Bersa B1911 Pistol Review: A Blue Stainless Beaut

Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases.

Most shooters associate the Bersa brand with its compact Thunder semiauto pistol line, so it may have come as a surprise when Bersa introduced a new B1911 .45 ACP semiauto single-action pistol this year. Perhaps even more surprising to some is the fact that these 1911s are not built in Argentina, where Bersa is headquartered, but rather at the company’s new, state-of-the-art facility in Kennesaw, Georgia.

This is not, however, the first time Bersa has taken on the 1911. In fact, that’s where the brand got its start, if only tangentially. In 1958 a trio of Italian firearm engineers—Ercole Montini (who had worked at Beretta), Benso Bonadimani and Savino Caselli—set up shop not far from Buenos Aires and began making parts for Ballester-Molina.

Ballester-Molina’s best-known firearm was the Pistola Sistema Colt Modelo Argentino 1927, a copy of John Browning’s 1911 that was manufactured under license by Ballester-Molina until the mid-1960s.

Montini, Bonadimani and Caselli opted to start their own Argentine brand, which they named Bersa, a combination of the founders’ first names. Their first pistol was the Model 60, a pocket-size .22 autoloader that borrowed some Beretta design cues. In 1989, the company introduced its Model 90 9mm semiauto. By 1994 Bersa renamed its handguns as Thunder models.

New Digs

In October 2022 Bersa opened a 45,000-square-foot facility near Kennesaw that demonstrated the company’s commitment to the American market. And what better firearm to roll out following the new location in the States than one of America’s favorite firearms: the 1911.

Bersa launched six different B1911 pistols this year. The Blue Stainless model I tested has a stainless finish and bright blue VZ G10 grips. There’s also a stainless version with a mirror finish on the metalwork and gray VZ grips, and there are a pair of two-tone offerings. The Onyx series is black with gray grips, and the FDE model has a flat dark earth finish.

All six models feature 416R stainless steel construction and have a low-profile Novak-style rear sight and tritium front night sight. Both the front and rear sights are dovetailed into the slide.

B1911 slides aren’t cut for optics, and they don’t incorporate accessory rails. The guns do feature an ambidextrous safety, flat mainspring housing, VZ grips and an extended beavertail grip safety. Suggested retail prices for these 1911 .45s range from $1,050 to $1,199.

Stainless Barrels

All Bersa B1911 1911s are offered with five-inch stainless barrels, but I suspect we’ll see Commander- and Officer-length guns in the future. These 70-series pistols utilize a standard barrel bushing design, and they also feature short, GI-style guide rods.

The test gun featured a nice, even matte stainless finish with deep, angular slide cuts front and rear. The matte slide looked very good with the polished stainless barrel and contrasting black components like the barrel bushing, recoil spring plug, trigger and primary controls.

Machine work is clean and crisp, and the slide mates nicely to the steel frame. There was no noticeable slop or wobble between the frame and slide. Everything seems properly machined and well-fitted. There isn’t a lot of elegant milling on the slide, but it’s functional and good-looking.

The frame is similarly well-designed and sports checkering on the flat mainspring housing and the frontstrap. Like the controls, the mainspring housing is black whereas the frontstrap is matte stainless, adding a bit of contrast and a nice aesthetic touch.

Grips and Controls

The VX G10 grips are excellent, offering a firm hold on the gun without being excessively rough or making the grip too wide for concealed carry. The trigger is black, skeletonized and adjustable for overtravel. Break weight averaged four pounds, nine ounces for 10 pulls on an RCBS gauge.

The controls on the Bersa B1911 are pretty standard for this family of firearms. The ambidextrous manual safety is extended and easy to operate. The beavertail on the grip safety is also extended. The magazine release is in the traditional position, and it is reversible.

Speaking of magazines, each of these guns comes standard with an eight-round Mec-Gar magazine. There’s ample room on the grip for all but the largest hands, but the magazine offers a bit of a finger extension if you have really outsize mitts.

More practical is the magazine’s extended polymer base, which offers a grab point if you need to manually strip the magazine from the gun—although I sincerely doubt that will happen. The Mec-Gar leaps heartily from the B1911 when you press the mag release. The polymer base does offer a bit of protection for the magazine if you’re going to practice speed reloads.

