I saw a Tisas Fatih last weekend at a local gun show and was almost impressed enough with it to buy it. But the matte finish, the wood grips and the squared off trigger guard similar to the Betetta 84FS didn’t quite move me. (Fatih means “conqueror” in Turkish, in case you are the curious type.)
It did however revive my interest in the Beretta 84 and in the 84BB in particular which have been showing up on the surplus police pistol market. I’m normally a “buy it after I see it in person” kind of guy but the local shows have been disappointing in terms of surplus or used firearms.
A quick internet search found several vendors selling them for more or less similar prices and claiming “excellent condition” with all of them having varying reviews and disagreement about what compromises “excellent condition”. Some of them have apparently arrived with significant dings and scratches as well as very worn finish.
I ordered one from PSA on Wednesday as they are more of less local being only 1 state away and the $349 price was on the lower end (and $50 less than a new Tisas Fatih).
It arrived today (Friday) and while I’d be more inclined to call it “very good” condition cosmetically speaking, it is indeed in excellent mechanical condition.
It shows some typical holster wear with some thinner bluing on the sharp edges of the slide and safety levers, as well as some worn anodizing on the edges of the alloy frame.the sights were worn almost shiny so they got touched up with some cold blue to improve the sight picture. The white dot on the front sight and the white square on the rear sight will need to be refreshed. Over all that is consistent with other European law enforcement surplus .380 ACP and .32 ACP pistols I have acquired that show evidence of being carried but rarely fired.
It needed a good cleaning and oiling, but cleaned up nice.
——
I have had a Beretta 80X for several months and I like it a lot. The DA trigger is exceptionally light and smooth by DA pistol standards. With the excellent trigger, weight, and substantial grip dimensions it is an excellent shooting .380 ACP pistol.
However, I’ve never been real thrilled with the rails or 84FS style squared off trigger guard. I’m of the opinion that lights on a concealed carry handgun are just not a great idea.
I also still prefer the curved back strap of the classic Beretta Cheetah pistols compared to the straight back strap of the 80X.
Beretta claims that the 80X and 84 magazines are not interchangeable but they sure seem to interchange just fine on my pistols. We’ll see how they each function, particularly with hollow points, in each handgun. Beretta claims the magazine follower and feed ramp in the 80X were optimized to feed hollow points. There is some difference in the body of the magazines with more clearance under the feed ramp in the 80X magazine, but the feed ramps look identical and there is only a very minor difference in the followers.
I suspect Beretta says they are not compatible and gives them different part numbers to avoid potential legal issues for both Beretta and its customers when selling the 10 round version of the 80X in ban states.
The 80X has removable front and rear sights and theoretically would have better after market sight options including tritium night sights than the fixed front sight 84BB.
Unfortunately the 80X comes optics ready with the rear sight incorporated in the optics plate. And of course no one sells an aftermarket tritium sight in that configuration (at least yet).
The biggest advantage of the older 84BB is that it is designed to be fired as either a DA/SA pistol carried hammer down on a loaded chamber or carried cocked and locked in condition 1, an option not available on the 80X. The 84BB consequently also has larger safety levers that are easier to hit with the thumb making it very practical to carry in condition 1. That makes up for the heavier DA trigger pull.
This one doesn’t have a typical Beretta date code in the serial number and is marked IT23 indicating when it was proofed for civilian sale.
The lack of a Beretta date code is typical on 84s used in military and police service. Consistent with that, it does have the G.F. “Guardia di Finanza” stamp. The Guardian di Finanza is not surprisingly a law enforcement arm of the Italian Ministry of Finance responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling, similar to our treasury department.
However it has also evolved into Italy's primary agency for suppressing the illegal drug trade in Italy's territorial water, borders, airports and customs entry points.
—-
$349 turned into $394 after NC tax and shipping and then a $35 transfer fee at my local gun shop, so $429 total. That sounds like a bit more than the $399 for the Tisas clone but that difference drops to just $3 after NC tax is applied. It’s also a Beretta and should hold its value well where the Tisas would take a 1/3rd hit in value as soon as it was out the door and be unlikely to get it back.
