Beretta 84FS Cheetah Beretta 81 Series User Manual - Page 7

LOADING AND FIRING Caution: Always keep the fingers clear of the trigger, whenever you do not intend to fire. Check that pistol is not already loaded by looking at the chamber-loaded indicator (C2. and fig. 1b). LOADING THE MAGAZINE • To load the magazine remove it from the pistol by depressing the magazine release button (fig. 5). • Hold the magazine in the left hand. With your right hand, place a cartridge on the follower in front of the lips, press down and slide the cartridge home under the lips (fig. 6). Repeat until the magazine is fully loaded. Holes on the magazine allow for visual counting of cartridges (fig. 2). LOADING THE PISTOL AND THE CARTRIDGE CHAMBER Caution: Always keep the fingers clear of the trigger, whenever you do not intend to fire. • Push the loaded magazine into the pistol grip completely to insure catch engagement. • Grasping the slide serrations with thumb and index finger, fully retract and quickly release the slide to load the chamber (fig. 7). Caution: THE PISTOL IS NOW LOADED, COCKED AND READY TO FIRE. NOTE: The series 81 Beretta pistols are provided with an automatic safety which prevents any movement of the firing pin and is overcome only by pulling on the trigger. Caution: Always keep the fingers clear of the trigger, whenever you do not intend to fire. IF NOT READY TO FIRE Engage the manual safety by simply rotating the manual safety lever with a fully upward thumb pressure. The red warning dot will disappear (The red warning dot can be seen only when the manual safety is disengaged). Warning: on "F" models, moving the safety lever into the safe position, the hammer is released until it stops against the interceptor (safetydecocking lever). NOTE: To load another cartridge into the magazine: • Remove the loaded magazine from the pistol by depressing the magazine release • button. Insert another cartridge into the magazine. • Push the loaded magazine into the pistol completely to insure catch engagement. 13 FIRING WHEN READY TO FIRE • Release the manual safety by simply rotating the manual safety lever with a fully downward thumb pressure. The red warning dot can be seen when manual safety is disengaged. • Aim the pistol and align front and rear sight on target. • Fire by squeezing the trigger. The pistol now fires in single action. With pistols mod. "F", being the safety engaged, hammer is lowered and pistol will fire in double action. The pull on the trigger first cocks the hammer and then relases it. The discharge will recoil the slide which, in turn, will extract and eject the fired cartridge case, cock the hammer and activate the recoil spring. Then the slide will automatically close, feeding the next cartridge from the magazine into the chamber and the PISTOL IS READY TO FIRE AGAIN. • When the last round has been fired, the slide remains open (fig. 8). • To fire again, remove the empty magazine and insert a loaded one. • Press the slide catch to close the slide, and load the chamber (fig. 9). Caution: THE PISTOL IS NOW LOADED, COCKED AND READY TO FIRE AGAIN. With pistols model "F", to keep pistol, chamber loaded, in safety condition, fully engage the manual safety lever to lower the hammer and stop it against the interceptor. HOW TO LOWER THE HAMMER to the half-cock position (models "F" excluded) To have the pistol chamber loaded and hammer uncocked, lower the hammer proceeding as follows (models "BB" only). Attention: PRACTICE THIS OPERATION WITH UNLOADED PISTOL. EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION. • Point the pistol in a safe direction. • With thumb retract the hammer spur; depress the trigger while cautiously allowing the hammer to move little forward, under the thumb control, simultaneously remove finger from trigger. Then cautiously let the hammer move forward until it stops on the half-cock position (fig. 10 and 11). • Engage the manual safety by simply rotating the manual safety lever with a fully upward thumb pressure. The red warning dot will disappear. (The red warning dot can be seen only when the manual safety is disengaged). With pistols model "F", to lower the hammer, simply engage manual safety as indicated. The double action trigger pull makes it possible to fire the pistol quickly with the hammer lowered or in a half-cock position, without the necessity of manual hammer cocking. The pull on the trigger, in fact, first cocks the hammer and then releases it (mod. 87BB/L.B. excluded). 14