Beretta M9 Holster Recommendation?

[VNAMVET70]

I pick up my Beretta M9 Tuesday, from the gun store. BTW, tough to get in Kalifornia. Most NORCAL stores have not seen one since 2020.  My question is, what is the best holster for belt carry, not drop leg.. I am not aware of how durable the finish is on the M9.  If I move off the grid, I would wear it daily because there are brown bears, snakes, mt lions, and wolves to contend with. The US Army old M12 holster seems like it would offer a lot of protection against the elements. Open to suggestions. 

[ScottG]

  I keep mine in my old Army holster and as a side note, it fits in there well with a trigger lock in case you need to put it away, haven't had any issues with the finish.. Not sure about the effectiveness on a bear other than to make noise. We only have black bear, but I have been around them enough to know that I would want something more than my Beretta. Shot one in the head once with a .308 and it got back up! 

  I have a 92FS and love it. Curious as to what they are going for in Cali if you want to share?      Scott

 

[VNAMVET70]

2 hours ago, ScottG said:

  I keep mine in my old Army holster and as a side note, it fits in there well with a trigger lock in case you need to put it away, haven't had any issues with the finish.. Not sure about the effectiveness on a bear other than to make noise. We only have black bear, but I have been around them enough to know that I would want something more than my Beretta. Shot one in the head once with a .308 and it got back up! 

  I have a 92FS and love it. Curious as to what they are going for in Cali if you want to share?      Scott

 

I did not want a 92Fs because they are manufactured in Italy. Something about that. My Dad was shot by one of Mussolini's snipers during WWll. Dad survived it. . The M9 is manufactured in Tennessee to military standards. There are plenty of 92FS Berretta's for sale in Kalifornia and they run around $700. I bought my M9 for $740.00 from guns.com. Had to pay the local gun store $100 handling fee. So be it. Yeah, I could have saved $140.00 buying a 92FS. I always buy american when I can.......even if it costs more. That's me. 

Is your old army holster for a 1911 Colt .45? 

[ScottG]

1 hour ago, VNAMVET70 said:

I did not want a 92Fs because they are manufactured in Italy. Something about that. My Dad was shot by one of Mussolini's snipers during WWll. Dad survived it. . The M9 is manufactured in Tennessee to military standards. There are plenty of 92FS Berretta's for sale in Kalifornia and they run around $700. I bought my M9 for $740.00 from guns.com. Had to pay the local gun store $100 handling fee. So be it. Yeah, I could have saved $140.00 buying a 92FS. I always buy american when I can.......even if it costs more. That's me. 

Is your old army holster for a 1911 Colt .45? 

   No, I was an MP for three years 99-02 within my 23 years in. I kept my M9 holster. I actually bought the FS for my Wife on a whim as she liked it. I bought it in 2003 and it was just shy of $400 with tax. She never fired it so I just locked it up in my holster when I deployed in 03. It has been out a few times since.  Scott

[donaldnol]

i have a Beretta 92fs ackk.,md-made in usa  first models came out with one dot rear sight i could'n hit anything with it-- you line up the front sight that has a dot with the rear sight that had one dot and what you got was a blur. adventually i replaced the rear with a 2 dot aims better now. the finish on these were very pore 

5 hours ago, ScottG said:

   No, I was an MP for three years 99-02 within my 23 years in. I kept my M9 holster. I actually bought the FS for my Wife on a whim as she liked it. I bought it in 2003 and it was just shy of $400 with tax. She never fired it so I just locked it up in my holster when I deployed in 03. It has been out a few times since.  Scott

 

[donaldnol]

3 minutes ago, donaldnol said:

i have a Beretta 92fs ackk.,md-made in usa  first models came out with one dot rear sight i could'n hit anything with it-- you line up the front sight that has a dot with the rear sight that had one dot and what you got was a blur. adventually i replaced the rear with a 2 dot aims better now. the finish on these were very pore 

 

also i use a Bianchi #um84 military holster for the berretta which is slow in retrieving the gun

[Charlie Flick]

VNAMVET70:

 

For your stated purposes I think that the Bianchi M12 would be suitable.  It is readily available, not expensive, and provides good protection for the pistol.  It has the added advantage of having been extensively tested by the US Government before its adoption.  You can even get it in black as was issued for the General Officer version of the M9.  

 

The finish on the Beretta M9 is Bruniton.  It is supposed to be pretty rugged but no handgun finish is indestructible.   I tend to take pretty good care of my firearms so I have never torture tested the finish on the M9s in my collection.  The Bruniton finish on the M9 was found acceptable by the US Government so that is a pretty good vote of confidence.  

