ItalDesign penned the Brett Solomon-reviewed Beretta U22 NEOS. That’s the design house founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the man who crafted the DeLorean, Ferrari 250 GT and various Maserati. All of which were achingly beautiful. None of which were known for mechanical reliability. Quite the opposite, in fact. And now Beretta has “discovered” that the Guigaro-designed .22 caliber NEOS semiautomatic pistol has an “issue.” Something to do with the firing pin assembly. Seems a NEOS owner can fire the gun with the safety on. In fact, switching the safety from OFF to ON can discharge the weapon. At the risk of being a guastafesta, someone at Beretta should be rosso come un peperone. As Mr. O’Reilly might say, I’l let the gunmaker have the ultima parola . . .
The company’s website boldly proclaims that the “Chances of either of these situations occurring is extremely remote and no injuries have occurred because of this condition.” (I’d recall that “is” for an “are” while they’re at it.) .
Click here to see if your NEOS needs fixing, click here for a pdf of the official recall notice.
This was an amazingly cool-looking pistol, but we should have known it was too good (-looking) to last. After the debacle of the Vector CP-1, which splashed across the uncritical covers of Guns-n-Bullets and the American Rifler several years ago, we should have known to steer clear of guns that look like basketball shoes.
The CP-1 was built in South Africa and looked, more or less, like a black-and-gray Nike Felony Flyer. After many thousands of them were sold to the gullible here in the U.S., it turned out that they were prone to simply discharge without the trigger being pulled. This is very bad for a striker-fired semiauto. Discreet "DO NOT EVER USE THIS GUN" notices were placed in the back pages of the same magazines that had pimped the gun only months earlier. After announcing that recall vouchers would be issued 'in the near future', the company went bankrupt.
At least Beretta probably wont' do that.
The Vector was found to discharge if it was dropped. Your comments above are the first time I’ve seen anyone suggest it could go off without any cause.
I own two, one is prerecall and the other is post, I have yet to sent my first Neos back, mainly because I rarely use the safety, before anyone suggest that I’m an idiot for not using it, I stow it with out a magazine in it, and don’t chamber a round until I am about to shoot.
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