The Beretta 87 comes with 8 round mags while the Target version comes with 10 round mags. Thy are the same follower and mag body they only differ in baseplate and the slot cut in the sides. The 8 round mag slot is , lol, 2 rounds shorter. I read that if you remove the screw that limits the follower travel you can get 11 rounds into the mag. So I tried. It is true. I use the single stack uplula and easily got 11 rounds in. I notice that the follower can now travel up to the feed lips when empty so the edge has already made a score on the follower which I believe is aluminum. Don’t know if this will be problematic long term or how reliable this setup is. I will test this over the next month or so.

Anyone ever try this?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

First time hearing about it.
I do have several target mags for the regular 87 Cheetah. Makes the grip much better with the baseplate extension.

I too like the bumper pads that come standard on the 87 Target mags. I find it odd that Beretta differentiates between the two mags. If it’s reliable with 11 rounds I will be very happy. I also think the scoring on the follower will get to a certain point and just stay there. I’m sacrificing one mag for science because Lord knows what Beretta would charge for a new follower since they charge $48.50 for the mag itself. Apparently they must swim them over individually from Italy.

I wish they'd swim more 87s over from Italy while they're at it. That's the one member of the Cheetah lineup that really interests me, but they're stupid hard to find, and when you do they're really expensive. I'm curious to hear how your testing works out, though, as I may someday get my hands on one.

The correct way to do this is to have a competent gunsmith elongate the slot so that you don't have to remove the screw.

Around here I can’t even find an incompetent gunsmith besides myself.

Edited: You shamed me into it. I pulled out the cutting wheel and the sanding drum for my Dremel. Marked out some straight lines and went to town. There is a slot on each side but if you shorten the extra non threaded portion of screw on the opposite side you only need to cut one additional slot. I went slow and finished with a hand file and sanding drum. I will post a pic tomorrow. Looks pretty reasonable. If it isn’t snowing tomorrow I will try to run some 11 rounds at a time and see if it’s a bust or not.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

Wow. Anxious to see how it turned out. Always thought that was a very under appreciated series of handguns.

This is the non modified side. The screw in follower usually sticks out into this slot. No real purpose and it dragged on inside of slide when the new opposite side cut was made. I took a hand file and shortened it. No change in functionality but by doing so it made it necessary to only cut ONE slot vice both sides.



This is the actual newly cut slot. Up really close it looks more ragged than in real life.

Well. 11 rounds fit in mag but won’t seat on a closed slide. Either it is at limit of spring compression or the slot needs to be slightly longer. I’m not making it longer so I will live with it the way it is. Which is still ok because if I load 11 with a locked back slide I can send the slide home and be 10+1. Still a win. Especially since in the past I have had issues with loading a round and then topping off mag. Never investigated enough to determine why but this solves that anyway.

I consider this a win.

Edited to add: I cleaned up the cut and made it slightly longer. It must be spring compression limit because it still won’t lock in with the slide forward and 11 rounds.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

Nicely done. Sure is a pretty gun!

Yeah, ten is the limit.

Used to be, the easiest way to do this would be to buy 87 Target mags and just swap the floorplates, but, I imagine those mags are scarce and kinda pricey these days, so, say hello to Mister Dremel.

Beretta wants 48.50 a mag before shipping. Most of my 87 mags are of the Target (10) variety but I have a handful of the goofy 8’s. I have my 87 Target on consignment at my LGS so I am selling it with two 8 rounders and took the 10 rounders. That saves me some dremeling as well.

The one advantage I pointed out earlier though is the ability to go 10+1 without the extra step of topping off the mag. Certainly not a show stopper feature but it doesn’t hurt. You can’t see it in the pictures but I also scribed a 5 and 10 round mark in the body.