Greetings from Chattanooga area.

[Guest Hopster]

Hey everyone,

New to guns and a spanking new carry permit holder (I know very dangerous). The first gun we are experimenting with is a Bersa Thunder .380 - Not too happy with it, as this gun seems to jam alot. Hopefully putting a couple hundred more rounds through it will fix that problem.

I am thinking we are better off with a revolver - thinking the Ruger 5402. Hoping these forums will get us more comfortable with firearms. Looking forward to tapping some knowledge.

[Mechanic_X]

Nice to have you here Hopster. Trying to figure out "hopster". Hoping it is Beer related.

[medipedicman]

Welcome to the board Hopster. If the bersa was straight out of the box when fired you may just want to give it a good cleaning before giving up on it.

[bvarnell]

Welcome aboard from across the "mountain".

[Guest Archminister01]

Welcome aboard! I am in the Chattanooga area as well. Glad to see the ranks growing close to home.

[kb4ns]

Welcome!

[DWARREN123]

Howdy and Welcome to TGO

[Guest faust921]

One of your neighbors here. Hope the Bersa works out for you, if not there's plenty of good people here that horse trade just about anything you'd like.

Maybe take your gun back to where you bought it and ask them to look at it. Sometimes machining marks on a feeder ramp or a small burr are just a undesired result of the manufacturing process, and can cause malfunctions. These can be identified and corrected by a professional gunsmith at a nominal cost.

You might be surprised what a some careful, patient, hand polishing with progressive grits of wet-dry automotive paper can do to a feeder ramp. A race gun guy gave me that tip and I've never had a stovepipe or failure to feed.

Before you do anything to it, take your gun to a professional.

[mousegunner]

Welcome from Signal Mountain. The Bersa is reported to be a really nice .380 pistol. Good luck with getting the bugs out!

[Il Duce]

Welcome from Soddy

[bockey]

Welcome

[Guest MoonMan]

Welcome from the ooltewah area.

[crossfire]

Welcome!

[Guest zeek30]

Welcome

[mav]

Welcome.

[Guest Mad4rcn]

Welcome,stay safe.

[adam42]

Welcome from K town.

[Guest mmarcum]

Welcome!

If you bought the gun new return it and tell them what is happening. They if they are reputable they will work with the manufacturer to make it right. The second bit of advice would be for a new gun owner would be to start out with a revolver as it is simple to operate and requires very minimal skill to master handeling.

I still carry a revolver as they tend to work when you require them to and they are very easy to take care of as far as cleaning goes. You can always move up as you become more familiar and comfortable. To become truly proficient with a semiauto is almost an art form. You must work at it and train your self to operate it autonimously in a stressful situation.

Just my $0.02 cents

[TNWNGR]

Howdy, Native Chatt. boy myself, of course we moved away when I was still a wee lad and all.;-) Observation's I have from outside of the box on your Bersa problems are pretty simple. If you haven't gone to another pistol yet try these steps. Have a friend who is an experenced shooter do a course of fire with the ammunition you've already tried. If they have no FTF then your having problems by "limpwristing" it happens more often than you'd realize. If the friend has FTF problems with the pistol than try some other brands of 380 ammunition and see how they work out. If no success than either you have a magizine problem or a feed ram problem, both of which are easily corrected so don't fret. Insofar as other pistol recommendations, well I've gone from one extreme to the other type and brand wise, but for dollar and reliability value I'd recommend a KelTec P3AT 380 or a PF9 9mm, both do suprinsingly well once broken in. FWIW I'm a big time "gun snob" and generally won't look twice at anything new, but KelTec's service, value and overall reliability changed my view on that company.

[Rotzaruck]

From the other side of the gap : Howdy Neighbor!