On the Beretta M9...

[echo5whiskey]

You would be seriously hard pressed to find an actual person with locking block issues that is using the Gen 3 block. I imagine it's different in the military where the guns are terribly abused, parts swapped around, and service history is over 20 years. EL has one Beretta over 100,000 rnds by the way. If your lug does break however, or chip, it can induce abnormal wear to the slide and frame. I've seen some suggestions to change the locking block every 20,000ish rounds. EL has a good guide on preventative maintenance. Military Beretta pistols should not be compared to the ones in private ownership in terms of longevity IMHO.

That's why I was asking. The locking blocks I used to see seemed almost like pot metal when they broke. That was the one reason I have never looked into purchasing a Beretta. I wish I had found this site sooner.

[turnburglar]

Yea I pretty much hated my m9 since the day it was issued to me.

Too heavy? Absolutely. Comperable pistols weigh considerably less. Seriously a glock 19 would be a much better service pistol. What people don't realize when they talk about service pistols is: they are not the military's A plan. In fact if you are in the military and have to employ a handgun (exception MP's and AFSF) pretty much the world has fallen apart. Like really a pistol is nothing more than a "get off me" gun for POGs and BOB's. Shit, maybe if the gun didn't weigh 3.5 pounds than people wouldn't have to remove them before using the latrine and subsequently forget them.

[R0N]

Have any of you M9/92 owners had any issues with the locking blocks? The Berettas I used to deal with were all service pistols, so I'm curious as to whether that played a part in the frequency of broken locking blocks that I had seen.

Where have you see a lot of broken locking blocks? I have "owned" several hundred M9s throughout my time in and have only seen 1, what I have seen the most of is broken trigger return springs and lost trigger bar springs. The trigger bar spring can literally be scrubbed out of the pistol by the vigorous usage of an AP brush up the mag well.

[echo5whiskey]

Where have you see a lot of broken locking blocks? I have "owned" several hundred M9s throughout my time in and have only seen 1, what I have seen the most of is broken trigger return springs and lost trigger bar springs. The trigger bar spring can literally be scrubbed out of the pistol by the vigorous usage of an AP brush up the mag well.

I used to see at least one in every detail (at least the larger ones) that would pass through the Marine range I used to work at. It was bad enough that we used to bring out loaners until the unit armorer could fix them.

[Turnkey11]

I was a unit armorer for a few years, only thing I ever had to mess with was trigger springs.

[echo5whiskey]

I was a unit armorer for a few years, only thing I ever had to mess with was trigger springs.

I guess your M9s were better than those of the units I trained.

[Failure2Stop]

Where have you see a lot of broken locking blocks? I have "owned" several hundred M9s throughout my time in and have only seen 1, what I have seen the most of is broken trigger return springs and lost trigger bar springs. The trigger bar spring can literally be scrubbed out of the pistol by the vigorous usage of an AP brush up the mag well.

We had several broken locking blocks every cycle of HRP and SAWIC.
Changing to the latest generation of locking blocks (whatever that was around 06) solved the issue.

[ramairthree]

Yep, early gen locking blocks-
usually one or two out of twenty high round count training personnel twice a year.

Military issue M9s with decades of service, unknown round counts, the original locking blocks, and unknown how lubed they used to be kept...

Out of eight years saw about a dozen broken locking blocks, twice that jacked up the frame rails.

The original locking blocks seemed to be fine on guns that were well lubed for tens of thousands of rounds.

Tens of thousands of rounds without ever getting a new recoil spring and a history of not being lubed well seemed to be the issue.

[ralph]

Yep, early gen locking blocks-
usually one or two out of twenty high round count training personnel twice a year.

Military issue M9s with decades of service, unknown round counts, the original locking blocks, and unknown how lubed they used to be kept...

Out of eight years saw about a dozen broken locking blocks, twice that jacked up the frame rails.

The original locking blocks seemed to be fine on guns that were well lubed for tens of thousands of rounds.

Tens of thousands of rounds without ever getting a new recoil spring and a history of not being lubed well seemed to be the issue.

That's pretty much everything I've ever read in a nutshell. I seem to remember that before the military adopted the M9, they went through their inventory of 1911's and found that at least half were worn out, (probably from the same lack of basic maintenance) So, it's no wonder they had some problems. I've read where some M9's found in service, appeared not to have had a recoil spring changed since they were new. In a few extreme cases, that was about a decade, and God knows how many rounds prior. And they wonder why things like locking blocks would break.. In one way, the substantial amount of abuse that both the M9, and 1911 endured are testaments to their designs. It will be interesting if the military does change pistols/calibers, how well the next generation will fare, considering the lack of maintenance they'll probably get...

[Doc Safari]

I'm replying to this from memory. Maybe I read it in the M9A3 thread or some other forum, but, am I safe to assume that the locking block and trigger spring issues are no longer an issue, especially if one intends to purchase an M9A3?