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Phrobis Beretta M9

USMCSGT0331

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Full Member
Minuteman
  • Mar 23, 2013
    1,001
    3,120
    Minnesota
    www.snipershide.com
    Just picked up this extremely unique pistol, it's a Beretta M9 with a Phrobis slide. In 1987, 3 Navy SEALs were injured when a few M9 slides failed, so Beretta needed to redesign the M9 in order to make them safer. The government ended up buying the redesigned Beretta slides, but during this time Phrobis had created their own version of the M9 slide.

    The Phrobis slide has a closed top on it, as opposed to the open top the Beretta slides have. This provided more structure and less points for failure. The slide is engraved with "USN" because it was specifically made for Navy testing. Its has the same assembly number as a regular Beretta M9 slide, 9346487, but has an "A" suffix to that number in order to distinguish it as a different part. The slide also has the Phrobis cage code, 75081.

    The Beretta frame was produced in 1990 and has the US military style markings, but with a civilian serial number. The "BER" prefix and "Z" suffix are common on older civilian M9's. The "Z" suffix indicates that the frame was made in Italy. The frame is marked "USN" instead of "US," since this was made specifically for Navy testing. I've never seen another "USN" marked M9 frame, so I have no idea if this is a one-off or if there are others.

    What's interesting is that the frame has Phrobis' cage code in it (75081), instead of Beretta's cage code (65490). This is pretty unique, I have no idea why Beretta marked their frame with another company's cage code. Taking all these markings into consideration, it appears that this frame was specifically made for the Phrobis slide. These slides are extraordinarily rare, but there's still some information about them online. There's no information anywhere on the matching Beretta frame, so this is truly a unique piece of history. I assume that this entire pistol was submitted to the Navy for testing, not just the slide.

    Marty told me that Rock McMillan actually made these slide for Phrobis, so I'm going to see if I can get in contact with him and ask about this pistol's history. Apparently a little over 100 of these slides were made and submitted to Crane, but they were all destroyed at some point. I'm also going to do a FOIA request to see if the government has any information. If any of you guys have information on this pistol or the Phrobis slides, please post it here.

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    Here's a website that shows one of these slides on a commemorative M9 frame (these all have the M9 serial number prefix). These are the only other photographs I can find of a real Phrobis M9 slide, everything else online appears to be airsoft shit.

    https://www.collectordesignwerks.com/m9phrobis

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    That is COOL! I had never heard of those... but I did know that there were a lot of M9 Non-fans during its issue period. Especially in Socom... thus the HK Socom, the move to Sig's and bunch of other stuff.

    How did those 'escape' into the wild?? I'd have assumed all those were ground up into sewer caps.

    Very, very cool!

    Sirhr
     
    That is COOL! I had never heard of those... but I did know that there were a lot of M9 Non-fans during its issue period. Especially in Socom... thus the HK Socom, the move to Sig's and bunch of other stuff.

    How did those 'escape' into the wild?? I'd have assumed all those were ground up into sewer caps.

    Very, very cool!

    Sirhr

    Thanks! SOCOM doesn't like Beretta at all and that's because of the issues the SEALs had with the M9. Apparently Beretta claimed that there was nothing wrong with the slides and that the SEALs were to blame. Beretta thought it was a good idea to erroneously claim that the SEALs were using "high powered machine gun" (or some shit like that) ammo in their pistols and then basically called the SEALs liars when they were told that it was just normal ammo being used. The SEALs didn't like Beretta spreading rumors, blaming them for what happened and then calling them liars when they corrected the misinformation. So, it's no surprise that there's bad blood between SOCOM and Beretta, and this led to the SEALs getting the Sig P226 pistols. Even though the SEALs kicked Beretta to the curb and the Phrobis slides were never issued, this exact pistol is still part of that extraordinary history.

    Am I remembering correctly that I possibly saw the Dolphin ad (middle one above) in SOF or Fighting Firearms Magazine ? Maybe mid 90's timeframe ?....

