Who would have thought a Bersa CC .380 was any good!

Now first off I'm a Glock man. Glock 26 and/or 43 are the carry guns. Glock 40 MOS 10mm is one of my field guns. And at other times I'm a 1911 man to. .45 and 10mm! And even a S&W J .38/357 man!

But I wanted to see what the Bersa CC Thunder, which looked so cool, would do.

Bought a chromed CC Bersa .380 at a pawn shop. $175, tax included!! Came with case, papers, trigger lock key, and that one spent case... and just one mag (bummer!)

Went out using Winchester white label FMJFP and CCI Gold dots. With the Winchesters at 5 yards (checking to see if the fixed sights shot POA) it put all 8 rounds into one ragged hole! And get this, right were the sights looked!! Holy cow! I did this with three mags full and then went to CCIs. The gold dots opened the group a bit but not much!

Later I got two new Bersa mags for the CC, I call the gun CC now, and Fiocchi ammo (FMJ). Groups not quite as good as the Winchesters and it shot a bit high. Maybe an inch high, big deal!

In all I’ve put about 100 rounds through the gun with all three mags. NOT ONE JAM!!!

Excellent! Total cost, including two spare mags, $237!

No, it ain’t my Kimber Classic Stainless MK 1 nor my Glock 26, nor any one of my precious S&W wheelguns, but it is an excellent little carry gun!

Like the Rossi 92 lever gun (and I have two .44 magnum Rossi's, one a stainless steel 16 inch job in .44 magnum and the other a nickle plated 20 inch, also in .44 magnum) the Bersa CC is hard to beat.

I'm not a big Taurus fan, but the Bersa and Rossi guns I am now.

My wife and i both tote Bersa CC's. Had a beautifully blued, woodened grip all steel Bersa 383-a for a good while, back before they became popular. Never a jam with any ammo yet, but my CC, which i bought for 126.00 dirty and rusty, will occasionally allow the hammer to follow the slide. A double action pull will fire it, but i havent figured out what is going on yet. I still carry it lol. Good guns.

Maybe 5-6 years back, I had a friend who bought a Bersa Thunder, and wanted me to check it out for him (he hadn't fired it yet). I put close to 100 rounds through it, various headstamps and reloads, and it functioned perfectly.

My only Bersa Thunder CC purchase came out of a pawn shop. I originally set out to buy one new, but the pawn broker assured me he would stand behind the sale of the used one he had.
So, after purchasing the CC I brought it to the range next day and fired 100 flawless rounds of mixed factory ammo . The gun was accurate and ran without a hitch.
Next day I attempted to clean it but the gun got all jammed up and I couldn’t take it apart. I brought it back to the pawn shop and the owner and another worker Were not able to get it apart either. So, he gave me a full credit which I put toward a brand new G42 which I really like. TheGlock has been flawless in approx. 500 rounds. I wanted the Bersa to work out, but it didnt.

I had a Bersa .380 before they came out with the Thunder. I traded it off for a square butt Model 10 that I planned to give to my brother. I've always regretted that, actually, but recently I acquired a SIG P-230 that is similar in size so I feel better about it! I guess the Beretta Model 85 is similar in size, too, but it just doesn't feel as sleek as that Bersa did or the SIG.

I like mine.

My Bersa Thunderer has over 2000 rounds downrange without a hiccup of any sort. Great trigger to boot.

Many like to bash them, but I quite enjoy mine. It gets carried on occasion.

Many years ago in a pawn shop, I was very happy to have mine with me, as it looked like a robbery was pending.

The owner was a friend of mine and later told me he was counting on my being armed as he could not get to his 1911 from where he stood.

The robbery did NOT materialize and we could chat after the man left.

The owner was a retired 82nd Airborne CSM and felt foolish that he got himself out of position.....I know he could certainly have taken care of things were he to have been better positioned.

He did thank me for staying as a sort of backup for him. I did confirm to him that indeed I was armed and chose to stay in the background and observe.

Never even took the gun out, but did have my hand on the grip if I needed to.

Sadly he has since passed on.....

Randy

It seeems that...

Modern manufacturing has enabled 'inferiore' makes to improve their products, while the top tier which requires more handfitting skill are finding it harder to make their products.

I have had Bersa pistols -- a .22 and a .380 -- for a good many years. They are excellent.

