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daughter's bersa

3K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  hardluk1 
#1 ·
MY youngest girl is of legal age and going to take the ccw class. She is a little bit of a girl and has shot my taurus 85ss 38 cal. and my kahr cw9. She was not thrilled with recoil of ether for now so I tried her on a bersa 380 single stack at a store down the road and she liked it and can work the slide. Took it home broke it down to cleaned and checked it lubed it up and we then went out back to fire a few rounds. Gota say ,First time shooting one and its a cool little gun. Now gota get her some range time for her and her 380 this week before her class.
 
#2 · (Edited)
The Bersa Thunder 380 is a great little gun. Their known for their reliability. Although not the most potent caliber available in it's size. With modern defensive ammo it will do the job.
 
#3 ·
good luck. the bersa is a fine learning gun and carries well also.
my daughter has a nice purse (took a long time shopping to find the 'right' one)
so it fits in with her daily work style.

it looks like a ppks but at half the price and---the best part is--it works.
 
#4 ·
I have a neighbor that allways liked the bersa line as a good functional pistol line and this would be the first I have handled. This one was bought, tried and traded back for something in for a 380, just lighter. I picked it up for my girl for 200.00 and I have to say i was pleased with it. For the time being it fills that gap between a .22 and something bigger. She will shot either my 38 or kahr cw9 just not comfortable with them, so for her first pistol this will work out.

archer51 I could always bought her a 13oz with 9mm or a kahr cw40 and I am sure it would have end up not being fired and her going back to her old ways of no interest in firearms. No standard non-magnum handgun loads are potent up to and including the 45acp . And even the 357 I would concederd borderline with short barreled handguns. Give me a nice 140gr ballistic tip or sst delivered around 3000fps but thats hard to do with a concealable handgun and deliver quickly. And some well placed .22lr double taps are better than some yahoo that can't hit poop quickly and affectively with his 40 or 45 i those first couple rounds. We all started somewhere.
 
#7 ·
I have a neighbor that allways liked the bersa line as a good functional pistol line and this would be the first I have handled. This one was bought, tried and traded back for something in for a 380, just lighter. I picked it up for my girl for 200.00 and I have to say i was pleased with it. For the time being it fills that gap between a .22 and something bigger. She will shot either my 38 or kahr cw9 just not comfortable with them, so for her first pistol this will work out.

archer51 I could always bought her a 13oz with 9mm or a kahr cw40 and I am sure it would have end up not being fired and her going back to her old ways of no interest in firearms. No standard non-magnum handgun loads are potent up to and including the 45acp . And even the 357 I would concederd borderline with short barreled handguns. Give me a nice 140gr ballistic tip or sst delivered around 3000fps but thats hard to do with a concealable handgun and deliver quickly. And some well placed .22lr double taps are better than some yahoo that can't hit poop quickly and affectively with his 40 or 45 i those first couple rounds. We all started somewhere.
Not knocking your choice of caliber for her, if that is what she is comfortable shooting and can shoot it well, then it's a good fit for her. As you said, a gun/caliber she doesn't carry, because she doesn't like shooting it, doesn't do much good.
 
#5 ·
I have fallen for the foreign blowback 380 Walther look-a-likes. My daughter has confiscated my CZ 83 as her own. That's fine. She carries it now.

I'm now waiting for my new (CZ replacement) from Bersa. It's the Thunder Plus and should be in tomorrow. Depending on the Bersa's performance, I hope to trade it and get my CZ back.

Love shooting with my kid!
 
#6 ·
The Bersa Thunder is a fantastic handgun for concealed carry as it is compact, well built and affordable. Just make sure you select the best self-defensive ammo (Buffalo Bore) and then have her practice a lot. Good choice!
 
#8 ·
OK friends, repeat after me. The gun you have with you is a lot better than the one in the safe. If the .380 is what she likes for now, then so be it. Just curious, have you tried a double-stacked Bersa or is that too big?
 
#9 ·
Bersas are great guns for the price paid. Owned a UC45 nickel and loved it. Accurate and very little felt recoil. Excellent CCW. Currently have a bi-tone Firestorm 22 and it's a fun little plinker and warmup gun for new shooters. Enjoy the Bersa.
 
#11 ·
I agree JohnWFD. I have had a Bersa Thunder 9 UC for several years and it is an awesome handgun. Cycles great no matter what ammo or how dirty it is. Limp wristing does not affect cycling at all. Very soft shooter. I believe the Bersa line is underappreciated, overlooked, and very well priced.
 
#12 ·
Skeeter64 So far all double stacks are to big but some things my change down the road. Remember ,she is a slight built girl and even a pistol the size of the bersa ,or my cw8 at hard to hide. So I just have to keep my mouth shut and see if she finds one of my kahrs useable to her down the road. I don;t have a true mid size weight pistol that would allow her to ger use to the recoil with. But I have a friend with couple of small XD's she can try down the road..
 
