Gun Of The Week: Davidson’s Exclusive Beretta 92XI SAO Corsa & Gara

Welcome to another American Rifleman "Gun Of The Week" video! We’re on the range today with a unique Beretta handgun that has been tuned specifically for competition use. This Beretta 92XI is one of a pair of unique handguns that you can only get from Davidson’s Gallery of Guns. Watch our video above to see the Gara in use on the range.

With Davidson’s being one of the largest firearm distributors in the country, the company can work with manufacturers to craft unique models and product combinations for their buyers. The resulting configurations from the Davidson’s network of dealers are designs you just can’t find anywhere else. For both of these Davidson’s Exclusives, the company worked with Beretta and LOK Grips to come up with two attractive handgun designs that just as great to shoot as they are to look at.

We’ve looked at Beretta’s newer 92XI design before here on “Gun of the Week,” with the Squalo. Notably, what Beretta’s done with the XI version of its famous 92 design is move the safety/decocker lever from the side of the slide down to the top-rear portion of the frame. This is more akin to what you’d see on an M1911, and there’s no decocking involved here. This is a single-action-only design, so what we have here are a set of bilateral thumb safeties that are carefully blended into the overall design.

As with the Squalo, these two Davidson’s Exclusives have their own names. First up, we have the Gara, which means “Competition” in Italian, a clear nod to this gun’s design intent. Aside from the gun’s striking red accents, there are several features that are geared toward competitive shooting. One of the most obvious is the Toni System single-port compensator, which directs excess propellant gases upward, cutting down on muzzle rise and recoil and ensuring that you can be on target faster for that next follow-up shot.

The red-accented X-Treme S aluminum trigger has been DLC-coated and paired with Beretta’s 92X Performance hammer spring for a clean, crisp pull. A set of red-and-black G10 stocks pairs well with the red-anodized trigger and also provides a solid grip, thanks to the full-coverage checkering. Red-anodized magazine basepads complete the gun’s look, and they add space for four extra rounds in each magazine, providing a total capacity of 22 +1.

Next up, there’s the Corsa, which means “Race” in Italian, yet another nod to the gun’s competition-oriented design. The Corsa, like the Gara, includes many of the same features, such as the single-port compensator, X-Treme S trigger and extended magazines. However, in this package, the trigger and magazine basepads have an attractive, gold-anodized finish that fit well with a clean-looking pair of carbon-fiber stocks from LOK Grips, accented with a gold outline.

On the range, this single-action Beretta was a joy to shoot. The gun’s 36-oz. weight, combined with its relatively soft-shooting 9 mm Luger chambering and the addition of that single-port compensator meant that it basically didn’t move from shot to shot. The LOK Grips did their job well, too, and we appreciated the addition of Beretta’s Toni System flared magazine well, which made inserting fresh magazines easy. Controls were crisp and easy to reach, and the fiber-optic front sight showed up easily in daylight. It’s worth noting that these two Berettas also have milled cuts in the slide that allow for easy red-dot mounting. For a finely tuned firearm that comes out of the box ready to race, it’s hard to go wrong with either the Gara or the Corsa.

Beretta 92XI SAO Corsa & Gara Specifications
Distributor: GalleryofGuns.com
Action Type: single-action, semi-automatic, centerfire pistol
Chambering: 9 mm Luger
Barrel: 5.1"
Frame: Vertec-style, aluminum
Slide: steel
Finish: Gray Cerakote
Magazine: 22-round, detachable box
Sights: drift adjustable; square notch rear, fiber-optic post front
Stocks: LOK Grips; G10 (Gara), carbon fiber (Corsa)
Trigger: X-treme S
Overall Length: 9"
Width: 1.5"
Weight: 36.2 ozs.
MSRP: $1,600