Contrary to what arrogant people may assert, bad guns typically don't sell, and when they do, they quickly receive an overwhelming amount of negative feedback from those who have bought one then subsequently had problems with them.
Consequently, truly bad guns obviously won't receive much praise, ergo if a firearm gets mixed reviews with a fair amount of praise, then obviously they can't all be bad, at worst they just have poor quality control.
Lastly, most folks who lack much experience with a firearm tend to shy away from praising a firearm, especially when it has a bad reputation. (If anything, they're actually more likely to misinterpret any bobble they experience, regardless of the circumstances in which it occurs, as confirmation that it is indeed of poor quality/reliability.)

However, the reverse is not true, there are plenty of folks who lack experience with a particular firearm, some of them have never owned or even shot one, yet they're all too happy to join in bashing it with plentiful secondhand anecdotes regarding how poor quality it is.

So yeah, Bersa's aren't junk, nor are firearms by Taurus, Kel-Tec, Charter Arms, or many of the other firearms that get mixed reviews. They're just lower cost firearms, and sometimes an unfortunate consequence of lower cost firearms is lesser quality control, because time is money, so less time goes into inspection and acceptable variations in specifications tend to be looser.

Now I know someone may come along shortly to tell me in the rudest, most condescending way possible that I am wrong because they personally had negative experiences with one or more of the brands I mentioned, to which I will preemptively say; Granted, but your experience does not represent every single person who has ever owned one. In fact, I'm confident that there's at least one other person here who has had the exact polar opposite experience as you. The world is an imperfect place, things go wrong all the time, especially when less time is devoted to assuring that everything is in proper working order, but even when it is, things may still go wrong. The difference is, people have a tendency to stick with what they know, even if what they know isn't necessarily correct, ergo they're more likely to quickly accept an issue with something that has a bad reputation as confirmation, yet dismiss it when something goes wrong with something that has a good reputation as coincidence or otherwise as just a bad egg.

I believe guns in general are getting better as new manufacturing methods are being adopted. I remember when foreign-made handguns from all but a few old, established makers were dismissed entirely. Especially handguns from S.A. countries. I remember seeing a Taurus .38 revolver from the 70s and from what I remember, the quality. fit, and finish wasn't good. Nowadays, Taurus makes pretty good revolvers and some highly appreciated pistols. I've read good reviews of Bersas, and why not? All the Maks are excellent pistols, being in large part based on older, previous designed guns.

Had an older version of the Bersa .380 , I think it was the Md#83? . Didn’t pay a lot for it, it was used and a PPK lookalike. At the time I wanted a PPK and didn’t want to spend a lot of money at the time.
It was a very well built handgun, it shot well and I never had a problem with it.
Sorry I sold it....
I did eventually get a S&W built PPK

Dirty Harry Callahan said:

So yeah, Bersa's aren't junk, nor are firearms by Taurus, Kel-Tec, Charter Arms, or many of the other firearms that get mixed reviews.

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I have had a Bersa 383 (Steel frame, Kryptonite heavy for a 380) as well as a Thunder 380. I lend them to students if they need a range gun to take a CHL test. Thunder has 15 years. 383 has 25 years on it and still going strong.
I used to be a gun snob back in the day. Not any more. The Bersas, Kel-Teks, Iver Johnsons, H&Rs, Charters, and others are all excellent tools. Some have broken after use but so have the S&Ws, Colts, and Rugers.
Still like 'em all.

I also had a good experience with the Thunder CC. Picked it up used at a LGS with one mag. Misfeeds on the first full mag with ball. Took it home, cleaned gun and (significantly) mag and it worked flawlessly thereafter with anything I fed it. I carried it for awhile then passed it off to my daughter-in-law as a house gun.

Buick said:

My wife and i both tote Bersa CC's. Had a beautifully blued, woodened grip all steel Bersa 383-a for a good while, back before they became popular. Never a jam with any ammo yet, but my CC, which i bought for 126.00 dirty and rusty, will occasionally allow the hammer to follow the slide. A double action pull will fire it, but i havent figured out what is going on yet. I still carry it lol. Good guns.

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Clean under the trigger linkage. Take the grips off and clean well. YouTube has several good Bersa how-to-dos!!

The one I had was made out of monkey metal.

The disconnect broke in half after 30 or so shots. Getting it repaired by Berra was a pain in the rear. The part looked as if it was made of porous, powdered metal.

I am not the only person who’s experienced this. It might have just been my bad luck but I wouldn’t ever count on a Berra personally. Just my opinion. They certainly have their fans.

I have one of the Thunderers in satin nickle since 2004, and it has never had a problem. I should say I had one, as my wife has determined it is her gun now. Easy to manipulate the slide, easy/light double action and single action, and reasonably accurate. I never look down on a Bersa.