Beretta M9A1 USMC Pistol

Hey guys, welcome back. So today, I'm out here shooting my M9 service pistol. This pistol replaced the M1911 pistol in service with the U.S. military back in 1985. This handgun has continued in service to the present day and is fighting over in Iraq and Afghanistan as I speak. The Marines adopted a newer version of this M9 service pistol called the M9A1 and that's what I want to talk to you guys about here this afternoon. This is the M9A1. You should be able to tell just a couple of differences between it and the M9 that I have here. First of all, you'll notice the most obvious is it has this rail on the dust cover of the pistol. All the other features are pretty much the same. One other thing you will notice is look at the front of the trigger guard. Here's the M9 and here's the M9A1. You'll notice that it's and not serrated. There are a couple of other differences inside the pistol which we'll talk about here in just a few minutes. Let's do a little bit more shooting with the M9A1 before we get inside of the pistol. I'm holding the M9A1. Let's talk about the features that the M9A1 shares with its older brother, the M9. First of all, both pistols are double-action pistols. That means you can have the hammer rest on a live round, pull the trigger, it will draw the hammer to the rear, and fire the pistol. The pistol will cycle, the hammer will remain to the rear, and it becomes a single-action pistol. Both pistols feature a hammer drop safety. This lever is present on both sides of the handgun. Simply rotate it down and it drops the hammer safely on a live round. With the lever down or engaged, it also disengages the trigger so the gun cannot fire. Both pistols have 15-shot magazines, in some cases 17-shot magazines, and this is the magazine of the M9A1, which you'll notice is a nickel color, and we'll talk a little bit more about that here in a few minutes. Both pistols have just standard iron sights, a 4.9-inch barrel, and an 8.5-inch overall length between the two pistols. The fire controls on both pistols are non-ambidextrous. They're actually on the left-hand side of the pistol. You'll notice that the slide stop is not present on the right-hand side of the pistol. The only ambidextrous control is the hammer drop safety. Everything else is accessed from the left-hand side of the pistol, so it's definitely configured for a right-handed shooter. They use the same method of lockup and everything else. They also feature a loaded chamber indicator, which you can't really see because the pistol's not loaded right now, but there's a small red dash that will appear on top of the extractor when the weapon is loaded. Now let's talk about some of the differences between the two pistols. First of all, the M9A1 has a polymer trigger, and a polymer hammer drop safety lever. This pistol weighs 2.1 pounds. The M9 weighs 2.2 pounds, so it's saved about an ounce by using the polymer components. Also, the M9A1 has a polymer guide rod. The M9A1 has this accessory rail, which is useful for mounting lights and other accessories, like so, which is different than the M9. Now let's talk about that magazine. This magazine has a coating that's called a PVD coating. This coating reduces friction and allows the gun to work in sandy environments like those we'd find in Afghanistan or Iraq. And this is a specification that the Marines wanted with the pistol, and again, it's a 15-shot magazine. Let's take a look inside of the pistol. Before we get into the disassembly of the M9A1 service pistol, I want to talk about one other difference between the M9A1 and the M9. I'm holding the M9A1, and you'll notice it has a three-dot sight arrangement. The M9 uses a slightly different dot system. Let's take the pistol apart. Before disassembling the pistol, you'll want to make sure that the weapon's empty. Drop the magazine by hitting the thumb button, pull the slide to the rear, and make sure that the weapon's empty. I engage the safety. Now with your index finger, you have a disassembly tab right here. You just push that with your index finger, which then will allow you to rotate this lever down, and the slide just pops off the frame. Inside, we have a guide rod and spring, and the barrel and slide. You'll notice the markings on the slide are just standard Model 92 markings. This is on the civilian version of the M9A1. The only real difference—this is the exact same slide that's on the Model 92—the only real difference on the M9A1 is this rail system, and it says M9—actually on this side, here we go— says M9A1 on the dust cover. Reassembling the pistol is just as easy as taking it apart. Drop the barrel into the slide, guide rod back on, line up the rails, draw it to the rear, just draw it back partially, flick the lever, and the pistol is back together. One of the biggest challenges you'll find as a civilian owning the M9A1 pistol is that it's really kind of hard to find a holster that will fit