Heft

Weight registered 39.7 ounces unloaded, and overall length was 8.8 inches. The B1911 measured 5.6 inches tall from the base of the magazine to the top of the Novak-style rear sight. At its widest point, across the safeties, the pistol measured 1.5 inches. The right-side manual safety is narrower than its counterpart on the left side of the pistol and fits just about flush with the outer edge of the VZ grip on that side, presumably to prevent printing.

The B1911 .45 pistol held up well to testing and produced good groups on the range. Point of impact was about four inches high at 25 yards with most loads. The test-best group of 1.45 inches for five shots came courtesy of Wilson Combat’s HAP ammunition. The almost 40-ounce Bersa is quite manageable to shoot for long periods of time, especially with the mild-mannered Federal Gold Medal full-metal-jacket loads it seemed to like so well.

There were initially some hang-ups, but after field-stripping and a healthy dose of Hoppe’s Gun Medic there were no more issues save a single stovepipe late in the testing. The feed ramp in the frame is smooth and polished, and after initial cleaning it fed rounds right into the chamber without issue during testing.

The VZ grips certainly add ample texturing for a firm hold on the gun under stress, and I love the contrasting blue color against the stainless frame/slide. The matte stainless finish held up well and the grips remained secure throughout testing.

Putting In Work

This gun had been shot prior to my work with it, and there was a bit of thinning on the controls’ finish, including the slide stop and manual safety, but it gave the gun a patinaed look that is rather eye-catching. I tested the pistol for only about 400 rounds, so I don’t know what it would be like after 4,000, but as of the end of testing the sharp points on the controls were wearing thin but not excessively so.

Not to sound like a right-handed snob, but I’m not a huge fan of ambi manual safeties on 1911s simply because with a high handhold the right-side safety poses a minor risk of riding up if you don’t place ample downward pressure with your shooting-hand thumb on the left side of the safety.

But as ambi safeties go the Bersa’s is quite nice, and its slim profile means it doesn’t extend beyond the grip so far that it would print. Nevertheless, if you like the ambi safety—and especially if you’re a southpaw planning to convert the pistol to full left-hand mode by swapping the mag release position—you’ll like the safety design.

There’s some controversy regarding short, GI-style guide rods in 1911 pistols. The full-length guide rod does smooth out cycling a bit, but I don’t think the difference is as pronounced as some people believe, especially in .45 ACP pistols. The original GI guide rod worked well for decades in 1911s before manufacturers began using full-length guide rods, and I don’t see that as a serious disadvantage of the B1911. It certainly didn’t hurt the gun’s performance or reliability.

In Conclusion

I really like the B1911’s tritium front sight and Novak-style rear sight. In addition to the standard bench rest testing, Bill Drills and failure drills, I also ran a flash sight picture drill. Essentially, my flash sight picture drill serves to eliminate the time gap between presenting the pistol toward the target and firing, and the Bersa’s bright front sight made that very simple. It’s also easy to see the front sight in low—or no—light. Of course, if you want an optic on your 1911 your only option here is to have the slide milled.

The B1911 Blue Stainless model I tested is priced a bit higher than the Springfield Garrison Government .45 blued ($868), the Rock Island Rock Ultra FS ($719) and the MAC 1911 JSOC ($750) but lower than the Ruger SR1911 ($1,229). The Ruger and MAC come with two mags, and the latter offers an adjustable rear sight. The Rock is the least expensive of the group, but the Parkerized finish isn’t as eye-catching to me at the Bersa’s matte stainless. It’s worth noting that the Bersa B1911 comes with a nice hard case with locking tabs that would be suitable for travel.

Since the Bersa is a 1911, there’s no shortage of spare parts available to you, and you can change or upgrade springs, sights, magazines and other components as you’d like. There are also abundant inside-the-waistband and outside-the-waistband holster options available, and while I won’t get into the particulars of choosing a Government-size 1911 as your everyday carry pistol, I do imagine that if you’re comfortable carrying a large pistol every day, this one is a viable option.

Bersa B1911 Specs

• Type: 1911
• Caliber: .45 ACP
• Capacity: 8
• Barrel: 5 in.
• OAL/Height/Width: 8.8/5.6/1.5 in.
• Weight: 39.7 oz.
• Construction: matte stainless slide and frame
• Grips: lue VZ G10
• Trigger: 4 lb., 9 oz. (measured)
• Sights: Novak style rear, tritium night front
• Safeties: ambi thumb, grip
• MSRP: $1,050
• Manufacturer: Bersa, BersaUSA.com

---