Customer Reviews for Used Surplus Beretta (Italy) 85BB .380 ACP 8+1

strait out of italy! love this little thing! thank you buds !

Finally got around to shooting this. Too bad you can't buy them anymore at the low cost I paid. What a lovely little gun. Shoots straight. Could easily be a conceal carry with the right holster. I bought two, and they were like new!

Excellent shooting 380. Very tight recoil spring,was tough for me to rack slide and reassemble after cleaning. Very accurate.Overall a 4 .

Nice little Beretta. Looks new except a few dings and scratches. Probably from being dropped. Good purchase! Carried the M-9 in the AF. This is the 380 mini version minus the safety hammer drop.

I purchased a Beretta model 85BB in .380 acp from Bud’s. This was an Italian Police surplus weapon so I was hesitant to make the purchase but the gun was priced right so I took a flyer. When I received the gun I was blown away at the quality and appearance. The bluing was nearly 100%. The grips were good as well. I was very impressed and very pleased with my purchase. I was motivated by more than the price. The .380’s are issued to the Italian police agency officer corps. Many of these officers are in command positions and ride a desk. Unlike here in the US cops in Italy usually don’t carry off duty. If someone told me this gun had never been fired I’d be hard pressed to argue with them based on appearance. There is no holster were on the weapon whatsoever. The price, the quality of the gun and Bud’s legendary reputation for service and fast shipping all conspired to make this a big WIN for me. Kudos Bud’s.

Received quickly. Weapon was received in almost new condition. If it's been fired, it's been very little. No frame, holster wear. Given the opportunity, I will purchase a few more of these. I was expecting a truck gun, but it's far from that. Might just sit in the safe with my Beretta collection.

Very nice pistol. Have not shot yet .no ammo

What a sweet little gun. Mine appears to be unfired and in light of the current ammo and component situation it may unfortunately remain that way for a while.

I received my Beretta 85 and it was better than I expected, much better! After cleaning the gun it was in like new condition. I took it to the range and it shot very accurate and smooth! Smooth like butter. Thanks Buds! Great Transaction!

Fast delivery, this 380 beretta arrived in very good condition had minor holster abrasion and small nicks to the black paint on the body which can be touched up easily. Great condition for a surplus gun. Another easy transaction from Buds.

This is a GREAT pistol ! Quality consistent with the Beretta name; feels great in the hand; functions well; strips fairly easily; but has an overly hard pull to bring the slide back, although that's perhaps what they wanted, so don't use low powered loads, I guess. Thanks Buds for a terrific value!
geoff g.

Received a beautiful gun. Looks to have never been fired! Thanks Buds!

I was so excited, to get my Beretta 85BB it was in very good condition Buds, gun shop is awesome I received my package very fast it was at my FFL for pick up.

I am very pleased with the cosmetic condition of the firearm. There are very few surface blemishes and the bore looks perfect. Awesome firearm and I can’t wait to shoot it!

Awesomeness!!! I’ve always wanted a Beretta Cheetah, but the $600+ pricetag was above my price limit for a .380. Well, I was browsing thru the Buds website, and saw this little beauty waiting for a good home. I took it out to the range today for it’s maiden cruise, and I must say that she shoots like a dream. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase. Some cons for the 85BB:
— spare magazines are VERY hard to find at this time
— make sure to clean the barrel and slide; my barrel had some lint balls in it that could have been a problem
Some pros:
— Awesome Condition...just a hint of holster wear along the slide
— barrel shows no wear
— very accurate; seems to be zeroed at 25 yds, so adjust aim accordingly
— low recoil; could have shot it all day long
Hope this helps your decision to buy one of these👍

gun looks almost new, bright bore and very smooth action, i wish i had another mag, they are hard to find

JUST A CLASSIC, BEAUTY IN SINGLE/DOBLE ACTION. POLICE TRADE FROM ITALY IN REALLY GOOD CONDITIONS

Bought this little gun to add to my wifes beretta collection. It's an excellent fire arm has a very nice DA/SA trigger for being an OE part. New EDC gun for my wife awesome work buds bluing on the gun has little wear isolated to the front of the slide beveling and top of the sight from holstering but looks very good. Sight dots clean nicely with alcohol. Thanks buds!

This is my first on-line gun purchase, and I cannot think of anything to complain about with the process.
The gun has no signs of damage or defect. I disassembled it before shooting and it was clean and lightly lubed. The wife and I put 150 rounds through it with no issues.
I have had no problem finding ammo, but extra magazines for this gun are another story. They seem to run about $40 if you can find one in stock.

