the pistol.
Alfonso, I’m with you, I wouldn’t change much on my 92. The only two things I changed was I added Millet adjustable sights because I’m a Bullseye target shooter and shoot different reloads that change point of impact depending on my bullets and load. I also swapped the hammer spring out with the light factory “D” spring but did not touch the hammer or sear, it breaks clean, just too heavy for target shooting. You can get the “D” spring from Brownell’s, item number 913-100-493WB This will reduce the heavy trigger quit a bit making the trigger pull a lot more enjoyable and it will not cause light primer strikes with commercial ammo or primer’s. I can’t say for sure if it will cause problems with military ammo or the thick cupped military primer’s because I haven’t used any.
I also want to say a Thank You for your service sir.
GW, glad to know my opinion counts for something once in a while. Very much appreciated. By the way, I paid just $325.00 for my Beretta back in 1986. The single action trigger pull is not bad at all, just 5.5 to 6 pounds. Double action is between 10 to 12 pounds, definitely a military trigger to prevent accidents. I have known about the “D” spring for sometime but my model of the 92F is a pain in the butt to disassemble the hammer spring housing because that lacks the spring at the bottom that allows you to take that portion apart by exerting pressure on the lanyard ring so that the retaining pin to be easily extracted without force or tools other than a pin pusher. Without that spring, it is too hard to take it apart without exerting a lot of force. So it is a matter of taking it to a gunsmith with the correct tools but I see no need for it. I am happy with the weapon as is. They are good for 30 thousand rounds plus with normal pressure rounds, as per the US Army testing reports that I read when I was assigned to Aberdeen Proving Grounds as a test officer in the late 80″s. Only an avid competition shooter can wear it out, not a regular civilian with occasional use.
Being a purest especially for old guns I didn’t like the idea of messing with the M9 but I have to admit it looks good. The trigger guard looks a little hokey but if you want the latest polymer look, accessory rails, etc in a older gun you could do a lot worse.