This is a long post but I think it should be helpful info for people new to the Bersa Thunder 380.
I have had extensive experience with the BT 380 over the last 7 years and with many samples of different production runs of them.
If you are going to shoot this 500 rounds or less and mostly carry it or store it away, you can ignore everything below. If you plan to take to this to the range a lot, feel free to read on.
If you are going to be shooting this a lot and count on it for self defense, keep a close eye on the disconnector spring. It is not hyperbole to say that the disconnector spring on the BT 380 can be life threatening. If you encounter a disconnector spring problem, the gun will not fire!...at least upright (explained in a video below).
The disconnector spring has a tendency to 1) snap in two where it is crimped into the frame and 2) the left side of the spring can slip out of its groove. I have had this happen once with the "bad batch" of silver colored springs from the '08 to '09 run of 380s and again on the so called "improved" gold/brass colored springs from a 2010 production gun. Both of these happened around the 500 round mark. I think it isn't the spring, it is just the achilles heel in the Bersa 380 design.
To check on this spring, remove the right grip after each session maybe as your are cleaning the gun and make sure the spring isn't "fatiguing", if that is a word, on the right side where it meets the frame, also make sure the left side of the spring slides competently in the disconnector/draw bar groove.
Here's a pic someone from bersa chat posted on where to look:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/p-t-max/bt380_fs22/Bersa380004w.jpg
I carried mine for a month once not knowing that the spring was out of its groove because of fatigue at the crimped part of the frame. I was carrying this as a self defense weapon totally ignorant of the fact that the gun would not work if needed. I didn't discover it until my next range session when I pulled the trigger and got no hammer engagement on the first pull. This scared the living SH$T out of me and now I check that spring after every range session. This is why I stated above that the disconnector spring issue being a life threatening issue is not hyperbole.
There are many other things that tend to go wrong if you push these past 1000 rounds but that disconnector spring renders the pistol unable to fire which can be devastating in a SD situation. You can always turn it on its left side to make it fire in a crunch if that spring is broken.
Someone on youtube with this same problem posted a video illustrating this phenomenon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FawMaeSQBgA
The other things I have personally seen go bad with BT 380s is the manual safety levers snap in half, the rear sight screw comes loose and falls out leaving you searching all over the place for the rear sight, grips screws come loose often (dried blue loctite fixes all the screw problems).
The frame metal is a bit soft relative to other blowbacks like the ppk, makarov, etc and the slide catch notch will start to wear around 1000 rounds, sometimes sooner and the slide will slam shut with the slightest touch such as when you insert a mag, sometimes even on its own if you lay it down with the slide locked back. This wear also causes the slide not to lock back after the last round.
To delay this slide notch wear, be sure to never do a one-handed slide release by using your thumb to depress the slide catch to release the slide. Use the proper two handed release by pulling the slide back, the slide catch drops out of the way and let go so that the slide catch doesn't grind on the slide.
Another issue is the 9 round mag springs. I can't seem to get more than about 18 months out of those before the last round or two starts to FTF. A replacement spring fixes this but it has been the case with 3 different factory 9 round mags I've owned.
Also try to avoid the satin nickel vesion of the BT 380. They look very nice but even if you use the proper type of solvent to clean nickel guns, the nickel plating on the internals will fatigue, chip and flake off all over the place. I had problems disassembling and reassembling the gun because chunks of nickel plating would flake off, build up in rails and where the slide meets the barrel and damn near, well not damn near but actually lock the slide onto the frame to where it took a vice and serious muscle to remove the slide for disassembly. The external nickel finish remained unharmed and looked VERY nice, but the internal nickel plating was a wreck. Again, this was with round counts beyond 1000. The internal nickel plating held up fine under 1000 rounds.
I see these issues as just the cost of owning a $250 pistol and since they don't render the gun inoperable, the parts are dirt cheap and Eagle Imports has pretty good customer service, I see them as more of a nuisance and not life threatening. The disconnector spring is another issue though as it requires shipping to a warranty center (Reynerson's is the most competent in my experience) to fix and it also can turn your pistol into nothing more than a small hammer in a self defense situation.
After all of these problems, why do I still own one? For one, I feel that I know this design like the back of my hand and know all its strengths and weaknesses and how to remedy the weaknesses. But also because it feels great in my medium sized hands, carries VERY well IWB, light recoil allowing fast and accurate follow-up shots, fantastic trigger pulls in both DA and SA (the ppk DA is insanely bad but the SA is sweet), a very short trigger reset, is 99% reliable when the spring is in good shape, it is extremely accurate out to 12 to 15 yards and lastly, it is fun as hell to shoot.