it. This light rail makes it almost impossible to find a holster. Now, the Marines are using serpa holsters that are specially made to house this pistol. As a civilian, good luck finding something, but I did find something. The holster that I'm using out here today is a G-Code holster. The G-Code is a modular holster system. I've come to really like these holsters. It has a thumb brake system. When you push this thumb lever, it flips the hood out of the way, kind of like a Safariland holster, and then the pistol comes clear. It has a quick locking mechanism on it with a plate system that you can use on any type of web gear, like MOLLE gear, stuff like that. Leg holsters—they sell adapters for this holster for serpa leg holster system. All sorts of cool options for the holsters. You can get them not just for the M9A1 service pistol, but you can also get them for other popular handguns. Shooting the M9A1 service pistol is a real pleasure to shoot. Very mild recoil. It's a big handgun at 2.1 pounds. It's not a light handgun. It does have an alloy frame and a steel slide, but it's still really, really smooth to shoot. Now, you'll notice when the gun cycles, the barrel comes straight back when it unlocks. That's part of that P38 locking mechanism I talked about a little earlier. That helps to make the recoil impulse very, very smooth. If you're shooting a suppressor with this handgun, which you can buy threaded barrels for the M9 and the M9A1, it doesn't require a booster. But it's a very, very smooth handgun to shoot. The single-action trigger pull I found to be light and crisp. The double-action's a little heavy, but it's smooth. It's manageable. The grip is very thick. Unless you have big hands like mine, it's kind of a beast to get a hold of. But you can do it. I've known people with small hands that have shot them pretty well. The double-action trigger reach might be a little bit much for some, but overall, generally speaking, most people find the handgun a real pleasure to shoot. Now, that was some ball ammunition that I was shooting, and it's been 100% reliable. Here's some hollow point, 147-grain hollow points. Let's see how the M9A1 does with hollow points. 100% reliable. I've always found the M9 to be a fairly reliable handgun. Where it starts to become unreliable is in adverse conditions. You've probably seen some of my older videos where I'm taking the 92 Beretta and throwing it in the mud, and it's coming up not working. Well, that's just kind of one of the faults of the handgun. I believe this open-top design, it's kind of a weak point of the design. It allows debris and stuff to enter. However, if you keep the handgun clean, it's really a very, very reliable handgun, and it's accurate. When you buy the M9A1 service pistol, it will come in this plastic box. Inside the plastic box, you'll find some accessories. The owner's manual, spent case, things like that will be tucked up underneath this foam insert on the top. It has a spacer to keep the lid from crushing down on the pistol, a lock that's in a Beretta-branded box, and a spare magazine. And, of course, the pistol will also come in the box as well. The pistol will have a magazine in the gun for a total of two magazines, and you can buy this handgun for right around $590 to $600, depending on where you shop. I did buy this handgun from my local gun shop, Bly Sports, in Valparaiso, Indiana, and I paid right around $600 for the handgun. Overall, the quality of the handgun is superb. They are built in the United States to meet the government contract requirements for a U.S. service pistol. The handgun feels good in the hand. It shoots very well. It's an accurate shooting handgun. For $600, it's a good buy. I don't think it's an unreasonable price for the handgun. Again, it's very high quality. You're probably going to find it to be very reliable. You can buy parts and accessories for the handguns, although keep in mind, as I mentioned earlier, holsters might be a bit challenging for this handgun given its light rail accessory. This handgun has another handgun that's very similar to it called the Model 92A1. It has many of the same features as the M9A1 pistol, including this rail. However, where the sights on this handgun are fixed, it's dovetailed in the rear and then machined into the slide for the front sight. The 92A1 will have a dovetail front sight, so if you want to replace the sights and put, you know, tritium night sights or something like that on the handgun, you can do that with the Model 92A1. The M9A1 is the Marine Corps' new service pistol, and that's the reason I wanted to buy it. It goes nicely in my collection of Berettas. If you guys have any questions about this handgun, you can ask those questions on our Facebook page. You can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com forward slash military arms. As always, everybody, thanks for watching. Thanks for those subs, and I will talk to you guys soon.