    I have no idea where that ad appeared, I just found the photo online. I don't think Phrobis even sold any of the slides to the public, since these things are now extremely rare.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: canman
    Now that cool. I much prefer the looks over a standard slide. Be interesting to know it’s true history.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: USMCSGT0331
    Just picked up this extremely unique pistol, it's a Beretta M9 with a Phrobis slide. In 1987, 3 Navy SEALs were injured when a few M9 slides failed, so Beretta needed to redesign the M9 in order to make them safer. The government ended up buying the redesigned Beretta slides, but during this time Phrobis had created their own version of the M9 slide.

    The Phrobis slide has a closed top on it, as opposed to the open top the Beretta slides have. This provided more structure and less points for failure. The slide is engraved with "USN" because it was specifically made for Navy testing. Its has the same assembly number as a regular Beretta M9 slide, 9346487, but has an "A" suffix to that number in order to distinguish it as a different part. The slide also has the Phrobis cage code, 75081.

    The Beretta frame was produced in 1990 and has the US military style markings, but with a civilian serial number. The "BER" prefix and "Z" suffix are common on older civilian M9's. The "Z" suffix indicates that the frame was made in Italy. The frame is marked "USN" instead of "US," since this was made specifically for Navy testing. I've never seen another "USN" marked M9 frame, so I have no idea if this is a one-off or if there are others.

    What's interesting is that the frame has Phrobis' cage code in it (75081), instead of Beretta's cage code (65490). This is pretty unique, I have no idea why Beretta marked their frame with another company's cage code. Taking all these markings into consideration, it appears that this frame was specifically made for the Phrobis slide. These slides are extraordinarily rare, but there's still some information about them online. There's no information anywhere on the matching Beretta frame, so this is truly a unique piece of history. I assume that this entire pistol was submitted to the Navy for testing, not just the slide.

    Marty told me that Rock McMillan actually made these slide for Phrobis, so I'm going to see if I can get in contact with him and ask about this pistol's history. Apparently a little over 100 of these slides were made and submitted to Crane, but they were all destroyed at some point. I'm also going to do a FOIA request to see if the government has any information. If any of you guys have information on this pistol or the Phrobis slides, please post it here.

    gTbRWfg.jpeg

    Bm7Mzqa.jpeg

    ZfDbv82.jpeg

    JHsPSxG.jpeg

    tFZ4xqr.jpeg

    2N3v6ne.jpeg

    View attachment 7841256
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    Here's a website that shows one of these slides on a commemorative M9 frame (these all have the M9 serial number prefix). These are the only other photographs I can find of a real Phrobis M9 slide, everything else online appears to be airsoft shit.

    https://www.collectordesignwerks.com/m9phrobis

    Photo+Dec+23%2C+4+57+26+AM.jpg

    Photo+Dec+23%2C+4+55+49+AM.jpg
    I wonder if the slides any better than the standard gun, i have a couple and hate them, they crack on factory ammo and God forbid you load them even anything even mildly hot and the self destruct. As a cop also got a kick out of two guys that could slap the slide off a 92 before you could pull the trigger. until i saw it i always thought it was a movie trick.. anyone nice looking collectible, good luck with it.
     
    I wonder if the slides any better than the standard gun, i have a couple and hate them, they crack on factory ammo and God forbid you load them even anything even mildly hot and the self destruct. As a cop also got a kick out of two guys that could slap the slide off a 92 before you could pull the trigger. until i saw it i always thought it was a movie trick.. anyone nice looking collectible, good luck with it.

    You must have some ancient examples. Cracked slides haven’t been an issue on the 92/96 series in literally decades…
     
    i broke one in 98 and one in 2000, they just bulky. And obviously still problematic, and A useless 9mm that’s ok for the range but wouldn’t bet my life on one. 38 super, 45 or good old 357. As for autoloaders Sig P220, 1911s, or CZ, i like guns that are mostly malfunction proof, there’s a reason the 1911 is still in service over 100 years later.
     