Hope this helps.
I have had extensive experience with the BT 380 over the last 7 years and with many samples of different production runs of them.
If you are going to shoot this 500 rounds or less and mostly carry it or store it away, you can ignore everything below. If you plan to take to this to the range a lot, feel free to read on.
If you are going to be shooting this a lot and count on it for self defense, keep a close eye on the disconnector spring. It is not hyperbole to say that the disconnector spring on the BT 380 can be life threatening. If you encounter a disconnector spring problem, the gun will not fire!...at least upright (explained in a video below).
The disconnector spring has a tendency to 1) snap in two where it is crimped into the frame and 2) the left side of the spring can slip out of its groove. I have had this happen once with the "bad batch" of silver colored springs from the '08 to '09 run of 380s and again on the so called "improved" gold/brass colored springs from a 2010 production gun. Both of these happened around the 500 round mark. I think it isn't the spring, it is just the achilles heel in the Bersa 380 design.
To check on this spring, remove the right grip after each session maybe as your are cleaning the gun and make sure the spring isn't "fatiguing", if that is a word, on the right side where it meets the frame, also make sure the left side of the spring slides competently in the disconnector/draw bar groove.
Here's a pic someone from bersa chat posted on where to look:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/p-t-max/bt380_fs22/Bersa380004w.jpg
I carried mine for a month once not knowing that the spring was out of its groove because of fatigue at the crimped part of the frame. I was carrying this as a self defense weapon totally ignorant of the fact that the gun would not work if needed. I didn't discover it until my next range session when I pulled the trigger and got no hammer engagement on the first pull. This scared the living SH$T out of me and now I check that spring after every range session. This is why I stated above that the disconnector spring issue being a life threatening issue is not hyperbole.
There are many other things that tend to go wrong if you push these past 1000 rounds but that disconnector spring renders the pistol unable to fire which can be devastating in a SD situation. You can always turn it on its left side to make it fire in a crunch if that spring is broken.
Someone on youtube with this same problem posted a video illustrating this phenomenon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FawMaeSQBgA
The other things I have personally seen go bad with BT 380s is the manual safety levers snap in half, the rear sight screw comes loose and falls out leaving you searching all over the place for the rear sight, grips screws come loose often (dried blue loctite fixes all the screw problems).
The frame metal is a bit soft relative to other blowbacks like the ppk, makarov, etc and the slide catch notch will start to wear around 1000 rounds, sometimes sooner and the slide will slam shut with the slightest touch such as when you insert a mag, sometimes even on its own if you lay it down with the slide locked back. This wear also causes the slide not to lock back after the last round.
To delay this slide notch wear, be sure to never do a one-handed slide release by using your thumb to depress the slide catch to release the slide. Use the proper two handed release by pulling the slide back, the slide catch drops out of the way and let go so that the slide catch doesn't grind on the slide.
Another issue is the 9 round mag springs. I can't seem to get more than about 18 months out of those before the last round or two starts to FTF. A replacement spring fixes this but it has been the case with 3 different factory 9 round mags I've owned.
Also try to avoid the satin nickel vesion of the BT 380. They look very nice but even if you use the proper type of solvent to clean nickel guns, the nickel plating on the internals will fatigue, chip and flake off all over the place. I had problems disassembling and reassembling the gun because chunks of nickel plating would flake off, build up in rails and where the slide meets the barrel and damn near, well not damn near but actually lock the slide onto the frame to where it took a vice and serious muscle to remove the slide for disassembly. The external nickel finish remained unharmed and looked VERY nice, but the internal nickel plating was a wreck. Again, this was with round counts beyond 1000. The internal nickel plating held up fine under 1000 rounds.
I see these issues as just the cost of owning a $250 pistol and since they don't render the gun inoperable, the parts are dirt cheap and Eagle Imports has pretty good customer service, I see them as more of a nuisance and not life threatening. The disconnector spring is another issue though as it requires shipping to a warranty center (Reynerson's is the most competent in my experience) to fix and it also can turn your pistol into nothing more than a small hammer in a self defense situation.
After all of these problems, why do I still own one? For one, I feel that I know this design like the back of my hand and know all its strengths and weaknesses and how to remedy the weaknesses. But also because it feels great in my medium sized hands, carries VERY well IWB, light recoil allowing fast and accurate follow-up shots, fantastic trigger pulls in both DA and SA (the ppk DA is insanely bad but the SA is sweet), a very short trigger reset, is 99% reliable when the spring is in good shape, it is extremely accurate out to 12 to 15 yards and lastly, it is fun as hell to shoot.
Hope this helps.
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