Bersa BP9CC - Initial Impressions, Joint review

I generally carry a Glock 19, or another Glock that is just like the first one, everywhere it's legal to take one. I try to put 50 rounds a week through one, and they are boringly reliable. Since I'm tall, they conceal just fine. Other, smaller people, need to find somewhat smaller guns. This weekend, we managed that particular task, with a particularly well-suited example.

My SO, Bumblebee, is a stellar shot with a Glock 19, but it's not a suitable carry pistol for her diminutive frame. At 5'3" and 105lbs, it's not really possible for her to dress around it. Similarly, she can wrap both of her diminutive hands around the Glock, but it's not a very secure grip. We've thoroughly explored every option on the shelves of the store, and the best grip size we found was the Walther PK380, which is out of the running, for reasons of QC. A very close second was the Bersa Thunder 380, and I've sold literal dozens and dozens of them to near-universal acclaim from new and experienced shooters. The Thunder380 is an intelligent evolution of the Walther PPK design, with a real external slide stop, and none of the issues that plague the current crop of cast-internals Walther PPK that S&W is offering for sale in the US.

Even as reliable and compact as the Bersa Thunder380 is, it's not perfect. It's a straight blowback design, and this can cause the recoil to feel a bit too snappy for some shooters to enjoy practicing more than a couple of rounds. The safety is resolutely European - it's backwards, just like the safety on a Walther P38. Taking the safety off requires shoving the side of your thumb up and forward, in a movement that has nothing to do with acquiring a good shooting grip on the gun. Lastly, it's got a DA/SA trigger pull that's not terrible, but will definitely hurt the potential for good trigger control, especially in new shooters.

BP9CC, side view

The Bersa Polymer 9 Concealed Carry is a name that needs only a "HD 4G LTE" suffix to be worthy of an Android phone for Sprint, so for brevity and sanity's sake, I'm going to refer to it as the BP9CC for the remainder of the article. Long-winded moniker aside, the BP9CC fixes every issue I have with the Thunder380, as well as a lot of issues that I have with the current batch of pocket-sized 9mm pistols.

First off, the polymer frame is much more comfortable than the Alloy Thunder380 frame. It doesn't feel cheap like Kel-Tec plastic, has a compact beavertail that allows a good, high grip, a generous trigger guard for a gun this size, and an accessory rail. The magazine release is ambidextrous, and the slide stop is a substantial chunk of easy-to-depress steel.  The slide is squared off and heavier by a few ounces than a few of the gun's nearest competitors - the Taurus 709, Ruger LC9, Kahr CW9 or the M&P Shield. Of those mentioned, our experience with them in test-firing was that they all had snappier recoil, with the Shield by far the best of a fairly unpleasant group of baby 9mm pistols. The BP9CC, by comparison, is even a little more pleasant to shoot than a Glock 26, and neither of us felt fatigued or beaten up by the grip afterwards. I really can't stress enough how nice it is to find a 9mm pistol with roughly the same external measurements of a Thunder380, that is also easier and more pleasant to shoot.

The iron sights are white 3-dot sights, nothing fancy, but there's a clear provision for night sights down the line, as they're dovetailed, front and rear. There's no external manual safety, which may delight the lefties among us, as well as those trained on Glocks and other point-and-click interfaces. The trigger is worth its own paragraph. It's wide faced and fairly flat, with a takeup that does build a bit in weight, but doesn't exceed 6 lbs, and it's a surprise break that rolls right over, with no over travel. The reset is very short and fast - maybe 1/10th of an inch - and it's tactile and audible, resetting with clicky authority. Of the competition, the M&P Shield had a trigger that felt nearly this good, and it's whole miles better than an LC9 or PF9. Striker-fired does seem to be the way to go, if you want a short, fast trigger action in this size.

I have a few quibbles with the BP9CC, it's not perfect. Takedown requires pulling out the slide stop, then inserting a magazine into the grip  to pull the trigger to release the slide. I've very anti-magazine-safety, and I suspect I'll have that feature corrected by a qualified gunsmith sometime soon. There's an integral hex-key lock built into the right side of the slide, and it's an unattractive spot for a metal zit, but I am certain that it, too, can be rendered moot with the skillful application of dollars to my gunsmith's hand. Other than that, there's not too much bad to say yet.

BP9CC in the hands of prospective buyer

Bumblebee fired 100 accurate rounds though the BP9CC I had tried, and provided succinct feedback. "It feels good. Not too much recoil, I like the Glock 19 better, but this I can carry. I'll get one of these." She proceeded to do just that, and is happy with her purchase. I think I can count on her to initiate more of her own practice with this firearm, and once she selects a holster or has one made that is an exact fit, she's ready to carry. It's always more exciting when the gun is truly yours.

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Vindication for elitists!

I'm determined to beat Tam to this bit of juicy hilarity, because it seems very likely that she'll be funnier, so I'll settle for first.

Bruce Lee Jennings, infamous manufacturer of Bryco firearms, is responsible for more cast metal, gun-shaped obscenities in the past few decades, than any other domestic manufacturer. The thankfully now-defunct Bryco manufactured a few models of unsafe, undesirable blowback handguns; bad designs executed so poorly as to make Hi-Point pistols seem precision-engineered and modern by comparison. These irresponsible business practices bit Bryco and Jennings in the ass when, due to inherent design flaws, one of these pot-metal wonders discharged all on its own (yes, an occasion that the fabled cry of "It just went off!" was actually so) and paralyzed a young tyke standing too close. Said victim, as might be expected, sued Bryco out of existence, and the Jennings line of firearms ceased to be the worst handgun offered to consumers, a bad dream conjured up in memory every time a customer brings one into the fun store for service. Our standing policy is to inform them of the danger inherent to chambering a round in a Bryco, refuse to fix or repair it, and offer to destroy it via bandsaw at no charge. The gun itself is a source of constant amusement to the gunsmiths, described often as a gun so terrible, you'd have to be some sort of unrepentant, kiddie-touching pervert with a windowless van to design or manufacture it. This accusation is often applied to those who knowingly own and carry a Bryco as well.

