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baretta 92 and 96

ginger49023
My brother-in-law has a Beretta 96 in 40 s&w. He has had accuracy problems and asked me to look it over.
Upon doing so, I found that his 96 40 s&w magazines are stamped 9mm as are my Beretta 92 magazines.
I have poked through a few web sites to see if I can find 96 40 s&w magazines but find none.
Are they interchangeable?
He has been using the 9mm in his 96 with no feed problems
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • shilowar
    Interesting question....My Beretta 96 magazines are marked "PB CAL.40 S&W- Made in Italy" and are 11 rd LE mags

    I can see .40 mags working for a 9mm, but I would think the throat(opening) of a 9mm mag would be too narrow and would cause a feeding problem.

    I was able to load .40s in my Glock 9mm mags but you had to angle the cartridge more to slide it in under the lip. I would think that would cause a feeding issue
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  • beantownshootah
    I'm pretty sure that the 9mm and 40SW Beretta mags are different (ie they aren't DESIGNED to be interchangeable).

    There definitely ARE dedicated model 96 .40SW Beretta magazines available for sale, eg:

    http://www.cdnninvestments.com/beretta.html

    Now, the fact that the mags are nominally different doesn't mean that you can't get away with using the "wrong" mag from time to time. The only practical differences between the mags might be the shape of the follower and/or distance between the feed lips. Neither one of these things may be different enough to prevent the mags from running the "wrong" ammo.

    For example, during the Clinton gun-ban era standard-capacity mags over 10 rounds were restricted to law enforcement only. This ban persists in multiple states to this day.

    One "trick" to partly circumvent this restriction was to use 40SW mags in 9mm guns so you could "pack in" another 2 rounds at the range. I forget which guns it worked in (maybe Glocks?), but I know this did apply to certain guns.

    I'd imagine the same is probably true of the Beretta. The Beretta platform does have its drawbacks, but its biggest advantage is its superb reliability. The Beretta in particular uses a straight-line feed design that enhances reliable loading, and I'd bet this is a contributing factor here.

    As a side note, I can't see how the wrong mag would degrade accuracy. Either the rounds chamber properly, go off, and cycle the gun, or they don't. The exact angle they entered the chamber or distance they had to travel to get there should be irrelevant once they're in place.
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  • Txs
    It's not uncommon to see .40 S&W and .357 SIG magazines marked as used for either cartridge due to these rounds using the same case.

    However, due to dimensional differences of the cases the feed lips of .40 and 9mm magazines would have to be designed differently.
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  • ginger49023
    thanks for the help
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  • mark christian
    They will work, but there are caliber specific magazines for the .40 S&W. Back when the Crime Bill was still in force it was a common little trick for Beretta Model 92 owners to use a Model 96 .40S&W ten shot magazine loaded with 9mm ammo in order to get a few extra rounds over the ten round limit without having to spend a bundle on 9mm high caps.
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