14 Shot Tip Up .380: Meet the EAA Girsan MC 14T
At first look, the EAA-imported Girsan MC 14T appears to be a clone of the original circa 1970s Beretta Cheetah series, now a classic.
However, you will note that the EAA carries an M1913 Picatinny accessory rail on the dust cover for mounting lights and lasers– a feature never cataloged on any old-school Cheetah variant.
Using a simple straight blowback action, it is chambered in .380 ACP and uses a double-action/single-action trigger with a manual frame-mounted safety lever.
The EAA Girsan MC 14T, left, compared to a Beretta Cheetah. Note the Girsan is slightly longer, and we’ll get into that. Of note, it uses the same magazine as the double-stack 13+1 round magazine of the Beretta 84.
This extended barrel length is to allow a “tip up” barrel easily actuated by a one-push lever on the right-hand side of the frame. For the gun nerds out there, Beretta briefly made a tip-up .380 Cheetah, the Model 86, but it was a single stack, and collectors, due to its rarity, tend to drive prices on those into the $1,500 region.
This is comparable to Beretta’s pipsqueak mouse guns such as the Model 21A Bobcat shown here in .22 LR.
More on the MC 14T in my column at Guns.com.