#13 ·
oddly, we talk of 380 as if, cause its a 'small' 9mm (9x17 vs 9x19), its recoil is light.
rather incorrect with a fixed barrel such as the bersa, pp, ppk/s line of guns its rather 'snappy'
the Kel-Tec p3at (later the p380) and the older colt 1903 types are delayed-blow back operated and indeed do have
a recoil perceived as being much less than a 9mm; and for their size they tend to be considerer 'light' recoil shooters.

standard weight 380 has been 95gr. today there are to choose from 60gr--high velocity, to 110gr not as fast.
so we have yet the light and fast group and the slow and (relatively) heavy group

having a gun comes first, than as we are always listing location of shot placement next than is the actual projectile
accepting that you choose one that functions in the gun, next is what you shoot best--what goes where you point/aim it.
ammo for the 380 is sometime scarce and usually priced at or above even 45acp.

if you re-load that price not only comes down ( for practice ammo) to $6.00 box of 50 but you can make
various power levels; much like what is offered for 38 special; light-- wad cutters, medium-- semi-wads,
normal ( factory standard)-- round nose and than the +p's and no magnum, sorry.
so i make with bullseye ( verify with a reloading manual-Lyman's 49th is a good one of many)
light 2.5gr than a 2.8gr for standard and a 3.1gr to replicate a SD round.

perhaps practice live fire a box a week and at home, with snap caps, an hour a week of dry fire
it is a fine gun ( especially at the price!) and one of the easier to master.
within 3 or 4 weeks double taps and 3" groups at 15 feet (1 round per second) should be doable.

good luck
 
#14 ·
When i said recoil was very light I guess I am use to 9mm's weighing in around 12 to 14 oz and this bersa is right at 20 oz so reguardless of bullet or the fact that its a recoil or delayed blowback design it feels extremly lite in the recoil department.. Enough so I had to check to be sure everthing was working right. Just my view. Now if it weighted in at 8 oz. Yes in would be different. Allready picked up a few hundred georgia arms speer hp loads for her to start working with..
Nothing like shooting a 11oz revolver with 2 finger grip and 125gr +p loads to make you change something.
 
#20 ·
My own Bersa Thunder .380 came with a caveat from the dealer. He'd sold them for years and found them to be truly reliable firearms. Then for awhile, there were a number that had failure to feed or fire problems. With patience, those problems worked themselves out and his customers were ultimately happy.

I was one of those customers. My first failure to feed incidents in the first five boxes were as follows. Box 1-20, box 2-12, box 3-7, box 4-5 and box 5-3. Since that fifth box of ammo, I've had no failure to feed problems and have sent over 2500 rounds down range from this little gun. Failure to fire was another problem I experienced and that was traced to the ammo itself, either age of ammo or reloads.

The Bersa Thunder .380 I have seems to like the more rounded hollow point slugs. The hollow point rounds that did have failure to feed had more acutely angled slugs and a thinner jacket. In other .380 firearms, these rounds performed flawlessly.

Now that I have gotten this little weapon sorted out, it is a daily carry under light clothing. My daughter (also a little gal at 112 pounds) shoots it just fine. She prefers the heavier weapons to the lighter ones due to the stability they give her.

Good luck to you on your Bersa. You could do a whole lot worse and pay a lot more money.

I'll add that I have been a 1911 fan most of my life, but besides the Kimber I carried with the Sherriff's Office, I am also a huge fan of the CZ-82 in 9mm MAK. The .45 can be a bit heavy at times, but the CZ............. Now THAT is a sweet machine. A tack driver and inexpensive to feed. I carry any of them as required for 'social situations'.

Semper Fi
 
#21 ·
I too had one and I think it's a GREAT value. I just wish .380 ammo was cheaper becaue I like shooting it. I got rid of mine when I decided to simplify and consolidate my carry line up. If I was going to carry a gun the size of a Bersa IWB, then I wanted it to be a 9mm. I kept .380 only for dedicated pocket carry with a Kahr P380. But I do miss my Bersa. I took my CCW class with it and it never ever jammed no matter what ammo I fed it and it was one of my most accurate handguns. I didn't like the safety on mine; it was really hard to work. If I ever did carry it, I'd planned on leaving the safety off but that first trigger pull would be a bear! I suspect you'll encourage your daughter to practice the fist double action pull. After that it's sweet!

Good job Dad!

Gideon
 
#22 ·
Thanks for all the input. Last night my daughter asked if we can go to the range today. Heck yes, will be leave'n in about 30 minutes and now her hubby want to get his CC too. So i will pull out another handgun for him to work with . Yipeee,, nothing like more arm family members. Remember too, this bersa is a used gun so it is either a good one or a problem gun with rounds allready fire. Either way I never cared as I never found one I could not make run with a bit of polishing and tweeking so rounds down range will tell. I never trust any firearm till it proves it self and that would be more so for my daughter. If I can get her comfortable with any of my other handguns then great but for right now this is her starting point.
 
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