Beretta .40 for cast?

[yondering]

I'm looking at purchasing a lightly used Beretta as a plinker (my 1911 is my "real" gun for serious purposes). It's chambered in .40 S&W, with the newer beefed up slide. It is the Elite II model, andthe action and trigger are like oiled glass, so I just had to have it. [smilie=1:

Anyway, what experiences do you guys have shooting cast in these? Any good? Any particular issues with these?

As a side note, why do the mags only hold 11 rounds? My 10mm Witness was about the same size, and held 15. Are larger capacity mags available (for the .40) that don't extend way below the grip? Not that I need them, just curious. 7 rounds in the 1911 is plenty, but it looks like the capacity of the Beretta mags is restricted for some reason (not the AWB either, because they are marked "11").

[Russel Nash]

I also shoot a Beretta 92 Brigadier (in 9mm). I bought some 20 round (9mm, mind you) mags made by MecGar off a fella by the name of Greg Kote or Greg Cote .

He has his own LLC in his name, so he might be easily google-able.

Anywhoo... those mags do extend maybe an inch below the frame grip area, but they base pads are ribbed in the front to match the ribbing on the frontstrap on the Beretta.

With you having an Elite model, you might actually have checkering.

Anywhoo... I have stuffed 15 or 16 rounds of .40 in those mags, originally meant for 20 rounds of 9mm.

They run just fine.

chances are that the mags you have now have oval shaped "divots" stamped into the sides and that keeps the follower from going all the way down to where the spring is compressed allowing you to get the most .40 cal rounds possible into the mag.

I don't know why. :confused: It's just that way.

If you ever get a chance, trace your Witness mags onto some paper and then trace your Beretta mags on top of that, just to really see if the Witness mags are the same size.

Somehow the Glock 35 guys shooting in the Limited division in USPSA are able to outfit their mags with + 5 Dawson extensions and start their 35's with 20 + 1 rounds of .40 . :confused: :confused: and the mags are still legal for length (141 something milimeters).

[9.3X62AL]

A Beretta 96 was my first 40 S&W pistol. It ran the Lee 175 grain castings very well at .401", shooting them better than it did the factory HP carry ammo my agency issued or the 180 WWB stuff we practiced with. I used WW-231 or Unique for fuel with the castings, don't have notes on the powder weights at hand, but I might have mentioned the weights in a past text on here. OAL with the Lee castings is 1.135", which has worked flawlessly in the Beretta, sister's SIG P-229, and my present CZ-75.

[jameslovesjammie]

Linky-do for Greg Cote.

http://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/350601935/m/9081055441

[yondering]

Thanks for the info, and the link to the mags. I think I'll be buying one one of those when funds permit.

I picked up the gun today; it does have checkering on the front and rear of the grip. It also has the military style sights, which allow one-handed racking of the slide by snagging the rear sight on a pants pocket.

Only got to shoot a few rounds as it was getting dark, but I'm pretty pleased so far. :-D