 

Regards,

Charlie

 

 

[steeve555]

I can't remember the number but when I was in Haiti in 96 we wore a nylon green holster with US marked on face.  It did not have a top flap.  It had a thumb break that was locked with a DOT snap. It was (or at least I wore it) on pistol belt.  It may of had a belt option also.  I can't remember

[VNAMVET70]

Hey all, thanks for the comments. Picked up the Beretta M9 today.  It says Made in the USA on the frame and slide. I was hoping my black leather Vietnam 1911 holster would accommodate it. No go. The M9 is about an inch too long. Decided to buy a Bianchi M12 holster.  I have a Pelican 1450 case for it. Next project is to cut the Pelican foam  the shape of the gun with an electric turkey knife.  

[mohawkALSE]

On 2/1/2022 at 12:56 PM, steeve555 said:

I can't remember the number but when I was in Haiti in 96 we wore a nylon green holster with US marked on face.  It did not have a top flap.  It had a thumb break that was locked with a DOT snap. It was (or at least I wore it) on pistol belt.  It may of had a belt option also.  I can't remember

That was the M12 with the thumb strap kit.  They had various accessories for them such as that thumb strap kit,  a leg thigh extender as well as even a shoulder harness. 

 

[mohawkALSE]

2 of the bunch of military type holsters I have for my M9.   First is a Blackhawk Serpa, which I like how they have modular mounting options with belt loops, paddles, MOLLE platforms etc.  Other is the old faithful M7 shoulder holster.   For your use I would probably also recommend the Bianchi or USGI subcontractor made M-12.  They are ambidextrous and offer good padding.  Plus its a bonus it has the emergency cleaning rod.  As I mentioned above there are some accessory options out there for them too like the thumb strap kit which replaces the flap, and a thigh extender to make it into a thigh rig if desired.  Bianchi also made a mag pouch that matched the style of those holsters as well that were well padded.  The M12 holster is also interesting that it has slots for a normal sized belt or has the larger metal clip that mounts to a pistol belt.

 

From what Ive heard about the 92FS models, people seem to prefer the Italian made ones over the US made.   I like my M9 but I was bummed out when i bought it to find that after they moved production from MD to TN, they started marking them different so now its not a very close clone markings wise as the real issue M9 pistols.   The left side of the slide no longer says US 9mm M9, they moved it to the right side when they started making them in TN.

[Brian Keith]

When we were spinning up for our deployment to Afghanistan in 2012, I bought two of the Blackhawk Serpa holsters. One to wear on my belt on the FOB* and one to attach to my chest of my vest via the mollie. At the time, there was a small Blackhawk store at Camp Atterbury where we deployed from. I think they were about $30 or so each. Money well spent in my mind. As was mentioned, they came with options on how to carry them. We were issued a drop leg holster, but I did not like it. It was well made, and ambidextrous, but I felt it was difficult to get the pistol out of. I told people I thought it was designed by "Handgun Control". I knew we would be spending a lot of time in MRAPS, and I didn't want any thing making me wider. Doing the "rollover" drills, and emergency exits, I figured I wanted my pistol on my chest. You can see it in my avatar. I left my issue holster in my stay behind baggage at Camp Atterbury. The mission I was on, we weren't forced to take things we didn't think we were going to need. In fact, I don't think we had any kind of "showdown inspections" of our gear prior to deployment ( I was on a small 12 person team). Also, my mission was such that I would meet with various Afghan partners in their office and places of work. We had our own security forces, and we would take off our body armor that, of course, had our normal "combat gear" (M4 mags, and such) and generally leave it outside the meeting room with one of the "SECFOR" (Security Forces) and pick it up after our meeting. Of course, I would take my M9 from my vest and put it in my holster on my belt. I bought a locally made leather holster for my M9 that pretty much was flat when it wasn't holding a pistol, so it didn't interfere with my vest or anything. Of course, I had ZERO concern about the wear and tear on my firearms and equipment, they are TOOLS! I was issued both an M9 pistol and an M4 carbine. Most of the time my M4 was locked up in my room and I just carried my M9 on the FOB and both when going outside the wire.  As an aside, I did not have to fire my weapons other than on various ranges during my deployment. I did have what was probably a "bad guy" in my sights once, but it wasn't a shot anybody would take. I have to say that I am "OK" with that! 

BKW

*US troops were required to be armed at all times when outside of their billets in the "combat zone" of Afghanistan (except when it the "PT" uniform).

