[ Beretta Import MR-73 at the Range ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I have my pistol case from Manurhin, now owned by Beretta.
So this is of course an MR73.
Mmm, shiny.
These are basically one of the top tier ... combat revolvers ... ever manufactured.
They have been available very sporadically in the US
through like an assembly of small importers who get a few here and a few there.
There was a big batch that came in a couple of years ago through Century Arms,
but those were all police trade-in guns.
This is a brand new manufacture, 5 inch barrelled, sport model with the adjustable target sights.
And Manurhin has now been purchased by Beretta, or rather I should say Chapuis,
which is the company that is currently manufacturing the Manurhin revolvers, the MR73s.
They have been purchased by Beretta, and now Beretta is importing these guns into the US.
So, what we have here is a 6 shot .357 Magnum.
These were developed for GIGN, essentially French counter-terrorism special forces,
... they really liked using a revolver as a legit primary service arm.
This is in the '70s, but they continued to use them for a couple of decades.
And they wanted a gun that could withstand a daily training regimen
of like 150 rounds of full power .357 Magnum.
And guns like the Colt Pythons and the Smith & Wessons at the time, they were good guns,
they were accurate guns, but they didn't have the longevity and the durability.
And so Manurhin went through and did this gun itself for the French special forces
to give them that 100,000 round lifetime of service, which is pretty phenomenal.
So I have some of my last remaining bits of .357 Magnum,
and we're going to see how this thing actually shoots.
It looks gorgeous.
I am shooting at 25 yards, I've got a pair of steel targets out there,
and I've got the little hostage head flappers set up on those targets.
So ...
Let's just go straight into the deep end here,
and see if I can hit the hostage head with .357 double action.
One of the nice things about the MR73 is a very nice, smooth, double action pull.
Yep! That's ... the MR73 in a nutshell right there.
Alright, I should point out on here, the grips
don't look nearly up to the fanciness standard of the gun.
The gun is just beautifully deep, deep blued,
and yet it's got these sort of like almost Pachmayr-looking rubber grips.
These are actually Trausch grips, and they were specifically designed for the MR73s
to control recoil, so you could get faster follow-up shots.
What they do is hold your hand very high on the gun, not quite in line with the bore, but close.
And so ... these are deliberate for abetting rapid follow-up double-action shooting.
Four out of five, I'm not exactly special forces myself.
So there are people who will claim that there are other guns that are better revolvers,
higher quality revolvers. And there's probably a few out there, somewhere.
Korth certainly can make a claim to being on par with a Manurhin MR73.
The difference is what most really high-end sporting revolvers offer
is finish quality and accuracy.
And what Manurhin has is those things, plus ... almost unbelievable longevity and durability.
And that comes from the fact that this is from a military background,
and not from a sporting background.
Alright, got a paper target again, we're at 25 yards, we'll do this single action.
And see how good of a group I can get, with the caveat that
I did some bullseye pistol shooting about ... 10 years ago, and haven't done a ton since.
Alright, let's go see how embarrassing that is.
Oh man! Whoo! So let's see, let's take a look at this target there because you only heard four ...
yeah, OK, so ... I threw two of them, but dang!
That is better than I expected if I, well, only count those four.
But like I said, I am by no means a precision pistol shot.
Wasn't to start with, certainly not any more. But man, it's a nice shooting gun.
Alright, I'm giving myself a handicap here and moving up to the 15 yard line,
and we're going to do some more shooting at ... those hostage heads.
There are a number of very famous counter-terrorism incidents
where the MR73 was in fact used as a primary weapon, and used to very good effect.
By the way, they also have an 8 inch version of these
that GIGN used in small numbers outfitted with scopes and bipods, which is a super cool variation.
... I have a ... whole video on that pattern,
so I'll link to that at the end of this if you're interested in it.
... Double action, 15 yards, the little mini-sized hostage heads.
Ah, that works, I guess that's why they use .357, huh?
And that one has failed to bounce all the way.
Ah, one down.
This kicks, this is a .357, it's got some significant recoil to it.
But the grips really do what they're supposed to do, keeping the bore down.
It's kicking straight into your hand, it's not jumping way up, which is really cool.
I can certainly see the appeal of these.
The reason that GIGN took so long before they actually went to semi-auto pistols
was this is reliable, this will always go off.
... And I talked about this ... in the video where I talked about their scoped pattern.
In the early days of police semi-auto handguns,
those guns weren't as reliable as we're used to expecting today.
And they would periodically malfunction, not that often, but every once in a while.
And every once in a while was too often for an organisation like GIGN
that was going to be busting into hijacked airliners and shooting people in very tight confines
with very close hostage no-shoot sort of setups.
And so they went with a .357.
They figured 6 shots is pretty much enough to get the job done,
and you can 100% rely on those 6 shots.
I get it.
Alright, so still at 15 yards, I'm going to go ahead and do
... 6 rounds of rapid fire on the steel, double action only.
So this gun is on loan from Beretta for review,
definitely having a good time with it here.
They did ask me to point out that it may take some time
if you order one of these before you can get it at this point.
The factory, Chapuis, is dead set against
reducing their quality standards to increase manufacturing volume,
and there is a tremendous amount of hand fitting time that goes into each one of these guns.
So Beretta made a bit of a splash with their introduction of these on the market
and their ability to actually import them regularly and effectively.
And they kind of went through all of the available stock,
and it will take some time for them to catch up. So if you want one of these,
the good news is you've got plenty of time to save up your pennies, because they are expensive.
The bad news is it may take a little while before they are available.
And I should also say if you're interested in the real technical mechanics of the trigger,
normally that's something that I would bring you.
But Bloke on the Range has actually already done a really good video
talking about what makes the MR73 trigger unique and special,
and so I'll link to that video of his at the end of this one.
Check it out if you want the nerdy view of what that trigger patent is and how it works.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video, and thanks for watching.
OK, not the most impressive thing ever, but it is fun.