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For many years Bersa of Argentina has been producing quality compact
pistols chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge. Over the last couple of
decades, I have owned a few of these little gems, and still have one of
their older single-action .22 autoloaders. Their double-action .22
pistol has been produced for many years now, and one of these is the
subject of this article. They are now marketed under the Firestorm
banner, but are basically the same reliable little Bersa pistols that we
have used for years, with but a couple of changes.
The gun tested here is the Firestorm FS22M, and is very similar to the
excellent Bersa .380 pistol
tested here a couple of years ago. I have received hundreds of emails from
readers who have read that article on the Bersa .380, bought the gun, and
are totally satisfied with the little weapon. The Firestorm 22 offers the
same reliability and accuracy, chambered for the excellent little .22 Long
Rifle cartridge.
The Firestorm is a double-action auto pistol that holds ten cartridges in
its magazine, with a total capacity of eleven. It has a three and
five-eighths inch barrel that is fixed to the frame, and does not move with
the slide at all, resulting in a very rigid barrel position. The feed ramp
to the chamber is polished smooth for reliable feeding, which was flawless
during the extensive test firing of the weapon. The gun has a manual
safety that disconnects the trigger and blocks the hammer, and also serves
as a decocking lever. The gun also has a magazine disconnect safety which
prevents the gun from firing with the magazine removed. In addition, it
also has a key-lock safety, if one so chooses to use that feature. The grip
panels are of a semi-soft synthetic rubber material with finger grooves on
the front of the grip. It makes for a very comfortable and secure hold. The
magazine release button is located at the upper left of the trigger at the
rear, and is easily operated by both right-handed and left-handed shooters.
The slide locks open after the last shot is fired, and is released by the
slide lock, which is located just above the magazine release. The easily
visible three-dot sights can be adjusted for windage with a screwdriver.
The Firestorm has a Rowell type hammer and a long tang to prevent the
hammer from biting the web of the hand. The ten shot magazine has a finger
extension, to effectively lengthen the grip.
Ergonomically, the Firestorm is very well designed, and is an exceedingly
comfortable pistol to shoot. The gun strips easily for cleaning, and
reassembles in about two seconds. The design is very much like an
improved Walther PP series, but is simpler and easier to use, and
sells for less than half the price. The Firestorm has a steel slide and an
aluminum alloy frame, and weighs in at 19.4 ounces with an empty magazine.
The trigger pull measured a smooth seven pounds and thirteen ounces in
double-action mode, and released at three and three-quarters pounds in
single-action mode. The Firestorm is a traditional double-action design in
which the first shot can be fired either by a long pull of the trigger or
by thumb-cocking the hammer for a single-action pull, with subsequent shots
fired in the single-action mode, as the cycling of the slide cocks the
hammer.
Shooting the Firestorm proved very enjoyable. The comfortable grip and
light recoil of the cartridge made for very pleasant shooting. The
pistol proved to be plenty accurate for a gun of its type, keeping all
shots within three inches at twenty-five yards, with its preferred
ammunition doing a bit better. Rapid fire drills easily kept a magazine
full of ammunition tightly clustered on a silhouette target torso at thirty
yards, emptying the magazine in under three seconds. As stated above,
the Firestorm fed all ammunition tested without a malfunction. Ammo of
adequate power functioned very reliably. The only problems occurred when
using bullets of standard velocity that were of less than forty grains in
weight. Lightweight hyper-velocity ammo such as CCI Stingers and Federal
Spitfires functioned perfectly, but lightweight standard velocity ammo
lacked the power to work the slide reliably every time. This is not a fault
of the gun, but of using the wrong ammo in the gun. Full power high
velocity and hyper-velocity worked perfectly every time. The gun worked
very well with Winchester Wildcat low priced ammunition. It also
really liked CCI Stingers, Federal Spitfires, Winchester Dynapoints,
and CCI Mini-Mags. I tried hard to make the Firestorm mess up. I loaded
three magazines and fired them off as fast as I could, repeating the
process until the gun became hot to hold, but the little pistol kept
functioning perfectly.
The Firestorm is compact enough to carry concealed if desired. While most
prefer a defensive weapon with more power than a twenty-two, it will
certainly do in a pinch. There are those who for various reasons cannot
handle the recoil of a bigger cartridge. The Firestorm, having a fixed
breech, gets more power from the .22 Long Rifle cartridge than does a
revolver. The CCI Stingers clocked 1231 feet-per-second (fps) from the
three and five-eighths inch barrel, which is faster than the velocity
achieved from longer barreled revolvers, due to the barrel/cylinder gap
inherent to the revolver design. The same ammo clocked 1120 from a Smith
& Wesson four inch revolver, and 1213 from a Ruger six and
one-half inch barreled sixgun. The CCI hollowpoint in excess of 1230 fps is
nothing to toy with. It will penetrate very well, and is easy to shoot
accurately from the Firestorm. The twenty-two allows a lot of practice for
little money, and can serve for defense if necessary. For those who carry a
Bersa .380 for defense, the Firestorm is a perfect choice for low cost
practice.
The Firestorm also makes for a dandy little
trail gun. It rides comfortably on the hip, and is accurate
enough to take small game at reasonable range. Having no holster
available to me for the little gun, I slid it into a Dillon
Cactus League Slide holster made for the 1911 style autos, where
it rode perfectly. Having eleven shots of .22 Long Rifle
firepower on the hip is a good choice for a trail gun while
walking around in the woods, and a quantity of ammunition can be
carried with little additional weight.
It is hard for me to pigeon-hole this little gun
into one category. It is a great little trail gun,
adequate for defense, accurate enough to pot small game, and an
excellent little plinker. It is also very affordable, usually
selling for around two hundred bucks, and has a lifetime
warranty. It is one of those little handguns that can fill
many roles, and is just plain fun to shoot. I recommend it.
Check it out online at: www.firestorm-sgs.com.
Jeff Quinn
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Click pictures for a larger version.
The Firestorm .22 pistol.
The Firestorm (bottom) with the excellent Bersa
Thunder .380 (top).
The Firestorm (bottom) with an older-generation Bersa
Single-Action .22 pistol (top).
The Firestorm strips to its basic components in seconds
without tools.
The barrel is fixed to the frame, an aid to accuracy and
reliability.
The feed ramp is well polished, which greatly enhances
the feed reliability of the little pistol. Using
adequately-powered ammunition, malfunctions were nonexistent.
The slide features a large extractor and a large
ejection port, resulting in 100% reliable case
extraction.
Semi-soft finger-groove grip aids in "gun
control".
Slide stop lever, magazine release button and manual
safety lever are well positioned for use by right-handed or
left-handed shooters.
A key-locking safety system is included for those who
have a need for it.
Sights are high-visibility "three-dot"
configuration, with a windage-adjustable rear sight.
A very ergonomic design, the Firestorm handles and
carries perfectly.
The Firestorm rode very well in a Dillon Cactus League
Slide holster made for the 1911 .45.
Thanks to the design of the Firestorm, high-velocity
ammunition such as CCI's Stinger does not suffer from the
short barrel length.
The Bersa Thunder .380 has proven to be among the most
popular guns we have tested here at Gunblast.com. With its
high quality, low cost, excellent reliability, acceptable
accuracy, and just plain fun, the Firestorm .22 will be at
least as successful.
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