Beretta Model 92F Slide Question

Jack said:

I need some help concerning a Beretta 92F I just acquired. Its an AU stamp indicating 1989 manufacture, but I need to find out if this pistol could possibly be subject to the Model 9 slide failure problem I've just read about on the main page, here. … Its a Made in Italy model, s/n D73xxxZ

Click to expand...

If it was manufactured in Italy in 1989, then that is well after the date of that limited run of slides for the French contract which specified Tellurium as an inclusion.

The French quickly discarded that requirement since they discovered that it failed to produce the desired slide fracture toughness. It was the first, Italian-made and Italian-manufactured iteration of M9s into which those rejected "TE" slides were "dumped."

All this is explained on that M9 page. They who hath eyes, let them read… critically, of course.

CeePee's right… I know of no such Models 92SB/F which made it into the commercial distribution stream.

The USMC/M9 relationship is a contentious and amusing one… while slides were practicing field dentistry on SEALs and causing disorder and uncertainty throughout the rest of the Armed Forces and causing first 3,000 round count and then 1k RC replacement edicts to be issued, the Corps simply refused to accept delivery of the pistols, preferring instead to repair and refurbish their antediluvian inventory of M1911A1s.

In 1991, some members of Congress got enough heat from 1701 Indian Head Beretta Drive that it formally directed USMC to stop refusing to accept delivery of the M9s. The following year, realizing the gaping "loophole" their Act had permitted, they passed another one, this time specifically ordering the Corps to stop simply accepting those deliveries and warehousing them, and to start issuing the M9s to its personnel.

Gentlemen, Let me start by saying thank you one and all and that I am not a professional writer nor a metallurgist. I read the article at http://www.thegunzone.com/m9-a.html , and said so in my original post via the runon sentence: "I need to find out if this pistol could possibly be subject to the Model 9 slide failure problem I've just read about on the main page, here". That article said that up to 160,000 ("possibly defective") pistols were made which might have had the problem. Since my s/n was in the 73000 range and since I'm ignorant of the prefix and postfix interpretations bracketing that serial number, I was rather justly concerned my aged yet still pretty enough visage might be in danger. This concern possibly hindered good reading. But I'll cite the other information from the article, I was further concerned that as late as Feb '88 the famous 6,000 round good - 6,0007 round slide separated event occurred. The article also stated that two Picatinny Arsenal (NJ) documents from 1989 stated there were metalurgical problems with slides. So who in his right mind would be confident in a 1989 manufactured Beretta ? I sure wasn't. Te was mentioned but the very word French was not found by my critical eyes or my web browser "Find on this page" application.
I am virtually sure now, thanks to all, that my 92F is safe and hopefully will provide years of enjoyable shooting.
Jack

Eureka! I found the following in a 1995 rec.guns post by Dean:
The French, which originally specified the Telurium inclusion in the slide

metalurgy, were savvy enough to realize that it did NOT in fact promote
fracture toughness. They change specifications before adopting the
pistols.
The "surplus" slides made it to this country, and every (EVERY!) one of my

original documentations occurred with one of the "Zero Waste Management"
slides containing >Te<, and which there is now a clear correlation between

As inspector Clouseau would say" "The mystery is solve Ed"!

Thanks Again Dean, CP, TrWnTN!
Jack