    Thanks! SOCOM doesn't like Beretta at all and that's because of the issues the SEALs had with the M9. Apparently Beretta claimed that there was nothing wrong with the slides and that the SEALs were to blame. Beretta thought it was a good idea to erroneously claim that the SEALs were using "high powered machine gun" (or some shit like that) ammo in their pistols and then basically called the SEALs liars when they were told that it was just normal ammo being used. The SEALs didn't like Beretta spreading rumors, blaming them for what happened and then calling them liars when they corrected the misinformation. So, it's no surprise that there's bad blood between SOCOM and Beretta, and this led to the SEALs getting the Sig P226 pistols. Even though the SEALs kicked Beretta to the curb and the Phrobis slides were never issued, this exact pistol is still part of that extraordinary history.



    I have no idea where that ad appeared, I just found the photo online. I don't think Phrobis even sold any of the slides to the public, since these things are now extremely rare.
    M4carbine.net suggests the ad was from Shotgun News. Could've been, I dunno.

    I was gonna share a link to those Collector Design Werks folks until I saw you already did. Seems like they might start making clones of the Phrobis slide? I've never been terribly interested in the 92/M9 but with a quality copy of that slide, I might could change my mind about it...
     
    I wonder if the slides any better than the standard gun, i have a couple and hate them, they crack on factory ammo and God forbid you load them even anything even mildly hot and the self destruct. As a cop also got a kick out of two guys that could slap the slide off a 92 before you could pull the trigger. until i saw it i always thought it was a movie trick.. anyone nice looking collectible, good luck with it.
    M882 ball.
     
    Alright, it took a while, but I finally got the Phrobis M9 back from the photographer (my awesome father)! There's only a few photos of real Phrobis slides online, so this photo dump might be useful for collectors/historians/enthusiasts/etc. I'm going to jump right to a photo of the Phrobis marking on the slide, since that's probably the photo everyone wants to see the most! Here it is, the rest of the pistol photos will follow this one.

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    This photo shows the Phrobis M9 with a holster that I received when I was issued an M9 in the Marine Corps. The holster is pretty much unused because everyone in my STA platoon was using drop leg holsters, which were a much better option for our line of work. I have no idea if these holsters would have been used with the Phrobis M9 pistols (had the slides gotten a contract and issued). I just thought it would be a good photo instead of seeing this holster for the millionth time with a regular M9.

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    These next 2 photos are pretty self explanatory (as most of the photos in this post will be), it's the left side and right side of the pistol. I haven't swapped the slide out with a different frame yet, but I might do so if I find a military used M9 for sale ($$$$). Also, before I go any further, it has been pointed out to me by numerous experts that the Beretta frame on this pistol is a civilian frame that's been modified. The "USN" and Phobis cage code markings are not original to the frame and were added by someone at a later date. Even though these are fantasy markings, I do like the "USN" on it because these slides were sent to Crane NSWC and were tested by the Navy. If Phrobis would have gotten a contract for the slides, the vast majority of them would have just replaced the current M9 slides, no need for a whole new pistol when there's plenty in supply. However, when the Navy did have a need for new M9's, maybe they would have had Beretta mark the frames "USN". Obviously none of this ever happened in real life, but it's interesting to think about and that's probably why someone marked this pistol's frame this way. Thank you everyone who supplied me with the information about this pistol's frame, especially a gentleman who messaged me with some really great info, but wishes to remain anonymous!

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    This next group of photos are the important ones, these photographs are just the Phrobis M9 slide, nothing else. This allows everyone to see the extremely rare piece of history on it's own.

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    Here's a few photographs of a feature on the Phrobis slide that I thought was interesting, it's a loaded chamber indicator on the extractor! I don't know if this detail is common knowledge about the Phobis slides or if this is something that hasn't been seen before. I guess you guys will have to let me know if it's new information or not. The first of the three photos has a live round in the barrel in order to pop the loaded chamber indicator out so that it's clearly visible. The other photos don't have a barrel or ammo in place, this is to show the chamber indicator when it's unloaded. As I said before, I have no idea if this is an important or unique piece of the slide, it looks like the other Beretta M9 chamber indicators, but I wanted you guys to see it in great detail nonetheless. Maybe there's a slight difference between this one an the regular M9's that I missed. What do you guys think?

