[Beretta]

Hi all.Got my new P3ATyesterday. It almost takes two hands to pull slide back to chamber a snap cap. Is this normal tension on the spring?..Going to try to "fluff and buff" it tonight. If I can hold slide back long enough to pull assembly pin...lol

Beretta

 

[Flyer]

Beretta,
Welcome to the Range!
Yep, that's normal slide tension... tough!!!
You don't need to retract the slide all the way to take out the pin, though. Just push the front of the slide backwards enough to take tension off the pin, about a quarter-inch. Then it'll pull right out!
Keep us posted on your results!
Flyer

 

[Beretta]

Flyer
Thanks for the tip pin came out slick as a whistle. It's all fluffed,buffed and greased..Can't with to test fire it..Right now wind chill is -35 tomorrow going to be colder..Might be a couple of days.
BTW ser # is H166 would you know if the numbers started with H1..?

 

[Flyer]

Nope, the numbers started at 001.
The first 100 were taken by factory employees. Then, an intial run of 100 was sent out. I got two of these. Then the pistol went into full production.
At somewhere around 4000, the Office of Homeland Security required that all subsequent guns be prefixed with a letter - hence the "H".
Your H1 indicates that you've got one of the first batch of "lettered" guns.
Flyer

 

[Midiman]

Re:

Beretta,
You don't need to retract the slide all the way to take out the pin, though. Just push the front of the slide backwards enough to take tension off the pin, about a quarter-inch. Then it'll pull right out!

Not even 1/4", a 1/16" will do fine. I see a lot of people have trouble doing this with only two hands... and Kel-Tec doesn't describe the proper hold to use to perform this maneuver... so I'll post a picture.

All we're concerned about in this shot is the right hand. Wrap 4 fingers over the top of the slide and squeeze to hold it in place, wrap your right thumb around the backstrap and use it to exert SLIGHT forward pressure releasing tension on the pin. In this photo, the guy's going for the slide lock on a Glock with his left hand... you should be using a fingernail to pull the P-3AT pin out (from the top where there's a slight gap).