Tag Archives: beretta jaguar

New: Beretta B22 Jaguar Rimfire Match Pistol

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Beretta has been quietly bringing one of the coolest .22LR semi-auto pistols to the market for the past couple of years, and we can finally talk about it.

But first, a little background.

The Jaguar name goes back to 1958 when Beretta introduced a series of gently larger rimfire semi-automatic pistols to complement its pocket .22s like the Model 418 Panther and tip-up barrel Minx. Like today’s Jaguar, the Beretta that carried the name last century was primarily intended for use as a plinker and target pistol, although it went on to be used by covert kinda folks in covert kinda operations.

Beretta Model 71 Jaguar
The original Beretta Jaguar series 70 pistols were introduced in 1958 and remained in production into the 1980s. They are old school cool, for sure. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Meet the new Jaguar B22

We first saw the pre-production Jaguar B22 at a Beretta range event in 2025, but were sworn to secrecy on it. Like the original, it was cool and sleek. However, where the old 71 was art deco and classic, the new Jag was a rimfire muscle car, dripping with factory standard go-fast accessories from Tandemkross and built to go fast and perform while doing it.

Jaguar B22
The pre-production Jag, spotted in January 2025. Almost ready to be let out of its cage and shown to the public. 

Fast forward to SHOT ’26 last month and the Jag was back at Beretta’s range event– but this time soft-launched and ready to purr.

The new platform, designed for plinking, target shooting, and training the next generation, will be offered in a Tac Metal (MSRP $749) and a Metal Competition (MSRP $969) model, with sub-variants in standard (15-round magazines) and state-compliant (10-round) versions of each, at the same price.

Both are built atop an innovative new modular chassis system and an M_LOK barrel shroud with a detachable accessory rail, making the B22 easy to disassemble, clean, and customize. Featuring dual-side ejection with a fixed barrel, it is designed to be reliable and accurate. They are internal hammer-fired (SAO) and blowback action.

Jaguar B22 Tac Metal
The Jaguar B22 Tac Metal runs a 5.25-inch barrel and is 8.85 inches overall. Weight is 33.6 ounces. Equipped with adjustable fiber-optic sights, an extended barrel, and a 1913 Picatinny rail, it is suppressor and optics-ready, as you can tell. 
Beretta Jaguar B22 Metal Competition
The Jaguar B22 Metal Competition has a 5.5-inch barrel, giving it an overall length of 9.8 inches and a weight of 36.4 ounces. It comes standard with all the features of the Tac Metal but also adds A Tandemkross fiber front fiber optic, Tandemkross Steam Demon single port compensator, Tandemkross Accelorator thumb ledge gas pedal, and an adjustable Tandemkross semi-flat faced trigger with pre- and post-travel adjustments. It looks fast just sitting on the table. 

Beretta says the Jaguar B22 Metal Competition is the first .22LR pistol explicitly developed in partnership with the largest educational shooting program in the world for youth, the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP), in a process that has taken four years.

More direct from Tandemkross and SASP on the background of the new generation of Jaguar:

We hope to have a review of these in the coming weeks.

That time Beretta let me hang out there for a couple days in Italy…

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To say that Beretta has been around for a while is a massive understatement. To the point, the company is the oldest firearms maker in business today, logging its first documented contract in 1526, for arquebus barrels bound for the Republic of Venice from the shop of Bartolomeo Beretta. Who else can say they made arquebus barrels in the old Venetian Republic?

Beretta has well-guarded records going back centuries. This is because the company has been a constant in the region, no matter what banner flew over the land.

Not a lot of companies can say they were founded in the Renaissance. Keep in mind it predates the colonies at St. Augustine, Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth. Further, while other long-running gun makers such as Remington and Smith & Wesson have changed ownership dozens of times over the past couple of centuries, Beretta remains a family business, now in its 15th generation – with the 16th lined up.

Beretta’s campus is located along the Garda Mountains in the foothills of the Alps, with portions of the facility inside the rock itself. (Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

They have been in the same location for a bit.

We had a chance to visit Beretta for a few days earlier this year and have the full factory tour up at Guns.com.

The Quiet Pocket Jaguar

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A Cold War era classic with smooth lines, a legendary back story, and an exotic-sounding name, Beretta’s Model 71 was definitely a mouse that roared.

Debuted in 1958 as a downsized companion pistol line to complement the recently introduced 9mm Beretta M1951, the company’s 70-series guns would span no less than 14 variants and sub-variants before ending production in the mid-1980s.

Using a fixed barrel and open slide – a hallmark of the M1951 that would later carry on to the 92-series pistols of today – the compact 70-series guns were blowback action pistols with a skeletonized bobbed hammer, a frame-mounted manual safety, and a smooth single-action trigger.

Chambered in .380 ACP, .32 ACP, and .22 LR flavors, they proved a hit both domestically in Italy and on the commercial market. While the Model 70 would see a modicum of Italian police use, such as with the CFS – the federal forestry service – it would be the Model 71 that shined the brightest in the series.

Why?

Spies and liquidators.

 

More in my column at Guns.com.