Bersa Thunder .380

[tmurray]

Finally got to put in some range time with the wife and her new pistol.

I ran across Monarch .380 ammo (brass) at Academy and it burned pretty dirty and jammed quite a bit. I didn't have a problem with case expansion or ejection. Our problem was either the last round or the next to last round would get hung up trying to load.

Here is my question, is this due to the dirty ammo or a cheap pistol?

I had read mostly positive reviews on the Bersa before purchasing and we were very excited to shoot it and ended up extremely sick to our stomachs.

I realize the only thing I can do is try some other ammo and hope for the best. I wish I would have brought some of the critical defense rounds to the range with me to try just for piece of mind.

[webstertroy]

How new is it? Try some hot pd ammo in it and see how she does... if new may just need a goof cleaning and breakin period...

[jdeleon]

i have heard good things from a bersa i wouldnt imagine it would do something like that. im hoping its the ammo but update when you find out. i was leaning into getting one myself at some point.

[wsteffen]

Any auto loader needs to be broke in. A good cleaning and shooting it should make it better. I never had any problems with the Monarch, so I'd say shot a few hundred rounds through it and then see how it is. The Bersa 380's are good little guns. I've had a number of them throughout the years. Only had a problem with one of them and Bersa took care of it.

[bm22]

My bersa doesn't like monarch but will shoot winchester whitebox .380 great. And never had a problem with any hollowpoint. I love that little gun. It's my back-up carry to my sti .45.

[stinkbelly]

My wife has the Bursa Thunder .380. She honestly put about 500 rounds through it without cleaning it and it worked flawlessly. The last time we went to the range we had one brand of ammo jam up every time we tried to use it. I think it was the Monarch ammo, but not 100% positive.

I would try some different ammo, but it will be hard to get those failures out of the back of your mind.

[huntmaster]

none of my pistols like monarch, and neither do my rifles

[Outback]

My Taurus .380 doesn't cycle Tula well but it loves the Winchester White Box. My .45 Kimber and .45 Springfield have cycled anything I've fed it. It's interested how some guns just don't like some brands of ammo.

[equin]

Wife's Bersa Thunder cc, which she got used, never had any problems and cycled through everything, but I don't think it's ever tried Monarch ammo, yet. FWIW, my Beretta 92FS eats Monarch ammo with no problem, but as Outback said above, some guns eat up any kind of ammo you feed them, while others of the same brand and model are a bit more finicky.

[BSOB]

my bersa thunder doesn't have any issues with jamming. my bet is its the ammo.

[Gunnyart]

I had one that had issues. Decided it wasn't something I was willing to trust my life to so I got rid of it.

[RafterH]

My Bersa Thunder does not like Monarch either. If I use anything else it runs smooth.

[tmurray]

Good info here. Like I said in the original post, I wish I would have brought some of the self defense ammo with me I bought just for piece of mind. Right now, I still have confidence in the pistol, I'm just doubting the cheap Monarch ammo. Casings were coming out burned all the way down one side.

[Whale]

Thanks for posting and I hope it is just the ammo. Looking to purchase the same gun.

[tex4k]

My bersa didn't care for the monarch either, had jamming problems for 2-3 full magazines with2-3 cleanings before it straightened and went working again, haven't used anything but Winchester since.