Guns 2012-08.pdf - Jeffersonian

the Nano, with a floorplate more in
keeping with the dimensions of the
rest of the mag.
I was aware of this gun’s weight in
the pocket. Factory spec for unloaded
weight of the Nano is 17-2/3 ounces;
on my scale, fully loaded with
124-grain JHP, it goes 22.5 ounces.
For comparison, my S&W 340 M&P
J-frame revolver weighs 16 ounces with
five 135-grain +P .38 Specials on board.
Since I’ve been explicit above about
what I didn’t care for in the Nano,
it’s only fair to point out the things I
did like. One is a trigger-finger niche
molded into the frame above the front
edge of the triggerguard on either
side. This is definitely “a good thing.”
Any firearms instructor or IDPA
or USPSA range officer can tell you
the single most common error is to
have the finger on the trigger when it
shouldn’t be. In the field, that practice
has led to altogether too many tragic
accidents. The finger niche feature
helps prevent that potentially fatal
error. It helps the shooter remember
where that finger belongs.
A defensive firearm is life-saving
emergency rescue equipment.
Reliability is a non-negotiable
baseline. At this magazine, the policy
has long been that we test production
guns like our readers can buy, not
early prototypes so we can claim “first
look at the latest and greatest.” By
the time I got my test Nano (serial
number N0007873; photographer
Robbie Barrkman got a different but
identical specimen for pictures, due to
deadline considerations), there were
some reports on the Internet of folks
having ejection problems with early
Nano pistols.
I backtracked this on a couple
of different angles. One, of course,
was to Beretta. Matteo Reconatini
of Beretta USA has never BS-ed me
in the several years I’ve known him.
He told me, “Beretta has taken the
early reports of FTEs very seriously,
and we actually assembled a sort of
‘task force’ in Engineering to review
all reports. We found out that the
majority of the problems (not many,
as you’ll read below) was caused by
either use of low-pressure, low-quality
ammunition (you’ll see that the
problems reported on the Internet are
usually with WWB,) which showed
inconsistency in the pressure from
round to round, or by other factors,
like limp-wristing. We underlined this
by confirming through testing that the
inconsistency of ammo loads caused
FTEs in all major competitor CCW
guns as well.”
Matteo continued, “Beretta has
not redesigned the extractor. Our
gunsmiths replaced the extractor of
some of the guns returned to us for
warranty repairs with an extractor
that had been manually checked to
ensure it is within the tolerance limits
set by manufacturing and engineering,
but this is the extent of the work done
on returned firearms.
“All in all, we only received 37
Nanos back for warranty work out of
the over 6,000 we’ve sold so far, and
this includes all types of malfunctions
(one had sighting issues, for example)
and pistols where we could not
replicate the failure.”
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WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • AUGUST 2012