Gun Digest Book of Beretta Pistols. Massad Ayoob

lowers his department-issue Beretta 92F after shooting a perfect score. Berettas have earned an impressive reputation in American police service.

      In some of the quotes and reprinted passages, reference will be made to the magazine ban. It lasted for ten years and definitely affected sales and purchasing patterns of pistols. The references are left in to be true to the times the words describe and reflect.

      There will be some intentional repetition, but only when it is a point worth repeating. For example, there is the life-saving potential of the F-series Beretta pistol when carried “on safe.” In the accounts rendered above, any number of quality handguns might have saved the lives of the brave men and women who wielded them. However, in studying the deaths and injuries of police officers in action I’ve seen again and again when the on safe pistol in general – and the on safe Beretta pistol in particular – saved the Good Guy’s life when the Bad Guy gained control of it.

      After seeing cases in which the Beretta had saved their deputies’ lives in such incidents, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department made it mandatory for their thousands of armed personnel to carry their 92Fs on safe. Within just a few years of that policy change, according to that department’s veteran trainer, Harold Flynt, four more saves were documented. The North Carolina Highway Patrol has carried Beretta pistols on safe since 1983. The department progressed from the 92F 9mm to the 96F 9mm to their current Beretta Cougar Model 8357F in .357 SIG. One of their instructors told me that in 20 years of on safe carry, so many lives have been saved in gun grabs that the department has lost count. Yet LASD and NCHP have one more thing in common: No deputy or trooper in those departments has ever been hurt for failure to remember to disengage the safety on a Beretta during the draw to fire in self-defense.

      That is a point that bears repeating. To say, “On safe carry saves lives” just once is to leave five words floating in the sea of a book that spans 130,000 words. It understates the huge importance of the documented information being imparted. On safe Beretta F pistols have saved many lives. While many other pistols have this feature – and many such saves have been documented with them – it is worth noting that no such pistol’s slide-mounted safety lever is easier to operate than the Beretta’s. The easier the safety catch is to operate the more likely the user is to employ it for its intended purpose.

      The importance of keeping the finger off the trigger when not in the act of intentionally firing the weapon is likewise huge and is likewise repeated throughout the text that follows. Auto mechanics know how motorists drive cars and authors know how readers read books. Many jump from chapter to chapter. When talking about things that can save lives and prevent tragedy, the writer is irresponsible if he just mentions them once up front when he knows that many of his readers will dive into a book in the middle at a chapter heading that most interests them.

      For the same reason the importance of proper care of the gun and using only proper magazines is emphasized again and again. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq reinforced the lesson that using cheap aftermarket magazines, even if the Government buys them on bid, can cause the finest pistols to jam. The advice is clear: Use only Beretta and MecGar brand magazines in these guns. Since MecGar of Italy is a primary vendor of magazines to Beretta, a MecGar magazine for a Beretta is, for all practical purposes, a Beretta magazine.

      The history of the Beretta firearms company is huge and rich. It is worthy of a lavish book of its own and I won’t cover it here because that book is already in print. It is The World of Beretta: An International Legend by the man who is probably the world’s leading firearms historian, R.L. “Larry” Wilson. Larry has been both my teacher and my student, depending on the discipline involved. I’m proud to call him my friend. My respect for his work will be apparent in the following pages from the frequency with which I quote his exhaustive and scholarly work. This book will focus on the Beretta pistols currently in wide use, and how to use them. There is not room to do the company’s history justice, and no one is ever going to beat Larry Wilson at that game in any case.

Magnificent Mouse Guns: The Smallest Berettas

      Small pistols with small bullets have a place. I don’t want a small-caliber pistol for self-defense. If, after taking all things into consideration, you make the informed decision that you want a small-caliber pistol, I don’t think you can do better than those made by Beretta.

      I’ve heard it said, “If the Beretta .25 was good enough for James Bond it’s good enough for me.” Just remember that James Bond was a fictional character. Another scribe commented that he had read the Beretta .25 was the preferred handgun of the Boston mob, and they knew about killing people. Well, the Boston mob certainly knows about committing murder, but shooting helpless victims in the back of the head with a small-caliber pistol has nothing to do with defending yourself against a violent, aggressive creature that may come at you on two legs or four.

      Fine accuracy and extreme reliability make the Beretta the .25 caliber pistol of choice in my book. A lot of these very small guns are prone to malfunction. The .25 Berettas are not. No more reliable pistol has ever been manufactured in the caliber. Beretta has produced the double-action Model 21, a.k.a. Beretta Bobcat, for many years. For almost half a century they made the Jetfire, which is perhaps the finest very small single-action .25 ever produced.

      The Bobcat is also available in .22 Long Rifle. Whether the .22 LR or the .25 ACP is the more effective is a matter of debate. The ballistics tables give it to the .22, but the ballistics tables are calibrated on longer barreled pistols that produce more velocity and therefore more energy. When you chronograph the two calibers out of identical short-barrel pistols, the .25 is generally seen to be putting out a little bit more power.

       The tiny Beretta Jetfire may be the best vest-pocket size .25 auto in the world, says author.

      The .22’s big advantage is its cheap ammunition. If you need to defend yourself with a small cartridge you need to place the bullet with surgical accuracy. That sort of accuracy with a small pistol under stress comes only from constant practice that makes precise shooting a matter of autopilot. Because of its much lower cost, .22 LR ammunition is much more conducive to skill-building practice than even the cheapest .25 caliber ammo. Reliability, however, is a factor that cannot be compromised in a defensive firearm. The .22 LR is a long, narrow cartridge with a proportionally wide rim that has given gun designers and engineers fits when they try to build a small pistol around it. I have seen some Beretta 21 series pistols that were 100 percent reliable in .22 LR, and some that were not. Every Beretta .25 ACP I have seen has been totally reliable.

       The fixed sights of baby Berettas can’t be compared to the fine ones on their larger cousins, but are better than most of the tiny pistols available.

       Taurus PT-22 in .22 Long Rifle is a very good copy of the Beretta Model 21 Bobcat, rendered in double-action-only.

      The Bobcat is “drop safe.” That is, can be carried with a round in the chamber without fear that it will discharge accidentally if dropped or struck.

      “The Bobcat/Model 21 pistols have a light firing pin moving within a heavy firing pin spring,” explains Gabriele de Plano of Beretta. “The gun is drop safe because the gun can’t be hit with enough impact to make the firing pin move sufficiently inside its channel to cause a discharge. Only the hammer striking the firing pin will make it fire. This is why it passes the drop test.”

      A pistol with a round in the chamber is what you want in a gun of this type. With calibers this feeble, your only chance is to get the gun out quickly and place an accurate shot swiftly. There may well not be time to get a round into the chamber.