You can just imagine the howls of laughter when it became clear today via the Effa-Bee-Eye, that Bruce Lee Jennings is almost certainly an unrepentant, kiddie-touching pervert with gigabytes of child porn in his possession. The gunsmiths now feel entirely vindicated in their opinion of the manufacturer, and join me in urging all current owners of Jennings/Bryco firearms to pitch them off a bridge post-haste, lest they be summarily mocked via association.

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When the Silicon Valley Tech Bloggers call you on your BS.

Michael Arrington, once of Techcrunch, now a VC (Venture Capitalist) has put together what myself, and the small, vocal minority have been yelling about since the year the words "Patriot Act" were first spoken. Namely, that expanded police powers to track and locate you and I, via the Magic Elf Box in our pockets, are unconstitutional, and a definite invasion of our privacy, no matter what the courts say about it. When you read the decisions, it's pretty clear that they're not looking out for you and I over the last decade. As the title suggests, the tech-savvy people who make and market phone apps for a living may yet realize "Waitaminnit - they're tracking me right now if they want to, and it's legal?" and show some opposition. Let's hope.

On a completely related note, anyone notice that the 2012 Democrat Party platform dropped or weakened its planks opposing Patriot Act (warrantless) surveillance, enhanced interrogation, and indefinite detention? Geez, guys, way to tip your hand. It's not like the last 4 years showed any improvement in the Bush-Era civil rights policies, did you really think it was smart to visibly remove them from the bottom of the To-Do-Someday list? That's just telegraphing intent.

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Partisan Policies

McThag reminds us that our representatives are not neccesarily friends of our Second Amendment rights, just because there's a little red (R) after their name - and in many more cases than not, the (R) holders abuse that belief, and our trust, once they've climbed the ladder to its (visible*) peak of the Presidency. It tends to take the blustery wind out of a customer's lung-powered sails when I, in an attempt to cut short a rant about Them Democrats Banning Our Guns, casually remark "Well, more Federal gun bans passed under Republican presidents than t'other..."

I'm not deluding myself that Democrat presidents are friends to gun owners, but at least the Republicans will fight them tooth and nail on the subject. When it's Our Side doing the abridgment, apparently it's downright justifiable to turn the ratchet tighter. I'm opting out of this particular shell game for Gary Johnson this year, as I'm not in a swing state, and I'm not going to truss or baste myself for either party - again.

*Obviously, the president is a figurehead, a puppet for the Illuminatus.1

1.Yes, I'm kidding.

"Hundreds of times, ain't nothing happen a'tall..."

There's an excellent discussion in comments at Tam's regarding handling your loaded firearm in public. (I chipped in my $.02 in comments around #40.) No one is 100% careful all of the time, and we all should strive to be exactly that with firearms. However, proof abounds that we just aren't perfect, and the less chances you give yourself, or someone around you, to screw up your handling of a loaded gun, the better. Even better than a theoretical robotic, sober, unfailing adherence to the Four Rules, is not handling the deadly weapon in the first place, if you don't have to. The Law of Averages states that if you handle, load and unload your carry pistol every day, that you have a lot more chances for something to go pear-shaped, than someone who handles that loaded gun only when necessary.

Last week, I had a customer ask to see a Streamlight TLR-1s light, and in the time it took me to crouch and retrieve its laser-equipped counterpart, he had whipped out his loaded and chambered Glock GXX from his right hip, and put most of his hand and the light in front of the gun, as he swept 30% of the store with the muzzle in trying to slide on the light. It took me several seconds to get him to stop moving, reholster the gun and properly listen. He defensively reminded me that "My finger was off the trigger!" I responded, I bit tersely, that "Your gun is always loaded until shown otherwise, and there's a sign!" He pouted, gave the light back and he left. This is not a unique or isolated incident, and even if he had held that gun for hours with his index finger extended, it still was poor gun safety for a public place.

I am all for dry-fire practice, holstering drills, and changing out my carry ammo for target ammo at the range - but all of these things should take place under controlled circumstances, with safe backstops. The crowded counter of your local gun store is none of those things. If you want to test a light or holster or other gun widget, walk in with it unloaded, please. Your local gun store manager/clerk/gunsmith will thank you.

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Lock on, and enlarge the Z Axis!

Enhance!

The amount of magic that the average CSI-watcher thinks I can accomplish as a "Computer Guy" is astonishing. It's all bitmap at maximum resolution, folks - It's not going to reveal secrets, additional pixels, eyeball reflections, or image rotations. Computer myths are very similar to gun myths, actually...that's another, longer post.

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Conversational Snippet

Gunsmith: "In a fight between Charles Daly and Dan Wesson, who do you think would win?"

Q: "I kind of think that both of them would hire private contractors to fight it out for them, in a 3rd world country that they import firearms from."

Gunsmith: "Yeah! They're not going to get their own hands dirty after all."

Q: "I like to imagine that they'd fight in Zincistan, a small benighted former possession of Turkey. They're impoverished, lacking natural deposits of iron and carbon, but the land is rich in zinc, tin and copper."

Gunsmith: "Or all of their steel is re-purposed from Soviet-Era turnip graters, maybe!"

Q: "This is getting blogged, asap."

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