{"id":4362,"date":"2016-01-12T17:14:13","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T23:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=4362"},"modified":"2016-01-12T17:14:13","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T23:14:13","slug":"cute-little-mouse-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=4362","title":{"rendered":"Cute little mouse gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of you may remember that I have been in the market for a Beretta Bobcat for a while.\u00a0 Especially after a certain incident<\/a> at last year’s NRAAM steered me away from Taurus’ PT-22.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it seemed like the moment I decided to buy one, the supply dried up.\u00a0 I was even told by a trusted gun deal “good f’ing luck.”*<\/p>\n

Well, fast forward to New Year’s Eve, and I spotted one on one the local FaceBook gun swap groups.\u00a0 A guy had got one in a trade, and was asking what it was worth.\u00a0 Several folks were offering to do him a “favor” and give him roughly half of what it was worth.\u00a0 I chimed in telling him to look at what it was going for on Gunbroker, and that I’d be interested if the other offers fell through.\u00a0 The next day, he contacted me offering to sell it for somewhere in the middle of what those guys were offering, and what the ones on Gunbroker were selling for.\u00a0 After a quick drive out to meet him, I came home with this little guy:<\/p>\n

\"Beretta<\/a><\/p>\n

This particular little guy is in .22lr, although it also comes in .25acp.\u00a0 After doing a little research, it looks like I can convert it to .25 by ordering a new slide, barrel, and magazine from Beretta for about $130.\u00a0 While I don’t plan on doing this conversion now, I might down the line if I ever decide to actually carry it.\u00a0 .25, by virtue of being a center fire round, is more reliable, but significantly more expensive.\u00a0 Oddly enough, the .25acp mags hold 8 rounds instead of the 7 round capacity of the .22.<\/p>\n

For those of you that are unaware of the Beretta 21a “Bobcat” pistol, it’s really a relic of the past.\u00a0 There was a time when there were several companies that made true pocket pistols in small calibers (.22lr, .25acp, .32acp, etc).\u00a0 For the most part, these have given way to guns that are slightly larger, but fire “more serious” cartridges like the .380acp and 9mm.\u00a0 Heck, you can now get a Boberg or Springfield XDs in .45cal!\u00a0 I’m sure some of this has to do with modern manufacturing\/materials allowing for things that just weren’t possible even a couple decades ago, but it’s also damn convenient to share ammo between your carry gun and your range gun (to say nothing of stopping power).\u00a0 These tiny guns have been described as “guns for when you can’t carry a gun” due to their ability to disappear\u00a0 in a pocket, and are really designed for little more than contact distance.<\/p>\n

One of the interesting design traits of this gun is the tip up barrel.\u00a0 The barrel is spring loaded and will tip up when you hit a lever (as seen above).\u00a0 This allows you to load or unload a round in the chamber without racking the slide.\u00a0 While that’s not a big deal on larger guns, it’s a nice feature on something this small where the slide is too small to easily grab.\u00a0 The downside is that there’s no extractor, so the only way for a casing to leave the chamber is either through the recoil of firing it, or prying it out with your fingernail.<\/p>\n

Another interesting design choice was the placement of the magazine release.\u00a0 You can see it in the picture above between the two screws on the grip.\u00a0 I know Beretta has released a few models with the magazine release there (including a very early version of the 92), but I’m unaware of any other company to do so.\u00a0 While it is in a location that pretty much guarantees you won’t accidentally hit it, it also means that you will need to use both hands to drop the magazine.<\/p>\n

Even though .22lr is still scarce around here, I did have some on hand and have been able to get to the range to try the little guy out.\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of the ammo on hand was in the form of Federal bulk made during the true insanity, and not exactly the most reliable ammo.\u00a0 This was proven to follow form, by that ammo causing several stove pipes and failure to fully cycle.\u00a0 I did have a 50 round box of Winchester Sidewinder with me, which performed flawlessly.\u00a0 The difference between the two sets of ammo was demonstrated by the Sidewinder ammo producing a noticeable fireball when fired from such a tiny barrel.\u00a0 Also of note, you can load 8 rounds into the magazine, but it will not actually seat in the gun with more than 7, which is the advertised capacity.<\/p>\n

I was rather surprised by the accuracy.\u00a0 The trigger was fairly nice in either double action or single action mode.\u00a0 I’ve definitely dealt with worse triggers on more full sized guns.\u00a0 The sights, while definitely usable, are… difficult.\u00a0 They are very low profile, and the rear sight is rounded.\u00a0 If you’ve ever handled a single action revolver with the old school “complete the arc” sights, think that… only smaller.\u00a0 That said, I was able to easily keep rounds on a 6″ target at 5 yards, which is pretty good considering the shooter and the optimal range is best described as “shove up bad guy’s nose, pull trigger.”<\/p>\n

\"That'll<\/a>
That’ll work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I will say that I have already made one “upgrade” to this little mouse gun.\u00a0 Beretta was having a sale that included wooden grips half of.\u00a0 For some reason, I just couldn’t resist the look of the wood with the little brass medallions.<\/p>\n

\"20160108_235501_2_bestshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And… of course… one of my cats had to get in on the act<\/p>\n

\"20160108_235638_8_bestshot\"<\/a>
Can has mouse gun?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last thing to talk about is why I bought this.\u00a0 Honestly, I can’t give you a good answer to that.\u00a0 While it was designed to be a pocket pistol, there are modern guns that do that job better.\u00a0 While I would have no qualms over carrying this pistol with either the hammer down or cocked and locked, I would rather have something like a .380 or 9mm in my pocket.\u00a0 It is a lot of fun at the range, but it’s not a marksman’s pistol like my Buckmark.\u00a0 Heck it doesn’t even share the same controls as a gun I would\/do carry like my Bersa Thunder 22.<\/p>\n

In the end, all I can say is “it makes me giggle.”\u00a0 Of course, is that necessarily a bad thing?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*incidentally, I have since seen 3 at the local gun show.\u00a0 All in .25acp and for at least $100 more than I paid.\u00a0 Such is life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of you may remember that I have been in the market for a Beretta Bobcat for a while.\u00a0 Especially after a certain incident at last year’s NRAAM steered me away from Taurus’ PT-22.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it seemed like the moment I decided to buy one, the supply dried up.\u00a0 I was even told by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}