Four Critical Facts Regarding 9mm Pistols
Accurizing the Beretta M9 (or 92FS, which will be the model number given to the version that is available to the civilian population in general) is something that competitive shooters have been doing for a while fundamentally, but how to do it really is a relatively unknown art.
Virtually a simple little survey of sorts. We currently have the M9 (beretta 92fs, have a peek here, 9mm) as the common issue side arm for many military MOS's.
Luckily, it really is not that much different from what you should need to do to make just about any gun accurate. You can find some options that may also make the gun last a great deal longer in the event that you are a competitive shooter and need the frame (made of aluminum) to last for 10,000 rounds or even more.
The most difficult part of the whole process is the trigger job itself, which permits 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. in order to avoid accidentally discharging the gun). For many marksmanship competitions, trigger pull has to be at least 2.5 to 3 pounds. For "Service Pistol" competitions, the rule is 4 pounds minimum. If you're 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 quite a few reasons, not the least of which will be the proven fact that doing a trigger job on a Beretta is a significant 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 if you have done it a hundred times. So do yourself a favor and just tell your gunsmith what your minimum trigger pull must be.
Sear and hammer surfaces. The sear has a return spring which has to be carefully removed and re-installed correctly whenever work is performed on the sear. Take pictures just before removal to be sure you can replace it the way it's supposed to be. The sear surface has to be polished (buffing wheel or rotary tool) and a relief angle cut (just like what you should do when doing sear work on a 1911) but don't modify the sear angle itself, or the gun could possibly be unsafe. The hammer hooks need to be polished with a stone. Apply pressure-sensitive marking material (Dykem or other layout fluid), re-assemble everything and test everything. Disassemble and observe the bearing surfaces of the sear and hammer hooks to make certain there is consistent sear contact throughout the entire width of both the hammer hooks.
In case 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.