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    And here's the final photograph I'd like to share with you guys, it's the inside of the slide with a barrel in place (guide rod and spring are removed show the barrel). I have no idea if this is a shot you guys might want to see, but it's here anyways and I hope someone finds it useful.

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    Well, that's it, those are all of my Phrobis M9 slide photographs and I hope you guys enjoyed these pics! If anyone has any specific photo requests of the Phrobis slide (specific angles or markings or whatever), I'll pass them on to my father and see if he can take some more photos!
     
    I remember those ads in the gun rags. I seem to remember all the civvy ones being silver, maybe SS?
     
    For some reason it's not showing in the searches but to him it shows as listed and there aren't any warnings or next steps for him. ebay says it can take up to 24 hours for an auction to show in searches so we'll wait until tonight to see if it appears and if not, we'll contact ebay support. Apologies for the inconvenience.

    There's no need to worry you'll miss it. He's only selling via ebay auction, starting price $999, no buy-it-now, no offers, so if it shows up it will be up for bidding until Saturday night with the item # I gave. If something's wrong and we need to relist it, I'll come to the forums and give updated info.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: sirhrmechanic
    The listing is up now. Not our fault; just took ebay an oddly long time to "index" according to support.
    Same item number or you can just search for "Phrobis slide."
     
    • Like
    Reactions: sirhrmechanic
    i broke one in 98 and one in 2000, they just bulky. And obviously still problematic, and A useless 9mm that’s ok for the range but wouldn’t bet my life on one. 38 super, 45 or good old 357. As for autoloaders Sig P220, 1911s, or CZ, i like guns that are mostly malfunction proof, there’s a reason the 1911 is still in service over 100 years later.

    Beretta fixed the problem for good a long, long time ago.

    I'll believe them before some rando on the internet.
     
    So... this has me thinking. If originals are going for this kind of coin...

    How many would one have to order newly-made on CNC mills, to bring the price down to something affordable. Clone guns would be just that. But we all know there is a big market for clone guns of all kinds.

    Would need to get a slide to borrow and put into Autocad or similar... but dooable for sure.

    And, for those Phrobis owners worried that 'clones' reduce the value of their investment, it generally works the opposite way. The interest-in and the excitement generated in the cloning world makes the originals that much more valuable and sought-after.

    @Rthur Pick up the white courtesy phone. Wonder how much a run of 100 of these would cost... It's the first one that costs the most, of course! ;-)

    Sirhr
     
    • Love
    Reactions: sinister
    So... this has me thinking. If originals are going for this kind of coin...

    How many would one have to order newly-made on CNC mills, to bring the price down to something affordable. Clone guns would be just that. But we all know there is a big market for clone guns of all kinds.

    Would need to get a slide to borrow and put into Autocad or similar... but dooable for sure.

    And, for those Phrobis owners worried that 'clones' reduce the value of their investment, it generally works the opposite way. The interest-in and the excitement generated in the cloning world makes the originals that much more valuable and sought-after.

    @Rthur Pick up the white courtesy phone. Wonder how much a run of 100 of these would cost... It's the first one that costs the most, of course! ;-)

    Sirhr
    Appreciate the vote of confidence
    This looks like a job for Hakan Spuhr.
    I'm tied up with current new releases.

    R
     
    Hi Guys,

    I have a complete TDP for the Dolphin slide, I have went back and forth on making a batch of these.

    Trying to gage interest, it would be be between $1500-$2200.00 finished, stripped, no parts.

    Marty
    Badger Ordnance
    Given what the originals just sold for.... yes, a clone frame in that price range could be very interesting!

    Sirhr