Last weekend I semi blew up my Beretta 96. I had a reloading error that resulted in an overload that I reviewed in the reloading forum. Since that time I had taken my gun to a gun smith for him to check the pistol and except for a few broken parts the slide, frame and barrel were good to go.
When the bullet went off it had broken the extractor along with knocking the trigger spring off of the trigger bar then pushing the trigger bar out of its position just a little.
After I got my clean bill of health I decided to repair the gun myself since I would have went onto a long waiting list with the gun smith. It didn't look that hard to do and I have done some easy drop in work along with trigger work on my 1911 colt.
I ordered a few parts off of the Beretta web site on Monday and they came in today. I ordered a new trigger spring, extractor, extractor spring and extractor pin. They didn't have the blue version of the extractor so I bought the stainless steel one for the 96 INOX.
After making sure the gun was unload even though I knew it was I disassembled the gun. The extractor pin can be reach on the underside of the slide. It is very easy to knock out with some slight pressure form a hammer and a brass punch. I just put the frame on my legs while sitting and knocked out the pin.
Once the pin is out the extractor will come out of its slot and them you can take the extractor spring out. Since my gun has seen a lot of use the spring was a little compressed and didn't pop out in a hurry. I was surprised to see a lot of dirt build up under the extractor. I was able to clean this up along with giving the firing pin a cleaning since it is no exposed.
I was able to do a visual on the firing pin set up and it looked good to go, so I didn't take it out. At this point I tried just the new extractor for fit and everything was fine. So I placed in the new extractor spring , extractor and then put it all together with the new extractor pin.
The next step was to replace the trigger spring. This is a very little spring that connects to the trigger and trigger bar. While it looked the same as the new one I thought it might have had some extra stress during the blow up so I wanted to replace it too. The spring is easy to replace as you work above the trigger but it does make for some tight working room. It was simple to place the spring on the trigger then get it around the bar on pin on the trigger bar.
I made a small special tool out of strong thin wire that made it easy to get the spring on top of the pin for the trigger bar. The trigger bar pin goes through the trigger and is held together by the trigger spring.
I put the gun back together and tired the trigger to make sure it functioned correctly. When I do the dry firing I have a piece of foam that I use to cushion the trigger. The trigger worked in both double action and single action. All of the safety devices worked so I was ready to give it the actual test firing.
This was the hard part. I never had a gun blow up so I wasn't 100% comfortable setting up for the test fire. In fact I hadn't shot a hand gun since the Beretta had it's problem. I took everything out to my range prior to loading just in case there was something I missed.
I load up one magazine then did a few pulls of the slide to make sure the extractor worked and it did its job just fine. Now I was ready for the test firing. My first shot was in double action and the operation of the gun was flawless. I then checked the extracted shell case for any signs of problems. There were none the case looked just fine from a visual check, There were no bulges and the primer did not show any signs of high pressure.
I then proceeded to fire one shot single action and performed the same check of the shell casing. It again was fine so I fired another 15 rounds and the gun worked just great and all of the shell casing were good.
I found it pretty simple to work on the Beretta this was the fist ever extractor that I had to replace and the operation went pretty smooth and is straight forward with no special tools needed.
While I have worked on the 1911 trigger I never worked on the Beretta's. Replacing the trigger spring again is straight forward though getting the spring attached can be tricky with the tight space and small spring. While ther may be some special tools you can use I found making a home made tool to help getting the spring attached made things simple. It made working in a tight space easy and helped not to stretch the spring any.
So if anyone has to work on their Beretta in these two areas you will discover that they are simple operations. Just make sure to check all of the guns operations after the repair so you are sure the safety, DA, SA and that the gun operates as intended. That is why I loaded the pistol outside with the barrel in a safe direction after the repairs.
When the bullet went off it had broken the extractor along with knocking the trigger spring off of the trigger bar then pushing the trigger bar out of its position just a little.
After I got my clean bill of health I decided to repair the gun myself since I would have went onto a long waiting list with the gun smith. It didn't look that hard to do and I have done some easy drop in work along with trigger work on my 1911 colt.
I ordered a few parts off of the Beretta web site on Monday and they came in today. I ordered a new trigger spring, extractor, extractor spring and extractor pin. They didn't have the blue version of the extractor so I bought the stainless steel one for the 96 INOX.
After making sure the gun was unload even though I knew it was I disassembled the gun. The extractor pin can be reach on the underside of the slide. It is very easy to knock out with some slight pressure form a hammer and a brass punch. I just put the frame on my legs while sitting and knocked out the pin.
Once the pin is out the extractor will come out of its slot and them you can take the extractor spring out. Since my gun has seen a lot of use the spring was a little compressed and didn't pop out in a hurry. I was surprised to see a lot of dirt build up under the extractor. I was able to clean this up along with giving the firing pin a cleaning since it is no exposed.
I was able to do a visual on the firing pin set up and it looked good to go, so I didn't take it out. At this point I tried just the new extractor for fit and everything was fine. So I placed in the new extractor spring , extractor and then put it all together with the new extractor pin.
The next step was to replace the trigger spring. This is a very little spring that connects to the trigger and trigger bar. While it looked the same as the new one I thought it might have had some extra stress during the blow up so I wanted to replace it too. The spring is easy to replace as you work above the trigger but it does make for some tight working room. It was simple to place the spring on the trigger then get it around the bar on pin on the trigger bar.
I made a small special tool out of strong thin wire that made it easy to get the spring on top of the pin for the trigger bar. The trigger bar pin goes through the trigger and is held together by the trigger spring.
I put the gun back together and tired the trigger to make sure it functioned correctly. When I do the dry firing I have a piece of foam that I use to cushion the trigger. The trigger worked in both double action and single action. All of the safety devices worked so I was ready to give it the actual test firing.
This was the hard part. I never had a gun blow up so I wasn't 100% comfortable setting up for the test fire. In fact I hadn't shot a hand gun since the Beretta had it's problem. I took everything out to my range prior to loading just in case there was something I missed.
I load up one magazine then did a few pulls of the slide to make sure the extractor worked and it did its job just fine. Now I was ready for the test firing. My first shot was in double action and the operation of the gun was flawless. I then checked the extracted shell case for any signs of problems. There were none the case looked just fine from a visual check, There were no bulges and the primer did not show any signs of high pressure.
I then proceeded to fire one shot single action and performed the same check of the shell casing. It again was fine so I fired another 15 rounds and the gun worked just great and all of the shell casing were good.
I found it pretty simple to work on the Beretta this was the fist ever extractor that I had to replace and the operation went pretty smooth and is straight forward with no special tools needed.
While I have worked on the 1911 trigger I never worked on the Beretta's. Replacing the trigger spring again is straight forward though getting the spring attached can be tricky with the tight space and small spring. While ther may be some special tools you can use I found making a home made tool to help getting the spring attached made things simple. It made working in a tight space easy and helped not to stretch the spring any.
So if anyone has to work on their Beretta in these two areas you will discover that they are simple operations. Just make sure to check all of the guns operations after the repair so you are sure the safety, DA, SA and that the gun operates as intended. That is why I loaded the pistol outside with the barrel in a safe direction after the repairs.
