The Bright Side Of 9mm Pistols
Accurizing the Beretta Pistols M9 (or 92FS, which is the model number given to the version that is available to the civilian population in general) is a thing that competitive shooters are already doing for a while in essence, but how exactly to do it is a relatively unknown art.
Just about a simple little survey of sorts. We currently possess the M9 (Beretta 92FS 9mm) as the common issue side arm for some military MOS's.
Luckily, it is not too much different from what you would need to do to make just about any gun accurate. There are actually some options that will also make the gun last a lot longer if you are a competitive shooter and need the frame (made of aluminum) to last for 10,000 rounds or more.
The most challenging a part of the whole process will be the trigger job itself, which allows the shooter to fire the gun accurately without disturbing the sight alignment. Most military-grade guns "out of the box" have a relatively heavy "single action" trigger pull of between 5 and 8 pounds for safety reasons (i.e. to prevent accidentally discharging the gun). For many marksmanship competitions, trigger pull must be at least 2.5 to 3 pounds. For "Service Pistol" competitions, the rule is 4 pounds minimum. In case you are not just a professional gunsmith: take the gun to a gunsmith, let him/her handle that included in the work. You will be happier with the result for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the idea that doing a trigger job on a Beretta is a serious pain. It requires several iterations of taking the sear out of the frame and re-installing it to test pull weight, and getting the sear in and out of the gun is difficult even when you've done it a hundred times. So do yourself a favor and just tell your gunsmith what your minimum trigger pull needs to be.
Sear and hammer surfaces. The sear has a return spring which has to be carefully removed and re-installed correctly whenever work is done on the sear. Take pictures ahead of removal to make sure that you may replace it the way it is supposed to be. The sear surface must be polished (buffing wheel or rotary tool) as well as a relief angle cut (similar to what you would do when doing sear work on a 1911) but don't modify the sear angle itself, or perhaps the gun may be unsafe. The hammer hooks need to be polished with a stone. Apply pressure-sensitive marking material (Dykem or any other layout fluid), re-assemble everything and test everything. Disassemble and observe the bearing surfaces of the sear and hammer hooks to ensure there is consistent sear contact across the entire width of both the hammer hooks.
If you are a professional, qualified and insured: the trigger pull weight on a Beretta results from a mix of the condition of the sear surface and hammer hook surface, plus spring condition.
