Being half Italian, I guess I am a sucker for Italian designs just as much as good ol' 'Merika. Bersa is no exception. Some of you who are in the know are probably saying: "Bersa is made in Argentina, dumbass". True that may be, Bersa was started up, as an offshoot of the old Ballester Molina Argentinian arms company, by three Italian fellows: Benso Bonadimani, Savino Caselli and Ercole Montini (who was also employed by Beretta at one point). Since the mid-1950's, Bersa has dipped their toe in several different firearm designs, including rifles and shotguns, but the Thunder series is by far one of their most well known and successful series' of firearms. Today's episode is centered around the Bersa Thunder .380.
A small frame pistol with plenty of attitude and features, the Thunder 380 is my first "conceal carry" firearm that I have ever owned. Up until this point, I have carried my Beretta 92FS in a shoulder rig that was everything BUT concealed unless I was wearing a heavy coat during this crazy winter. After all, it is a full size pistol meant to be worn outside the waistband so it did alright. But, the weather is looking to warm up so I did some research and decided to pick up this little guy.
Of course, this isn't my first experience with a .380 Auto caliber pistol; A good friend of mine carries a Ruger LCP on her. We went to the range and I tried it out. I quickly decided that, despite being an EXCELLENT conceal carry piece, the micro pistol wasn't for me. The grip was just too short and left my pinky to hang out and look like an Englishman sipping on a cup of explosive tea. As a result, shooting for my medium sized hands was awkward at best.
A couple years later, I decided to shop for a small pistol in .380 that had the right features, a full size grip being one of them. I ended up at the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show with a Bersa 380 in hand and loving the grip and how it felt in my palm. Here is a breakdown of the gun that I ended up shelling out $300 for.
Essentially, The Thunder 380 takes design ques from the Beretta Cheetah and Walther PPK at about half the price of the Walther. It is a double/single action pistol so you have that strong first trigger pull and a lighter trigger each shot following. It is blowback operated and takes a 7 round magazine with an 8th round in the chamber. I have already said how much I love the grip, and that is because of two things. The magazine has a pinky extension which gives your hand a full grip on the firearm and thus full control. There is also a bit of a beaver tail on the upper rear end of the grip which allows your hand to ride high without worrying about painful slide bite or hammer bite in the your thumb web. The grip has serrations on the front and back and checkering on the side panels to help with maintaining a firm grip. The trigger guard has serrations as well for those with larger hands. As far as the controls are concerned, the magazine release and slide release are in slightly awkward spots for my hands but not too too bad. The safety lever is perfectly placed on the slide and easily accessible which is ideal for a gun that I often conceal.
The gun has easy to pick up 3 dot, dove tailed sights, which are an improvement over most small frame and concealed carry pistols. They are low profile so they don't easily catch on clothing when drawing from a concealed position. The rear sight is adjustable for windage using a small flat head screwdriver.
The great thing about the Thunder series, for the safety conscious buyer, is the amount of safety features. There are a few of the usual suspect. The Thunder 380 features an inertial firing pin which prevents the gun from going off if dropped on its rear. It also uses the long, heavy double action trigger pull which makes the gun safer to carry with the slide safety disengaged.
The Thunder 380 has a safety selector with a Beretta-esque decocker. If you see red the gun is ready to fire. If the red dot is covered, the gun is safe. Typically, the gun would be carried with the safety on and a round in the chamber, ready to go. Also, if the hammer is cocked and ready to fire, you can rotate the safety lever down to decock the hammer safely without discharging.
A second safety feature of the gun is the key lock safety. In the top picture, you can see the key and the keyhole just above the trigger. To lock the gun up, simply insert and turn the key clockwise to lock the action and make the gun safe. In this mode, everything is locked up. You cannot pull the trigger or move the slide. I personally don't utilize this feature, but this is good if you are worried about children or family members getting ahold of the gun. If you need this as a nightstand gun, I would avoid this feature and use the third safety feature, pictured below.
The third safety feature is the magazine disconnect which prevents firing of the weapon without a magazine. In the picture, you can see a notch in the left side of the magazine well. This is essentially the key hole and on the magazine, just above the pinky extension, is a nob that presses into the key hole when the magazine is locked into the gun. Using this method allows you to leave a round in the chamber safely and it cannot be fired until a magazine is inserted. This is good if you want to have a pistol readily available and don't have a GunVault or another quick-open safe. You can leave the gun out and hide the magazine safely so that children cannot get hurt or, in the event of a break in, it wont be used against you. The only downside to that is, if you need it quick, fast and in a hurry, you need to practice how to find your gun and magazine in the dark in order to be effective in defending yourself. If you don't, you could find yourself needing your gun but are stuck searching in a drawer for the magazine.
Stripping the gun for cleaning is simple.
As you can see in the above photo, there is a lever on the right side of the pistol. In order to strip the slide, you must rotate it to the bottom of the gun. While you have the lever rotated, it is a good idea to hold the gun with your hand cupping the trigger and front of the grip with your thumb holding the lever down.
You can see my hand positioning here. With the gun firmly in hand and the lever down, pull the slide all the way back and up to release the slide from the frame.
You can reach some of the inner mechanisms by using a flathead screwdriver to remove the polymer grip panels. Here, you can see how the trigger, magazine release and magazine disconnect work.
You can also see that the barrel, unlike the those such as the Beretta 92 series or Browning Hi Powers, is fixed to the frame. This is reported to improve accuracy by reducing the movement of the barrel during firing. The barrel is also very close to the frame and allows the cartridge to easily slide into the chamber, which increases reliability of feeding.
That about does it for the Bersa Thunder 380. Many people dislike the .380 cartridge because it is seen as vastly inferior to other, larger rounds. That may be true, but if the nutritionally depleted excrement hits the rapidly moving oscillator, a .380 pistol is better than just your fists. The Thunder 380 is a fantastic little pistol that is perfect, in my opinion, to carry in self defense. It is small, with a great grip that you don't often see with smaller guns, and very reliable. It also makes a great small gun to train ladies, children, and others who have minimal experience with handguns. For $300 out the door, not much can beat it.
Until next time, Remember to Practice, Practice, Practice. Just having a gun isn't enough. If SHTF, and you are struggling to unholster and utilize your weapon, you could find yourself not regretting your lack of training very long. Protect yourself! God Bless our America!
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