Beretta M 92 FS All Metal .177 Caliber Pellet Gun Air Pistol

This is my 7th Beretta replica, 4 BB shooters and this one joins my other two pellet shooters. I love Berettas. All of my Berettas are great shooters and this one is no exception. It has a great trigger and the pistol has great realism in balance and operation. Accuracy is very good with 8 out of 8 pellets within a 2 inch target from 10 feet, and 5 out of 8 on average within a 2 inch target from 20 feet. I consider that pretty good for a short-barrel pistol, but the barrel IS rifled. I find that using a 2 inch target gives me a really solid way to evaluate any of my airguns, PCP or CO2. Moving further away is also good for rifle testing but handgun performance suffers greatly when you move out past 20 feet with hand held stance and it is too subjective to count anything much further due to short barrel and human performance.That said, the black pellet version of the M92FS joins my other 2 in performance. Great accuracy. Performance specs as follows using 7.4 gr Crossman Wadcutters: Hi Velocity=424 fps, Lo=391, Mean Velocity=407 fps, SD=13.29 fps. The 7.4 gr Wadcutters passed spec in my opinion (i don't count 1 fps under to be significant). Next time around might hit 425. Using 5.71 grain H&N non-lead Greens: Hi Velocity=472 fps, Lo=433 fps, Mean=455.2 fps and SD=15.34 fps. Most mfg performance figures seem to come from lighter weight pellets so I try to validate performance using them also whenever I can. Most mfg specs list Max velocity these days, rather than average, using lighter pellets rather than 'average' weight pellets for each caliber. Data was collected using an FX Radar Crony.I am not a great fan of the 'lever action' pellet piercer mechanism but it does the job. You just have to get used to using the right thumbscrew tightening point. The weight of this pistol is realistic, balance is good, and trigger is great shooting single action (not bad in double-action, either). My other two M92FS Pellet airguns are Nickel with Wood handles and the other is Nickel with Black handles. I have added simulated wood grips on my new Black 92FS as soon as it arrived and I had tested the pistol. Unfortunately, I purchased the last set of grips from Pyramid Air for this pistol and they no longer stock the grips. These grips are specifically for the airgun version of this Beretta, rather than for a real Beretta, so they come with the hardware on the right hand grip. Be careful if you are looking for wood grips because you may have to sculpt them out with a Dremmel and adapt the snap-in hardware from the grips that came with the pistol. The sights on this model not with white dots. Front sight is thin and black. Rear sight is black but adjustable for windage.I consider this Beretta to be a great addition to my collection and I love to use all of them. The BB versions of the Beretta series, A1, A3, 84FS, and the Cyanogen Swiss Arms versions are all great shooters with better than average accuracy. If you don't have a Beretta in your collection, I strongly recommend adding one. They are all great shooters.

Update: 04/01/2014Since September 2012 (when I wrote this review), I have shot hundreds of rounds with this pistol and have changed my rating from 4-stars to 5-stars. I no longer see any problem with the CO2 cartridge replacement, and the pistol keeps the CO2 in the cartridge longer than any CO2 powered device I have ever used. The only difference between shooting this and the real thing is the lack of recoil. Other than that, this is an ideal training tool as well as an excellent pistol for shooting at tin cans and other target material. Also, the Umarex laser I now have is adjustable for azimuth and elevation. It works as well as I had hoped.Original Review:Perhaps, I should have made this 5 stars: I am very happy with the pistol, so far, but I have a few minor complaints. First, there is the issue of the co2 container insertion and removal. When I do it exactly right, it is much better than the regular screw-it-in-tight procedure. However, on one occasion I screwed it in too tightly and had a problem removing it. I doubt I will do that again. Then, I overcompensated and didn't screw it in tightly enough and had to puzzle over the question of whether I had accidentally inserted a dead capsule, in which case I would have to remove it, or if there was some other problem. The problem is that one cannot loosen the capsule slightly to see if there is still pressure: if you release the puncture device, all of the remaining gas comes out in one very frosty blast. As I said, this is a very minor complaint. A slightly larger problem is that when one opens the magazine release, the "magazine" drops off to the right. I hold the slide with my left hand while activating the release with my right which sometimes has resulted in my dropping the magazine. On one occasion, the one-foot drop resulted in eight pellets scattered on the ground. I would prefer it to simply open and let me remove it. Also, If I remove the magazine to check the number of pellets left, I find it difficult to replace the magazine with the next pellet in the proper position. Finally: sometimes, a tight pellet will not be projected, but left halfway out of the magazine. This disables the gun's ability to rotate the magazine. So far it has not damaged the gun. Most annoying is the limit of 8 rounds to a magazine.Now the good: 1) The sights on the gun seem to be very well aligned. The only deviation I see in the cluster is a gradual and predictable drop caused by the decrease in CO2 pressure. 2) Although the gun is heavy and I have small hands for a man, I have no problem holding it steady and getting a good finger placement on the trigger. 3) Trigger pull using the gun in double action mode does not result in as much gun movement as I had expected. 4) Both target and hunting pellets show high accuracy, the target pellets, however, are held more securely and are less likely to spill from the magazine (see above).Incidentally, I could find only one laser sight for the gun. It functions quite well, but has no mechanism for adjustment. Mine aligns very well horizontally, but at a distance of 20 ft. the spot is about 4 to 6 inches above the target when fired with a new cartridge. At 10 feet it is quite precise. The pellet will repeatedly hit the dot. That still makes it a good aid in aiming. I am not at all sorry I purchased it: either the gun or the laser.EDIT: I have found a Umarex laser sight for this pellet pistol that is claimed to have alignment capability; both azimuth and elevation. My laser is also Umarex, but in a closeup view this one looks slightly different from mine. The Beretta FS92 pellet pistol with this laser would be a hard combination to beat.

Good

Just opened the box, came with just the gun and some documents. Both magazines are missing, there are some light scratches across the gun, and a big chip on one side of the wooden handle. Haven't gotten the chance to test it yet, and might end up returning it before I can do so.