Rare PAMAS G1S Pistols Finally Reach US Collectors

A pistol most American shooters have never held is finally showing up for sale in small numbers, and Mrgunsngear Channel got hands-on time with two of them. The PAMAS G1S is the French military and police version of the Beretta 92, built under license in France, and this review digs into what makes it different from the M9 you might have carried or trained on stateside.

Snapshot

The video walks through a pair of serial-sequential PAMAS G1S pistols supplied by Nice Guns, tracing how France adopted the Beretta 92 design in the 1980s after leaning on published U.S. military testing data. The reviewer argues the French contract changes, especially the decocker-only control, actually improve on some aspects of the standard M9 setup.

Key points

• Rare import: the reviewer says this is the first legitimate batch of PAMAS G1S pistols to come into the U.S., with much of the original production reportedly surplused to Ukraine.
• French-made parts: the grips are stamped MAS and contain embedded RFID tracking, and the reviewer notes standard magazines avoided the problematic Check-Mate contract run tied to U.S. M9 mags.
• Decocker-only control: per French contract requirements, the pistol drops the separate safety lever, which the reviewer calls his preferred setup over the standard M9 safety/decocker combo.
• Full-power hammer spring: unlike the lighter 92G-style spring, the G1S keeps a heavier hammer spring, which the reviewer believes reflects a French military preference for reliable ignition.
• G1S slide marking: the "S" designation ties to the same slide-cracking concerns Beretta addressed in early U.S. M9 testing, according to the reviewer.

Quick take

For collectors of military surplus handguns, the reviewer frames the PAMAS G1S as a genuinely distinct variant worth seeking out, not just a relabeled M9, thanks to its French-specific parts and control layout.

Watch the full video: Mrgunsngear Channel