Tag Archives: beretta tomcat

Kale Slushy Bobcat and Tomcat?

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Beretta’s small frame pistols with a tip-up barrel design that provides easy access to the chamber and no need for slide retraction to load the first round, these ultra-concealable pistols are a snap to use– especially for those without the hand strength to crush a brick.

I’ve carried a Bobcat, alternating with a Ruger LCP, as a backup gun for the past 15 years or so, and the little .22 is a joy to shoot.

These small 7-shot pocket pistols were first introduced back in the 1950s– giving them over 70 years of experience to build on– and Beretta has come pretty darn close to perfecting them over the generations.

New creatively-named Cerakoted color schemes in both the Tomcat (32. ACP) and Bobcat-A (.22LR) include Kale Slushy, Ghost Buster, and Silver Black Gorilla (a name that will surely change after someone pearl clutches). Plus, they are all fitted with threaded barrels– something that is a common mod on aftermarket guns.

The price, across all colors and calibers, is $649 (suggested).

The Kale Slushy Tomcat, left, and the Bobcat, right

The Tomcat, Beretta’s little .32, weighs just 14.5 ounces.

Tomcat Kale Slushy

The smaller Bobcat, the company’s even smaller .22LR, weighs just 11.5 ounces.

Bobcat Kale Slushy

21 A Bobcat Silver Black Gorilla

21 A Bobcat Ghost Buster 

The mouse that roared: The Beretta 21A pocket plinker

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Going back to 1952, the Italian firearms firm of P Beretta in Gardone came up with a pocket-sized handgun that proved extremely popular, that gun, the 950 Jetfire is still around in one form or another, to include the hero of our story: the .22LR Model 21A.

Baby Beretta history.

Dubbed the Model 950 Jetfire, this little tip up barreled .25ACP had an 8-shot magazine, used a simple blowback action, and loaded from a tip up barrel. Snappy and compact with a 9.87-ounce weight, the gun was under 5-inches long, which made it just perfect for a pocket or handbag.

Over the past six decades, the 950 was made in a .22 Short Minx, and now comes in the Model 21 Bobcat in either .22LR or .25ACP. The magnum of this series, the .32ACP caliber M3032 Tomcat is the same size but tips the scales at over 14 ounces empty. New models can be had for around $350-$400 while used versions, especially of the older 950-series, can be picked up for closer to $200.

They make great little hide out guns for when you don’t want to (or cant) carry something bigger.

The Beretta series benefits from some 60+ years of research and development and is just about one of the simplest designs you can imagine. I mean have you really worked with a tip-up barrel? Suffice it to say, the little Italian pony is pretty sweet.

The 21A in profile

With its 2.41-inch barrel, the 21A is 4.94-inches overall and weighs just 11.81 ounces. Of the Beretta “Cat” line, only the .22 Short chambered Model 950 Beretta Minx is shorter, and then only by a quarter inch. Using a 7-shot single stack detachable magazine, you have a 8 shot capacity which, when loaded with a nice hot round like a CCI Stinger or Mini-Mag, gives you an ounce of preventative medicine when walking around should you choose to carry such a small gun– or use the 21 as a backup piece.

beretta 22 with zippo and custom knife

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk

A Tale of Two Mouse Guns: The LCP vs the Beretta Mini Pistols

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No matter how big they make em, there is still a group of gun owners that like to shrink thinks on down to size. Pocket size that is. And with that in mind, we are looking at a pair of some of the most popular super concealable handguns on the market: the Beretta pocket series and the Ruger LCP. Let’s see who comes out on top.

lcp beretta
Read the rest in my column at Ruger Talk

The Baby Berettas: A tale of tip up barrels

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They’ve been around now for almost seventy years—those little Beretta pocket pistols with the tip up barrels. Just what is the deal with those things and why would you want one? Keep reading.

These small framed, Beretta pistols use a super simple blowback action. This also means the gun has a pretty stout recoil spring to keep the action pushed forward and a short slide—and this makes it hard for some to grip. To get around this, Beretta used a barrel with a pivot pin that pops up and out of battery when a latch is depressed. With the barrel tipped up, you can load, unload, reload, and check to see if you have a loaded chamber with the flick of the lever. The concept has long been used with one of the earliest examples seen on the 1908 Steyr 7.65mm pistol.

Introduced in 1950, Beretta came out with the Model 950B pistol. A single-action semi-auto with a 2.38-inch tip-up barrel, it had an overall length of 4.5-inches. Since the gun fired from a cocked hammer, the tip-up barrel made absolute sense from a safety perspective. Rather than use an extractor, the gun could pop spent casings strait up with the barrel tip lever, giving the gun the sometimes annoying habit of smacking the user with brass right in the forehead. The gun tipped the scales at a handy 9.5-ounces empty. Compare this today to the revolutionar-i-ly small Ruger LCP of 5.16-inches overall and 9.5- ounces, and you see why the 950 was a hit almost immediately…

Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

Beretta-Minx-950B long and short