Tag Archives: 92X

Beretta 92 Inox, now optics ready

The Beretta 92 is an icon, some 50 years in the making, first hitting the market around 1975. It has evolved numerous times since then, and in 1990, the first Inox models– short for “Inoxidizable,” Italian for “stainless” hit the market. While the company had offered nickel models previously, the move to stainless was a first for Beretta and at the time was an obvious competitor to the brace of stainless S&W “Wondernines” then in production.

The Inox soon became familiar on screens large and small, appearing in the hands of everyone from Chuck Norris, Christopher Walken, and Sam Rockwell to Jean Reno, Pierce Brosnan, and Chow Yun-Fat. Both Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson used an Inox 92 in at least two different movies!

And for good reason– the guns just look great.

The new Beretta 92X RDO Inox
The new Beretta 92X RDO Inox. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The new Beretta 92X RDO Inox
While Beretta has put Inox guns in and out of production in the past 35 years, they are back and still look sharp. These new guns are made in Gallatin, Tennessee. 
The new Beretta 92X RDO Inox compared to old Inox
Compare the new 92X RDO Inox to a circa 2017 92FS Inox made in Italy. The X-series update is easy to spot on the newer gun as it has a slimmer, straight Vertec-style grip, an accessory rail, front and rear slide serrations, and a round trigger guard. 
The new Beretta 92X RDO Inox
And to be sure, the 92X RDO Inox sports both a stainless-steel slide and barrel on an alloy frame. 

Plus, it is now optics-ready.

Full review in my column at Guns.com. 

So I have been carrying the Beretta 92X Compact for 2 months…

I’ve have been shooting and carrying one of Beretta’s newest versions of their iconic Model 92, the 92X, and have a few things to report.

While the standard/full-sized 92X uses a 4.7-inch barrel to produce an 8.5-inch long handgun that tips the scales at 33.4-ounces while unloaded, the smaller Centurion is a more Commander-style offering with a shorter 4.25-inch barrel which boils down to a 7.75-inch overall length.

Going even shorter, the 92X Compact has the Centurion-length slide and barrel on a shorter frame (5.25-inches high, versus the standard 5.4-inch) to produce a handgun more suited for concealed carry. This puts the Compact in roughly the same class, size-wise, as guns such as the Glock G19, Sig Sauer P229, and S&W M&P M2.0 Compact.

I have carried it for over 400 hours and ran 2,000 rounds in it drawn from a selection of loads from Winchester, Federal, CCI (Blazer), Wolf, and PMC in weights between 115- and 147-grain with a mix of various training and self-defense ammo in standard commercial, military, and +P velocities.

Long story short: one malfunction in shooting, some belly skin lost in carry. Other than that, not bad. Not bad at all.

In the end, the 92X gives the modern shooter a reliable handgun that stands on 40+ years of legacy while having a lot of features– DA/SA hammer-fired action, all-metal construction, slide-mounted safety/decocker– that you aren’t going to find on the average plastic fantastic.

Further, it does it all in three available sizes with a ton of aftermarket support. The 92X series may not get people to drop their polymer striker-fired handguns, but it does give those who are familiar with, or prefer, the 92 families a more contemporary pistol that is both fun to shoot and dependable.

See the full review with more context in my column at Guns.com

A Brace of Berettas

Tullio Marengoni developed an innovative locked-breech pistol for Beretta in the late 1940s as the company was restructuring following WWII. Borrowing the open-slide format of the earlier 9mm Glisenti M1923, his much more modern design reached the market as the M1951 (or just 951) and only reached full production in 1956.

The single stack 9mm led to the Brigadier and other variants then, with some further growth and a conversion to a double stack, became Beretta’s Model 92 in the early 1970s (although it should be pointed out that the 951 is still very much in active production and use in Third World countries today).

Fast forward to this week, and Beretta has introduced the latest tranche of the Model 92 series, the 92X during a “Pistol Summit” held this week for a few select gun media folks– somehow including your’s truly.

The four new Beretta 92X pistols all use the “thin” Vertec profile frame, but are still backward compatible with legacy 92 parts. Top left to right: the railed Compact; Centurion; (rail-less) Compact, and, bottom, is the 92X Full-Size (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The four new Beretta 92X pistols all use the “thin” Vertec profile frame, but are still backward compatible with legacy 92 parts. Top left to right: the railed Compact; Centurion; (rail-less) Compact, and, bottom, is the 92X Full-Size (All Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Built on the Vertec profile frame with a straight backstrap and updated grip options, the guns all feature a round trigger guard, beveled magazine well, chrome-lined barrel with a recessed target crown, front and back cross checkering on the grip frame, and combat sights with dovetailed fronts. The guns use a steel trigger and mag release.

To understand where the new handgun line falls inside Beretta’s expansive Model 92 line, the 92X series is loaded with features and upgrades not found in the more vanilla 92FS/M9 pistols while coming in at a price that is more affordable than the M9A3 and the semi-custom Langdon Tactical/Wilson Combat 92G series guns.

And they shoot great.

More in my column at Guns.com.