Selected Handgun Detail

Manufacturer
	Fabbrica D' Armi Pietro Beretta SpA More Info

About the Gun

Compact alloy-frame DA/SA 92 with a shortened open-top slide and a shortened double-stack grip. Slide-mounted safety/decock lever, 3-dot sights, squared trigger guard, and checkered black plastic grips. Bruniton or blued slide on an anodized frame.

Production

Production ran from the mid-1980s through 1993 and again from 1998 through 2003.

Market value

MSRP at production was around $750. Current used market value for examples in good to very good condition ranges $500–$750.

Cartridge Specifications
Cartridge:	9 mm Luger
Alias:	9 mm Parabellum
More Info

Analysis

Beretta cut the 92 down in the early 1980s after U.S. trial work produced a request for a shorter duty pistol. The first compact was the 92SB Compact; the commercial 92 Compact that followed is the same size on later F and FS lockwork—shorter barrel and slide, shorter grip, and a 13-round double-column magazine that will also accept a protruding full-size magazine. Production paused in the mid-1980s, returned from 1989 through 1993, and returned again for a U.S. block from 1998 through 2003. Gardone kept building Compact L pistols in smaller lots after that, so Italian-dated examples from the 2010s turn up. The gun filled a mid-size role for agencies and civilian buyers who wanted 92 controls in a smaller package. Regular U.S. catalog space later shifted to railed and 92X compact variants, so most guns on the used market are the plain, rail-less Compact L. They sell in the same band as a used full-size 92FS and are less common, which keeps clean boxed examples toward the top of that value range.