Bersa light spring re test
Got to the range this morning early to beat the heat; no one else there.
new rimfire tests
Some new stuff to test:
- CCI Velocitor 40gr plated HP
- Federal Champion 36gr lead HP
- Remington Viper 36gr plated TC
- CCI Mini Mag 40gr plated RN
- Remington Golden Bullet 40gr plated RN
re-test with lighter spring
The Bersa Thunder 22 comes with a rather heavy recoil spring. This makes it a picky eater, preferring High Velocity rounds. Bersa makes a lighter spring but it’s unobtanium at retail as far as I can tell. The warranty shop talked to me and sent the lighter spring; today was my first day out with it.1
The re-test was for anything that had previously failed to cycle 100% reliably with the OEM spring. I re-tested:
- Federal Auto Match 40gr lead RN
- Federal American Eagle 45gr lead RN
- Federal Punch 29gr plated FP
- CCI Standard Velocity 40gr lead RN
- CCI Uppercut 32gr plated HP <- failures to eject
- CCI Mini Mag 36gr plated HP
- CCI Quiet 45gr lead RN <- failures to eject
IMO this is a great improvement. ~70% of the rounds that previously failed to work with the OEM spring ran perfectly with the lighter spring. And it was unfair to include the Quiet round in the first place; the autos never stood a chance.
The Punch stands out as a possible carry round and the Auto Match stands out as a training round.
overall results
I didn’t intend to publish this so forgive the sloppiness. It shows what worked in the Bersa Thunder 22 (OEM spring in first column, lighter spring in second), a Stoeger Luger2, a Henry AR-7 survival rifle, and a Rossi RB22 bolt action. The only ones I really care about are the the Bersa and the Rossi.