Beretta Conversion Kit???

HopSing63

[?]Is there a conversion kit available to convert the Beretta 96 9mm to a 357 sig ?

SilverBox

First off the Beretta 96 is .40 S&W not 9mm.

And yes there are aftermarket barrels you can put in a Berreta 96 that fire .357 SIG, Beretta does not recommend you put them in, but I talked to a guy at the range with one on Sunday and he said he had no problems so far, he shot 4 boxes of 50 thru it without a problem while he was there. The .357 SIG case is the same as a .40 S&W except its necked down to the smaller caliber. Smaller bullet going faster.. The Muzzle Energy isn't alot different.

http://www.italianpistols.com/barrels.htm

http://www.berettaforum.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi

chunkstyle

To convert a M96 (.40S&W) to .357Sig, you only need to drop in a .357Sig barrel. FAC sells them. If you want to convert a M92 (9mm) to .357Sig, you must first get an M96 slide. Mags are interchangeable.

The Sig has the same muzzle energy as the .40, true, (and therefore similar wound ballistics) but the felt recoil is somewhat lessened, allowing for faster target re-aquisition. Or so the theory goes.

"I think life should be more like TV. All of life's problems ought to be solved within 30 minutes with simple homilies. All our desires should be instantly gratified. Women should always wear tight clothes, and men should carry powerful handguns. Of course, if life was really like that, what would we watch on TV?" -Calvin and Hobbes

SilverBox

Chunck,

I've also read that the .40 S&W rounds dont' always feed quite right thru the 92 frame when your using a 92 frame with a 96 upper as there is a spot in the mag feedway of the 92 frame that is slightly narrower then the 96 feedway, a little hone/dremmel work is supposed to open it up enough to get reliable feeding of .40 S&W or .357 SIG rounds thru the 92 frame..

JudgeColt

SilverBox, I have compared 9mm and .40 Berettas and can see no difference. They even use the exact same magazine pattern. The Beretta M92/96 is one of the most reliable handguns designs in production, and you should have no trouble with a .357 SIG conversion, although I suspect the slide velocity could be faster and that possibly could cause problems with timing.

(By the way, SIG is an acronym and should properly be all upper case.)

chunkstyle

Hmm. I don't really know about feed ramp width. I have taken a 96 and converted it to 9mm with no problems, but not the other way around. The high-cap factory mags are indeed identical, except for count holes, but some aftermarket designs meant for 9mm (Eagle and Ramline in particular) do not work well with .40. I have found that Mec-Gar mags work fine with both.

Any mag that works with .40 should work with .357Sig. Also, the bottleneck cartridge might well overcome any problem with the feedramp, if there is indeed a difference in them.

"I think life should be more like TV. All of life's problems ought to be solved within 30 minutes with simple homilies. All our desires should be instantly gratified. Women should always wear tight clothes, and men should carry powerful handguns. Of course, if life was really like that, what would we watch on TV?" -Calvin and Hobbes

JudgeColt

What is with this "feed ramp" business? What little feed ramp the design has is part of the barrel, unless you mean the little dimple in the top front of the magazine well, which hardly qualifies as a feed ramp in my opinion. The design is not like a Colt Government Model where there is a lot of the feed ramp in the frame.

I think you will be fine just changing barrels, but I do not know if the recoil spring should also be changed. Probably, but it may work fine with the .40 spring as well.

SilverBox

Judge,

I took a look at a 92 and a 96 mag in the store and they looked identical except for the stamp and the 96 mag follower would depress deeper into the mag. However when I got home I took a look at the mags I have with my 96 (which is a Vertec) and the it was slightly different then the mags that I looked at the store in the 92 or the 96 (which were FS's).. I'm not sure what the deal is.. They all should work.. I've never personally verified the width issue in the 92 frames. Just read about it on a few threads over at Beretta Forums.


http://www.berettaforum.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=13;t=001151

http://www.berettaforum.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000231

There were a few other threads on Beretta Forums where guys had to widen feed ramp area a bit to get .40s to feed reliably out of 92 frames but they don't seem to archive their posts their over a year old or if they do its selective.

Yeup your just fine changing barrels in a 96 from .40 to .357 SIG. If you want to go from a 92 to .357 sig you'll need a .40 upper with a .357 SIG barrel in it. (By upper I mean this set of parts, but not 92FS Centurion. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3612503277&category=383 You'd want the same model as your 92 in 96 with the upper parts set.)