It did however revive my interest in the Beretta 84 and in the 84BB in particular which have been showing up on the surplus police pistol market. I’m normally a “buy it after I see it in person” kind of guy but the local shows have been disappointing in terms of surplus or used firearms.
A quick internet search found several vendors selling them for more or less similar prices and claiming “excellent condition” with all of them having varying reviews and disagreement about what compromises “excellent condition”. Some of them have apparently arrived with significant dings and scratches as well as very worn finish.
I ordered one from PSA on Wednesday as they are more of less local being only 1 state away and the $349 price was on the lower end (and $50 less than a new Tisas Fatih).
It arrived today (Friday) and while I’d be more inclined to call it “very good” condition cosmetically speaking, it is indeed in excellent mechanical condition.
It shows some typical holster wear with some thinner bluing on the sharp edges of the slide and safety levers, as well as some worn anodizing on the edges of the alloy frame.the sights were worn almost shiny so they got touched up with some cold blue to improve the sight picture. The white dot on the front sight and the white square on the rear sight will need to be refreshed. Over all that is consistent with other European law enforcement surplus .380 ACP and .32 ACP pistols I have acquired that show evidence of being carried but rarely fired.
It needed a good cleaning and oiling, but cleaned up nice.
——
I have had a Beretta 80X for several months and I like it a lot. The DA trigger is exceptionally light and smooth by DA pistol standards. With the excellent trigger, weight, and substantial grip dimensions it is an excellent shooting .380 ACP pistol.
However, I’ve never been real thrilled with the rails or 84FS style squared off trigger guard. I’m of the opinion that lights on a concealed carry handgun are just not a great idea.
I also still prefer the curved back strap of the classic Beretta Cheetah pistols compared to the straight back strap of the 80X.
Beretta claims that the 80X and 84 magazines are not interchangeable but they sure seem to interchange just fine on my pistols. We’ll see how they each function, particularly with hollow points, in each handgun. Beretta claims the magazine follower and feed ramp in the 80X were optimized to feed hollow points. There is some difference in the body of the magazines with more clearance under the feed ramp in the 80X magazine, but the feed ramps look identical and there is only a very minor difference in the followers.
I suspect Beretta says they are not compatible and gives them different part numbers to avoid potential legal issues for both Beretta and its customers when selling the 10 round version of the 80X in ban states.
The 80X has removable front and rear sights and theoretically would have better after market sight options including tritium night sights than the fixed front sight 84BB.
Unfortunately the 80X comes optics ready with the rear sight incorporated in the optics plate. And of course no one sells an aftermarket tritium sight in that configuration (at least yet).
The biggest advantage of the older 84BB is that it is designed to be fired as either a DA/SA pistol carried hammer down on a loaded chamber or carried cocked and locked in condition 1, an option not available on the 80X. The 84BB consequently also has larger safety levers that are easier to hit with the thumb making it very practical to carry in condition 1. That makes up for the heavier DA trigger pull.
This one doesn’t have a typical Beretta date code in the serial number and is marked IT23 indicating when it was proofed for civilian sale.
The lack of a Beretta date code is typical on 84s used in military and police service. Consistent with that, it does have the G.F. “Guardia di Finanza” stamp. The Guardian di Finanza is not surprisingly a law enforcement arm of the Italian Ministry of Finance responsible for dealing with financial crime and smuggling, similar to our treasury department.
However it has also evolved into Italy's primary agency for suppressing the illegal drug trade in Italy's territorial water, borders, airports and customs entry points.
—-
$349 turned into $394 after NC tax and shipping and then a $35 transfer fee at my local gun shop, so $429 total. That sounds like a bit more than the $399 for the Tisas clone but that difference drops to just $3 after NC tax is applied. It’s also a Beretta and should hold its value well where the Tisas would take a 1/3rd hit in value as soon as it was out the door and be unlikely to get it back.
Last edited:
Thought about another, but, nah.
