Reassembling Bersa thunder 380

[jhyiesla]

My wife has a Bersa Thunder 380. She has in the past been able to dissasemble, clean, lube and reassemble it just fine. She took it apart tonight to do the same. When she went to reassemble she was having some issues getting the slide to the go back all the way. Her hand strength isn’t as good as it once was. I took It and was able to successfully pull back the slide and seat it and it went forward, the take down lever went up and everything looked ok. I was able to rack the slide ok. We didn’t do anything else to the gun. She wanted to take it apart again and try it herself. She was able to get it apart and then was able to pull the slide all the way back and drop it on the rails, but the slide would not go forward. We both messed with it for quite awhile. Every time we’d get the slide seated ok, but it would never go forward.

I took it to our gun shop and had them look at it. I showed them what we’d were doing and one of the guys gave it a whirl. He initially had the same issue that I was having, but was then able to get it to engage the rails and move forward. Asked him what he’d done and he wasn’t really sure. He thought he may have dropped it onto the rails and started to move it forward at the same time. He then inserted the mag and tested the gun and it was ok. With the mag still in, I took it apart again and put it back together and it looked like the slide hung, but noticed that now the slide lock lever was engaged; which made sense since an empty mag was installed. Once I hit the button the slide went forward. Did it again and got the same thing.

So, here’s my assumption. When we first assembled it we did NOT put in the mag and didn’t test anything, we just broke it down again. Not sure how the gun shop guy was able to get it together, but wondered if inserting the mag resets something in the gun. Since we hadn’t done that, perhaps this was what was causing our issue. Or does someone else have another idea.

Thanx…

 

[gglass]

There does not seem to be anything wrong with your pistol. You simply need to make sure that the rails are aligned when dropping the slide back onto the frame.

When placing the recoil spring over the barrel, make sure that you have the larger coil side of the spring toward the muzzle. This seems to help with possible issues while firing.

When placing the slide onto the frame, you need to make sure that the magazine is out of the gun. To check for trigger function, you must reinsert an "empty" mag into the gun, since the trigger will not work without the inserted magazine. (Bersa's have a magazine disconnect so that the gun will not fire without a magazine inserted.)

 

[sliptap]

Agree that if the slide is on now and it moves freely, then I doubt there are any issues.

I own a Makarov which is a 380 blow back and disassembles just like the Bersa Thunder. When reassembling, you have to make sure the slide is pulled alllll the way back. If it isn't back all the way, it can sometimes catch like you mentioned. They are sometimes just finicky like that when getting the slide to engage the frame rails.

Edit: after rereading your post, I just remembered that the Bersa Thunder does have a magazine disconnect. I agree that the magazine could've also been a factor in the issue you described.

 

[jhyiesla]

Gglass and sliptap, thanx for the reply. I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but I was able to get the slide properly engaged the first time, but from then on for us and initially for gun shop guy, it was a no go. Like I said he did eventually get it on and we don’t know why. Guess we’ll just have to watch it the next time we have it apart and if we get it on ok, insert mag and test and just leave it.

 

[DadSmith]

My wife has a Bersa Thunder 380. She has in the past been able to dissasemble, clean, lube and reassemble it just fine. She took it apart tonight to do the same. When she went to reassemble she was having some issues getting the slide to the go back all the way. Her hand strength isn’t as good as it once was. I took It and was able to successfully pull back the slide and seat it and it went forward, the take down lever went up and everything looked ok. I was able to rack the slide ok. We didn’t do anything else to the gun. She wanted to take it apart again and try it herself. She was able to get it apart and then was able to pull the slide all the way back and drop it on the rails, but the slide would not go forward. We both messed with it for quite awhile. Every time we’d get the slide seated ok, but it would never go forward.

I took it to our gun shop and had them look at it. I showed them what we’d were doing and one of the guys gave it a whirl. He initially had the same issue that I was having, but was then able to get it to engage the rails and move forward. Asked him what he’d done and he wasn’t really sure. He thought he may have dropped it onto the rails and started to move it forward at the same time. He then inserted the mag and tested the gun and it was ok. With the mag still in, I took it apart again and put it back together and it looked like the slide hung, but noticed that now the slide lock lever was engaged; which made sense since an empty mag was installed. Once I hit the button the slide went forward. Did it again and got the same thing.

So, here’s my assumption. When we first assembled it we did NOT put in the mag and didn’t test anything, we just broke it down again. Not sure how the gun shop guy was able to get it together, but wondered if inserting the mag resets something in the gun. Since we hadn’t done that, perhaps this was what was causing our issue. Or does someone else have another idea.

Thanx…

I hope this is helpful. I do not own one myself, but maybe you can get some insight from this video.

 

[jhyiesla]

I hope this is helpful. I do not own one myself, but maybe you can get some insight from this video.

Thanx for the video. Basically that’s what we did the first time when we got it to work and all the other times when it did not. Just have to wait until we need to clean it the next time. Thanx again.