Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Picked up a Beretta Bobcat .22lr......

Been looking for a .22 mouse gun, since last fall. Want it for pocket carry in the summer, when its Tee shirts/shorts time. Didn't think it would be a Beretta, cause they are pretty expensive. Ran into a guy who bought one for his wife, and she didn't like it[slide was too stiff]. It only had 2-3 magazines shot through it. Imagine my shock, when he said he'd sell it for $150! I peeled out the cash, and gave him an extra $20 cause I felt bad... !! Took it out for a reliability test run[after I'd thoroughly cleaned it]. It ran CCI mini mags perfectly. No hang ups. When the weather warms up, I'll be back out to test the accuracy. Think I'm gonna like the lil booger. A couple pics.

I bought one back in 2002, was the worst handgun I ever owned. Jammed most of the time and the frame material seemed soft. My shooting buddy had the .22 short version of it in the early 80's, he liked his and the gun worked fine. However, my shooting buddy shot the gun so much it went full auto on us a few times which indicated high wear. But these guns were not meant to be shot all that much, and that was along time ago.

Hope it works out for you as I too have thought about giving it another try, these .22 rf guns tend to be ammo sensitive. I wish Baretta would put the .25 acp version back into production, very reliable cartridge as I had a Raven in 25 acp for many years, never jammed.

I have one of these and it shoots great. My kids really liked shooting it a lot when they were smaller, as it fit their hands quite well. I think you got a great deal.

Those are nice little pocket guns...

Question I have is didn't anyone show this lady how to operate the gun... They have a popup barrel so one doesn't have to rack the slide... They have a .22 Short, .25 ACP and .32 all the same... They even used to have a 84 size .380 with a popup barrel just for those people who could not rack a slide...

My first handgun was a Minx in .22 Short...used it while trapping when I was a kid...

Bob

Well, her husband is a retired cop, but I don't think she wanted to carry it with one in the chamber. However, I'm just tickled I got it for the price I did.

I've got the .32 acp tomcat version.

I don't shoot it all the time, but it has been very reliable with hydrashoks and fmjs.

You did get a good deal on that one.

I had the same question as RJM, the flip up barrel is a pretty cool feature. But if you aren't going to carry chambered I guess it really doesn't matter.

Point of context:

The primary reason these little Beretta's have a pop-up barrel is because they don't have an extractor. These are simple blow-back actions and the chamber can only be cleared by either firing the gun or tilting open the slide and manually removing the chambered round.

For example, if you have a dud/misfire, retracting the slide won't accomplish a thing. Said another way, manipulating the slide will feed a round into the chamber, but manipulating the slide will NOT remove a round from the chamber.

If you carry one of these for personal protection, this is a good reason to always use quality ammo and rotate it frequently to insure reliability.

You're gonna like that little Bobcat!
I own one, and carry it in a cargo shorts pocket in the summer or in the glove box of my boat. I shoot nothing but CCI Stingers and Mini-Mags thru it, and it functions perfectly.

I also put a Crimson Trace laser sight on it- the little fixed sights are all but useless in low light, and this gun might have some utility as a night backup, as well.

Just keep it lubed once in a while, and it should work fine. The blue is quite worn off of mine from pocket carry, but who cares?

I bought one back in 1990. Model 21a

Used it to teach all of my kids how to handle a firearm when they were very young.

GREAT little pistol.

Congrats ! You'll love it.

?? I always understood that they don't have an extractor so they could have the tip up barrel. If you have a dud, it will take more than just tipping up the barrel and digging it out with yur fingers to clear it - unless you have unusually strong and pointed fingernails.

Great platform for starting a young handgunner. Single load it, and concentrate on trigger control and sight picture. Very accurate, IME - when you do it right.

I'm LOL about this. My mod 21 has thousands and thousands of rounds through it, and still going strong. It's one of the most fun little pistols I've ever handled. Never had any kind of problem with Stingers, and the only problem it's ever had is the same misfires that any other .22lr has with some loads. A roll pin walked out after thousands of rounds, so I pushed it back in and kept on going. I just check that from time to time, but it hasn't been an ongoing problem.

I also bought one for the wife a dozen++ years ago. She's "ok" with it, but prefers the Kahrs more.

Your guy said 'the slide was too stiff'??? He didn't know it has a pop-up barrel just for that very reason??

In any case - you got a very good deal.. Takes a bit to get used to the trigger pull switch from long to short, but they do work very well..

Congrats

snazzy little pistols, and a great score. Creds to you, for trying to make the price right.

Word of warning - if that's anything like the .32 Tomcat under the left grip panel, only remove that grip with great trepidation. Actually, do so with the gun in a plastic bag. There is a little spring and plunger detent that tensions the safety and is held in place by the grip panel. Removing that panel carelessly allows that damned spring and tiny plunger to become junior NASA members by going on a space odyssey that will cause the blood pressure to rise to unsafe levels and the vocabulary to turn blue then deep purple as you search for hours for the AWOL parts. This I know from experience...

i have had one of those for a long time. Only thing about them is in my case never had any trouble if using the hotter .22lr like stingers, something like that
lower pressure stuff would not work the slide enought and you would get jams.

I saw one for sale today in Austin, Texas, with 4 boxes of ammo and several magazines - for $325! Seems you did good!


Mike

Forgot to add - the unfired round doesn't have to be fired or dug out to clear the chamber, unless the gun is very dirty. I have always been able to just tip up the barrel, turn the gun over, and the loaded round drops out. Sometimes the round flips out on its own when the barrel flips up.