Where to start with this interesting piece of history... First impression was that considering the age of the gun, I was expecting a bit more visual wear and tear than mine had. If all of these came in the same visual condition mine came in, you'd be over the moon with your purchase like I was. However, that's where my happiness took an irrecoverable dip. Taking this beauty out of the box it wouldn't for the life of me fully cock back. Had multiple people in the store try and do so and finally managed to get it fully back after the 5th person. Inside where the magazine feed is was some heavy debris buildup that thankfully my store cleaned out for me for free. Can't imagine this gun was tested to any degree before it was shipped because not being able to rack the slide would seem like a fairly big problem.
Secondly, my gun's safety does not work. You can flip the lever into position but as you pull the trigger back it moves along with the trigger pull. Safely dry-fire tested this a few times to confirm that even though the safety is engaged, it'll allow for a full trigger pull/cycle of the gun. Thankfully, I don't plan to carry this gun as part of my daily life but I have to be extra careful when I bring it to the range as a result. Seems a bit of an oversight if you ask me.
Finally, this isn't as much to do with the gun itself as it is about how it was shipped. Normally, Buds does a great job with shipping and identifying their products but it took nearly an hour and very apologetic staff having me check and recheck the UPS tracking number and ID to confirm my firearm was indeed shipped to my FFL. Turns out it was packed in a much larger box with other orders that were all unrelated to one another. If a simple shipping manifest was put on the box to say who's items were in there, it would've saved a lot of time. That being said, I'd just love Buds to do a bit better when it comes to that issue.
As far as pros go, once the gun was completely cleaned and oiled, this baby shot like a dream. I was definitely worried about it but my worries quickly vanished as did my 50 count box of rounds. Will be a gun I keep in my rotation but probably looking to use it less often rather than more often. It may be fun to shoot but until more mags become available it'll quickly eat into range time to shoot/reload one mag at a time since that's all it comes with, albeit understandably so. No knocked points for that but definitely pulled it back to middle of the road for me.
If you're looking to purchase this firearm, my suggestion would come down to your intentions. If you want a cool period piece to add to your collection, by all means pick it up. You can have fun occasionally shooting it but it wouldn't be my first choice at all. Definitely a beautiful piece of steel and feels a lot better in your hands than some other pistols I've held for around and above the same price point. Rating goes, 3.5/5 because it's not excellent but definitely doesn't deserve D quality grade. Gun itself is probably B quality but the problems with mine knocked it down to a C. If your safety works and your slide racks out of the box, then you definitely got the better piece.

I am glad I bought two! Mine both look exactly like the picture here as far as wear, enough that you can enjoy shooting and carrying without worry. Nice deep bluing. Beautiful machined steel. Old school. Not like plastic striker fired pistols. Feels great in my hand. Shoots beautifully. I'm not a great shot and it made me look good. Be prepared for a very stiff recoil spring and the grip cuts in the slide are sharp, at least on mine. They really bite. Not for soft or weaker hands.
Only downside to my experience was the customer service when I went to pick them up. Be prepared for a LONG wait. Maybe they were short-handed. I went on my lunch hour and needed every bit of it. I think I could have filled out a 1040 form faster than whatever the check-out person had to do on the computer, and that was after the usual paper work at the counter. Also, the guy behind the counter must have been having a bad day. Or maybe I reminded him of someone he didn't like. Granted it is not always easy to work with the public. Won't stop me from buying again, but would love to see Buds do better.

Steel Wool is your best friend!
For a surplus gun that may be around 30 years old mine was in spectacular condition. There is one reviewer who said his was unissued, well lucky for him! Mine showed your typical holster wear on the side of the slide and the trigger guard and there was nothing to be be alarmed about.
There was some surface rust underneath the barrel on the locking lugs, some on the slide stop, on the rear of the trigger, and on the grip screws. All of this came away with a light rubbing of 0000 steel wool and some gun oil. It has 2 dot "snow man" sights which if you shot the M9 in the military you would be familiar with them. Mine were crusty and flaking off. I removed the old paint with an x-acto knife and put some white Warhammer paint on them and they are good to go.
The bore is bright and shiny and showed some signs of light firing. Typical brass ring around firing pin protrusion. All of this came off with an AP brush.
Recoil spring tension is tight and typical of cold war-era compacts. Id say 18lbs of pressure to pull back fully or so.
I would say bore is 98% condition, which the outside of the gun is 90%. There is nothing functionally wrong with this gun, problems were all cosmetic.
Proof marks (yours may differ of course):
-end of barrel a crest with a crown and crossed swords(?) with a star and laurel wreath above it.
-underneath that CIP with an N below it
-right side of barrel near chamber has a laurel wreath with a squiggly mark in the center I cant make out.
-left side of barrel has PB followed by shortened 4 digit serial number
-underneath slide on the right sliderail has an electric pencil mark of the crest with crown and star as mentioned above
-left side of frame has CIP with N underneath, CU inside a square, and the crest with crown and star as above
-also has MOD. 85BB - CAL. 9 Short, followed by white import mark starting with CHE
-right side of frame has serial number with G.F. underneath it.
-also near trigger guard printed PB
-left side of slide has PIETRO BERETTA Gardone V.T. - Made in Italy
-right side of slide has circled block letter PB Patented
Sure wish I could upload pictures! Happy hunting.

I was pleased...good condition better than
I expected. My initial reaction was that I should have bought 2.

For a used gun Beretta 380 is in great shape, great price!!!

This gun appears to new / never issued. The magazine on the other hand looks to have been used quite a bit, has some handling marks but probably works just fine and probably not original to the gun. Not a problem as I'll likely buy an additional new magazine anyway. Very happy with the as new condition of this gun and would likely order another if I could be assured it would be in the same condition. Wish I lived closer so I could pick in person.