Manual

13
LOADING AND FIRING
Caution: Always keep the fingers clear of the trigger, whenever you do not intend
to fire.
Check that pistol is not already loaded by looking at the chamber-loaded
indicator (C2. and fig. 1b).
LOADING THE MAGAZINE
• To load the magazine remove it from the pistol by depressing the magazine
release button (fig. 5).
• Hold the magazine in the left hand. With your right hand, place a cartridge on the
follower in front of the lips, press down and slide the cartridge home under the
lips (fig. 6).
Repeat until the magazine is fully loaded. Holes on the magazine allow for visual
counting of cartridges (fig. 2).
LOADING THE PISTOL AND THE CARTRIDGE CHAMBER
Caution: Always keep the fingers clear of the trigger, whenever you do not intend
to fire.
• Push the loaded magazine into the pistol grip completely to insure catch
engagement.
• Grasping the slide serrations with thumb and index finger, fully retract and
quickly release the slide to load the chamber (fig. 7).
Caution: THE PISTOL IS NOW LOADED, COCKED AND READY TO FIRE.
NOTE: The series 81 Beretta pistols are provided with an automatic safety which
prevents any movement of the firing pin and is overcome only by pulling
on the trigger.
Caution: Always keep the fingers clear of the trigger, whenever you do not
intend to fire.
IF NOT READY TO FIRE
Engage the manual safety by simply rotating the manual safety lever with a fully
upward thumb pressure. The red warning dot will disappear (The red warning dot
can be seen only when the manual safety is disengaged).
Warning: on “F” models, moving the safety lever into the safe position, the
hammer is released until it stops against the interceptor (safety-
decocking lever).
NOTE: To load another cartridge into the magazine:
• Remove the loaded magazine from the pistol by depressing the magazine release
button.
• Insert another cartridge into the magazine.
• Push the loaded magazine into the pistol completely to insure catch engagement.
14
FIRING
WHEN READY TO FIRE
• Release the manual safety by simply rotating the manual safety lever with a fully
downward thumb pressure. The red warning dot can be seen when manual
safety is disengaged.
• Aim the pistol and align front and rear sight on target.
• Fire by squeezing the trigger. The pistol now fires in single action.
With pistols mod. “F”, being the safety engaged, hammer is lowered and pistol
will fire in double action. The pull on the trigger first cocks the hammer and
then relases it.
The discharge will recoil the slide which, in turn, will extract and eject the fired
cartridge case, cock the hammer and activate the recoil spring. Then the slide
will automatically close, feeding the next cartridge from the magazine into the
chamber and the PISTOL IS READY TO FIRE AGAIN.
• When the last round has been fired, the slide remains open (fig. 8).
• To fire again, remove the empty magazine and insert a loaded one.
• Press the slide catch to close the slide, and load the chamber (fig. 9).
Caution: THE PISTOL IS NOW LOADED, COCKED AND READY TO FIRE AGAIN.
With pistols model “F”, to keep pistol, chamber loaded, in safety condition, fully
engage the manual safety lever to lower the hammer and stop it against the
interceptor.
HOW TO LOWER THE HAMMER to the half-cock position (models “F”
excluded)
To have the pistol chamber loaded and hammer uncocked, lower the hammer
proceeding as follows (models “BB” only).
Attention: PRACTICE THIS OPERATION WITH UNLOADED PISTOL.
EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION.
• Point the pistol in a safe direction.
• With thumb retract the hammer spur; depress the trigger while cautiously
allowing the hammer to move little forward, under the thumb control,
simultaneously remove finger from trigger.
Then cautiously let the hammer move forward until it stops on the half-cock
position (fig. 10 and 11).
• Engage the manual safety by simply rotating the manual safety lever with a fully
upward thumb pressure. The red warning dot will disappear. (The red warning
dot can be seen only when the manual safety is disengaged).
With pistols model “F”, to lower the hammer, simply engage manual safety as
indicated.
The double action trigger pull makes it possible to fire the pistol quickly with
the hammer lowered or in a half-cock position, without the necessity of manual
hammer cocking. The pull on the trigger, in fact, first cocks the hammer and
then releases it (mod. 87BB/L.B. excluded).