Firestorm .22LR

2003 Buyers Guide
All-Purpose Autopistols
By: J.B. Wood

For around twenty years, the Bersa firm in Argentina has been making high quality pistols that sell for very reasonable prices.  Since 1988, SGS Imports of New Jersey has been the U.S. master distributor.  In more recent years, the pistols have acquired a new name, “FireStorm.”  The medium-frame version is available in .380 Auto and .22 LR. 

The .22 that I tried out has a matte black finish and the raised sight rib on top has fine cross checkering.  The square post and notch sights have three white dots, the one on the front slightly larger.  The raised sight is horizontally screw adjustable.  The trigger is smooth surfaced, and the double and single-action pulls are excellent.  There is an external slide latch, and just below it is the push-button magazine release.  And internal safety discounts the trigger bar when the magazine is taken out.  The magazine holds ten rounds.

The manual safety on the slide locks the firing pin and shields it from the hammer.  In the last fraction of its arc, it trips the sear to drop the hammer.  On all systems of this type, I prefer to let the hammer down gently when using the safety.  The FireStorm .22 gets high points for ergonomics.  The rubber grip has moderate thumb and trigger finger rests, and where it goes around the front strap there are finger projections.  These mate with the magazine extension to form perfect recesses for all three fingers of an average hand.

The resulting hold is absolutely superb.  This, along with the nice trigger and good sights, contributed to some fine groups at the range, well centered in the black.  The smallest was 2.25 inches, and all were less than three inches.  None of the loads gave any problems.  As usual, Bersa has made an excellent pistol.

SGS Importers International
1750 Brielle Ave., Unit B-1
Wanamassa, NJ 07712
(732)-493-0302
www.firestorm-sgs.com, gsodini@aol.com
Excerpt from "Three Favorite Rimfires" story by J.B. Wood