[phantomfixer]

the M12 with the thumb strap is a good way to go IMO, you can get a shoulder rig for the M12 also 

[mohawkALSE]

7 hours ago, phantomfixer said:

the M12 with the thumb strap is a good way to go IMO, you can get a shoulder rig for the M12 also 

Always thought the shoulder kit for it was funky looking but I guess it can work.    Good pic though, also shows the mag pouches I was talking about above.   Im pretty sure some of those pouches had a NSN assigned but I never really saw them used.  Was usually the single 9mm mag pouches like I have on my M7 shoulder rig or the later MOLLE versions and then other COTS or contractor made mag pouches like Eagle, LBT etc etc.

[phantomfixer]

Just a pic I grabbed from the net

 

Correct Mohawk…the new as issued shoulder rig came with one mag pouch

 

personally I like the M12 with the quick release strap

[mohawkALSE]

9 hours ago, phantomfixer said:

Just a pic I grabbed from the net

 

Correct Mohawk…the new as issued shoulder rig came with one mag pouch

 

personally I like the M12 with the quick release strap

Its been a while since Ive seen those shoulder rigs.  I remember in the late 90s catalogs like US Cavalry and Ranger Joes etc used to sell them.   I decided to look a little deeper and apparently all of the Bianchi products related to the M-12/UM-84 holster has NSNs assigned.  Also found a shoulder rig conversion for sale that had a 2004 DoD contract number.

 

I do like the thumb strap setup as well, never got around to picking one up and trying it out.

[Spathologist]

On 1/30/2022 at 7:52 AM, donaldnol said:

i have a Beretta 92fs ackk.,md-made in usa  first models came out with one dot rear sight i could'n hit anything with it-- you line up the front sight that has a dot with the rear sight that had one dot and what you got was a blur. adventually i replaced the rear with a 2 dot aims better now. the finish on these were very pore 

 

 

You don't use the dots to aim.  I can't count the number of troopers who had to re-qualify because they used the dots to aim.

 

TC 3-23.35:

 

[kaotikross]

15 hours ago, Spathologist said:

 

You don't use the dots to aim.  I can't count the number of troopers who had to re-qualify because they used the dots to aim.

 

TC 3-23.35:

 

Leave it to the military to put the dots on there anyway. "See these dots? These big, easy to see dots you can't possibly not see? Yeah. Don't use those. Now we could have just not had those dots at all, but we like complicating things."

[Spathologist]

On 1/17/2022 at 1:12 PM, collectsmedals said:

12 minutes ago, kaotikross said:

Leave it to the military to put the dots on there anyway. "See these dots? These big, easy to see dots you can't possibly not see? Yeah. Don't use those. Now we could have just not had those dots at all, but we like complicating things."

 

 

I sometimes heard they were for "quick acquisition in CQB", but nothing in any Army manual I've seen ever references using the dots.  The manuals used to reference "quickfire point shooting" for CQB-like situations, but even there said nothing about using the dots.  Other than, "don't use them".

 

Maybe if the dots actually correlated to point of impact at 25 meters, the Army would use them.

 

 

[kwill]

Lots of civilian guns have the same dots.  Often they are filled with luminous material.

[kaotikross]

15 minutes ago, kwill said:

Lots of civilian guns have the same dots.  Often they are filled with luminous material.

Yeah, I know. I figure that's what they're for. Better to have some kind of an idea at night than none at all.

[VNAMVET70]

The M12 holster arrived yesterday. Very pleased.

Thanks for posting the three-dot sight system illustration.  My recently purchased M9 only has one dot in the rear. Stacking the frt & rear dot seems to be what's intended for proper aim. Need to go to the range to see.

Evidently, Beretta stopped manufacturing the M9 in Sept 2021, after Sig won the military contract to produce pistols. I may have purchased close to the last available M9, last month.. Serial number less than  M9-005491CA 

 

[Spathologist]

51 minutes ago, VNAMVET70 said:

Stacking the frt & rear dot seems to be what's intended for proper aim.

 

Those are the old, original style of iron sights. 

 

But you don't use those dots, either.

[mohawkALSE]

1 hour ago, Spathologist said:

 

Those are the old, original style of iron sights. 

 

But you don't use those dots, either.

I thought its interesting that current pistol FM shows the 3 dots on the M9 yet all the ones Ive ever seen had the 2 dot "Snow Man"  style.    Did they actually change em over to the 3 dot?

This old beater that I shot at the M9 SAFS at Camp Perry had nothing left for dots at all.  The instructor said some people actually black them out.

[Spathologist]

35 minutes ago, mohawkALSE said:

Did they actually change em over to the 3 dot?

 

They were on the Marines' M9A1.  The second M9 I was issued in Afghanistan in 2012, after breaking the first one, also had 3-dots.  I assume either the supply chain by that point only had the M9A1 sight in it, or the armorer had ordered the NSN for the M9A1 three-dots.