The original introduction of the double-action, high-capacity Cougar pistol by Beretta was awaited with great anticipation by many. It was 1994, and the Italian firm's full-size 92F had proven to be quite popular among law enforcement and the military. Still, the gun was too big and bulky for many, so it only made sense that a more compact Beretta semiauto loader would generate a great deal of interest.
The Stoeger Cougar is intended for serious defensive purposes such as law enforcement operations.
The problem was, too much interest was generated on the part of the Italian firm. Beretta began to advertise the new gun almost a year before it was made available to the buying public. In the beginning, the ads pumped up people for the gun. However, by the time the gun became a reality, many shooters had gone on to something else.
This was unfortunate, as the more compact Cougar had a more ergonomic grip than did the model 92, while the manual of arms was almost identical between the two guns. At one point, my former agency almost adopted the Cougar but opted for the Smith & Wesson Sigma instead. Too bad. If we had selected the Cougar, we probably would have had it in service for more than a year, which was the length of time the Sigma was in play before many malfunctions resulted in the gun being pulled from service and returned to the factory.
As the years went by, Beretta attempted to breathe some life into a decent but somewhat expensive gun but could not really grab a foothold in the market. It developed a spring-loaded decocking version, a DA-only version with a long, revolver-like trigger as well as a .45 ACP with half the grip cut off, calling it a compact and supplying a magazine with a full-length grip extension. This last model always left me scratching my head, as the grip was either the same as the original or too short to be of use…hmm.
I shot these new models at various trade shows and writer events, but the fact is, I did not find any of these updates to be very exciting, though Beretta did introduce a true compact version a few years back that I thought was interesting. This being said, when Beretta silently allowed the Cougar to slide into discontinued oblivion I was not really surprised. Some of the time--no, most of the time--the original is the best.
When I heard that the Cougar was going to be reintroduced by Stoeger Industries, a Beretta subsidiary and the parent company to such fine firearms as Benelli, Franchi and Uberti, I was a bit perplexed. I could not help but wonder why they would travel down a path that had already proven to be a failure. The answer is, Stoeger will produce the gun in Turkey with the same high quality and precise tolerances as the Italian version but at half the price. With an MSRP listed at $349--meaning you will probably be able to buy it for around $320 at a gun show--the Stoeger Cougar could prove to be one of the industry's "best buys" for a service-grade defensive pistol. The question is, Will the gun offer the same level of reliability as the original?
According to Stoeger media representative Cristie Gates, "By building the gun in Turkey, we can offer the gun at the same high quality as before but at a greatly reduced price point. We think the Cougar design is a sound one, and we are very excited about bringing back this excellent pistol at a price that most everyone can afford."
I admit that my interest was piqued, so I asked for a test and evaluation gun to see for myself. As I previously stated, the agency I retired from came quite close to adopting the Cougar, so I became very familiar with the pistol and how it functions.
North American Whitetall North American Whitetail is designed for the serious trophy hunter. It provides authoritative coverage of world-class whitetails, the latest approaches to deer management and advanced hunting techniques.
