Beretta Nano

[Zer00]

Hey guys so I was looking into the nano. Seems like a interesting gun but I had a couple of questions that maybe you guys can answer. Is the gun striker fired? I went to the beretta website and it says sa/da but I read some review it said striker fired, so im not sure. Also how is it as a small gun? If anyone has any experience with it, feel free to chime in.
thanks again guys.

[pontiacpratt]

The wiki page states it's a striker fire. I think Beretta's page has a typo. I'm a big fan of my Beretta pistols, but their site leaves much to be desired. I guess when you have large .mil contacts the civi markets don't get much attention. I wish you luck in you search for first hand experience in CA it's a SSE gun so I bet they are few and far between. I wanted one when I had my LTC, just ended up with a Kahr PM9

[fmunk]

Striker fired. Not SA/DA.

[BoJackUSMC]

Yes, I thought it was striker fired as well. I thought about getting one, but I ended up getting shield and xds instead.

[Zer00]

well I am deciding between the shield and kahr and the nano. My top choice would be the shield, but I am not sure how quickly I will be able to get it around my area. So it is between the kahr and the nano. Hopefully some one who has experienced the nano will come in chime in their opinion on it.

[SIGman Freud]

Yeah, I would get Shield or XDs before nano. Long trigger, I've heard.

[fmunk]

well I am deciding between the shield and kahr and the nano. My top choice would be the shield, but I am not sure how quickly I will be able to get it around my area. So it is between the kahr and the nano. Hopefully some one who has experienced the nano will come in chime in their opinion on it.

Non-issue. Get it from an out of state FFL/seller and have it in your hands in 20 days.

[Zer00]

@fmunk very true and I was considering that as well. I guess I need to find a ffl dealer that does sse. I live in the Santa Barbara area.

[JeremyS]

I have experience with the Nano, Shield, XDs, and others and my choice was and still is the Nano.

It is striker fired. In my mind it is single action only because the slide must reciprocate to reset the striker (you cannot dry fire repeatedly without racking the slide like a true double action gun would allow). That said, the trigger pull is what you would expect from a double action only gun in terms of length and weight. I do not believe this to be a negative, as this is a concealed carry weapon with no manual safety. I WANT a long, relatively heavy trigger pull. The pull is smooth and consistent with little-to-no stacking, grit, or any other negatives. The break is clean and the reset is audible and tactile.

Anyway, I shot all of these guns and chose the Nano and continue to carry it every day (and have for a like 20 months now) for a few primary reasons:

• Form factor: it's shorter, which is my primary dimensional concern for printing. I often wear my CCW piece under only a t-shirt or other light shirt. The bottom, front corner of the grip (or front of magazine baseplate) is almost always what prints for me. A short height (top of rear sight to bottom of inserted magazine) is good for me. I also really liked the totally slick sides of the pistol. Comfortable to carry and slick on the draw. Weight was good -- lighter than other options I was considering. It's very slim.
• Shooting: this thing is shockingly accurate and I shoot it very accurately. No issues with the other guns, either, but the Nano is a bit smaller and still turned in slightly better groups for me whether shooting slow from a rest or defensive style. I find the grip on the Shield to be more comfortable, but some of that is because it's larger. I would rather shoot the Shield all day long because of this but I find the Nano to be shockingly comfortable, even with hot loads, considering its light weight. It's also very controllable even with the short grip and light weight. Better than I expected. I did add Talon Grips (rubber texture) to the frame and I like that a lot.
• Reliability: it's +P rated and will apparently handle that all day every day. Beretta claimed to have designed it around the .40 S&W and then released it in 9mm. Not sure about that, but it seems to have deserved a rep for being stout. Early models had issues cycling plinking/target ammo (115 grain or lighter, light loaded ammo), and this will still be the #1 complain people have about the Nano. Beretta changed the design of the barrel hood to fix this "problem" and it has worked for nearly all customers. Mine, even right out of the box, has never had a problem cycling 115 grain reloads that barely make minimum power factor. In fact, I have many hundreds of rounds through my Nano without one single stoppage of any sort for any reason. Plus a fair bit of 124 grn +P, some 92 grn +P+, plenty of 147 grain HST, and even a little 147 grn +P+ hard cast stuff. Feeds, fires, ejects, and accurately shoots all of it for me.
• Modularity: I like how easy it is to swap the sights. I really like how the chassis subframe (trigger assembly w/ slide rails) is the actual, serialized "firearm" and the grip frame is just a piece of plastic. I spent $24 and bought a second grip frame, this one in FDE, to play around with -- stipple, whatever. It's pretty easy to swap the chassis into a new frame. Along with this comes the possibility that Beretta (or any 3rd party that wants to) will release a full size frame and slide or a frame with built-in laser or whatever else. I like this concept in general.

That's probably the main points. It was the only one of it, Shield, and XDs that would actually fit in my pocket without showing or being uncomfortable. The other two were just barely too big.

I carry it daily in a Foxx Little Foxx and sometimes I use a Remora.

Hope that helps a little. They're all good guns!!! I should point out that the Nano is the only one that wasn't recalled hahaha. I do believe it's long-term, high-round-count reliable. I trust it and have no reason whatsoever why I shouldn't. And the price is right (like $399 new).


Jeremy

[Zer00]

@jeremy thanks for all that. Exactly what i was looking for. My top two choices were the m&p shield and the nano. I wanted to get the shield but with all the extra charges i will be paying nearly 200 dollars over what its worth. I was able to find the nano a gun shop that had the nano instock. And their sse fee was only 50. I would save over 150 bucks if i just went with the nano. Decisions, decisions.

[Steve1968LS2]

I like my Nano.. if OC wasn't so corrupt I would carry it as a CCW weapon.. simple design and lots of nice features suited to carry.. great sights and a more useful caliber than 380..

As stated.. there's no safety, so a long trigger is good.. and as stated the trigger feels very nice. Feeds well but durring break in it wanted heavier rounds.. now it doesn't care. I heard the newer ones "fixed" this..

[Zer00]

Thanks for the pics steve. That is a beautiful gun. I think I have been thoroughly convinced now.

[JeremyS]

FYI I also had an EMP 9mm for a while and I've shot the Kel-Tec PF-9, Kahr PM9, Sig 938, Glock 26 and a couple others in this mini 9 category and I don't see myself straying from my Nano. I'm no Beretta fan (if anything, I'm a CZ guy) and I would switch if something better found its way into my hands, but for my personal tastes that hasn't happened yet. Although I do CCW an H&K P7 every now and then





That said, it is a personal thing. I have no reason to believe that a Shield wouldn't be just as reliable for me. It's just that my preference was no thumb safety, and the shorter height of the Nano was a big deal and then the slimmer width and lighter weight were additional bonuses, plus the totally slick sides thing grew on me immediately.

[89 Vision]

I had one and sold it. Nothing wrong with it, just didn't need it. Not really that small in spite of its name. But that's just my opinion.

[Steve1968LS2]

I had one and sold it. Nothing wrong with it, just didn't need it. Not really that small in spite of its name. But that's just my opinion.

Not really small for a 9mm??? Really? lol