Beretta 21A Bobcat

D

Doug Ridley

New member
Got my new Bobcat this week and took it to the range yesterday to try it out. I tried three different kinds of ammo, Remington Goldens, CCI Stingers, and CCI Mini mags. Most of the posts I have seen on the net say Mini Mags are their go to ammo. I couldn't get one mag thru it of them. I had multiple FTE and FTFs. It shot one mag of Stingers perfectly. I tried the Goldens and it zipped thru four mags without a hitch. I brought it home and gave it a good cleaning and lube job and will try it again next week. If the same thing holds true I guess I will be a llttle ahead by being able to shoot nothing but the cheaper bulk stuff but after all I have read about its ammo likes and dislikes I was a little surprised.
 
I gave mine away to my son. I could never get a full magazine through the gun. I tried lots of ammo.
Good that you had success. I shall have to tell my son to try the Remingtons, etc.

Pete
 
There have been a few of them through my family.
All but one have had reliability issues, no matter what ammo it was fed.
They did seem to be very sensitive to limp-wristing, though. I'm sure that was a big part of it.

My step mother still owns one that's only a few years old. No one can get more than 3-4 rounds through it without stove-piping (FTE), and she can only get one or two rounds off without an FTE or FTF (limp-wrist). But she still uses it for CC. :rolleyes:

The only one that has never had issues?... It was misplaced before being fired, and the owner still hasn't dug through his gun room to find it. :rolleyes:

I look at the Bobcats like Walther P22s: There are good ones out there, and they're not bad pistols. But, overall, they seem to be very temperamental and predictably unpredictable.

Run some more ammo through it, and see how it breaks in.
 
My wife has one of these. A little finicky at first but it liked hyper-vel loads alright. These days it seems to shoot about anything fine.

They don't have an extractor so might be expected to be a little ammo selective.

Another fellow had one at the range and was having trouble with it. We swapped mags and his worked fine.
 
"I gave mine away to my son. I could never get a full magazine through the gun. I tried lots of ammo.
Good that you had success. I shall have to tell my son to try the Remingtons, etc.

Pete"

You gave your son an unreliable handgun... interesting...
 
The Beretta and Taurus small 22 LR semis are very fussy. My Taurus was a disaster and a friend's Beretta was a jammer.

Much better pocket options today unless there is some special circumstance and you want to spend the time with one of them.
 
You gave your son an unreliable handgun... interesting...
Click to expand...

Maybe he said "Here son, I can't get this thing to work. You and your buddies go shooting a lot, see if you all can get it to work. If not sell it or trade it away or maybe take it to the gunsmith and see if he can fix it".

So whats wrong with that?:confused:

My Beretta 950BS in 25 ACP has never missed a lick. Never jammed. Never failed to feed or eject. But it has been shot a couple hundred times and is broke in.
 
rkbanet said:
"I gave mine away to my son. I could never get a full magazine through the gun. I tried lots of ammo.
Good that you had success. I shall have to tell my son to try the Remingtons, etc.

Pete"

You gave your son an unreliable handgun... interesting...
Click to expand...
Was thinking that too.....
 
My experience has been that once broken in the 21A will function without problems with any CCI ammo (pretty much all I use) and also with high quality target ammo. However, after 30 or 40 rounds the chamber will accumulate burned powder residue and must be cleaned with 1 or 2 passes of a bore brush.
 
rkbanet said:
"I gave mine away to my son. I could never get a full magazine through the gun. I tried lots of ammo.
Good that you had success. I shall have to tell my son to try the Remingtons, etc.

Pete"

You gave your son an unreliable handgun... interesting...
Click to expand...
Perhaps his son was just looking for a range toy. I'd love to pick one up for just that reason. I certainly would never use one for self defence unless it was absolutely my only option.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
 
I have a Beretta 21a and also tried CCI mini mags. A mistake to follow the internet on this. I think on any 22LR, you need to figure out for yourself.

My gun loves CCI Std Vel. Not only reliable but it hits right to point of aim at 15 yards. The guns prints perfectly centered groups UNDER 2 inches at that 15 yard distance.

Performance is amazing for the size and sights on the gun. Never had any mis feed or failure to eject with CCI Std Vel. Not yet.

Dont think magnum or any performance mumbo jumbo, do experiment too find what works. You might be surprised.
 
I've owned several .22 pocket guns. From dirt cheap to stupid expensive. None have worked well for me. Not even a Walther TPH.

Put me solidly in the camp of pocket .25's and .32's. My Bobcat .25 and Seecamp .25 are utterly reliable. Bauer, Browning, same. Even a POS Raven runs fine.

I'm thinking the long skinny round with the big rim just aren't a perfect match for a tiny pocket pistol.

The .25 is just like a miniature .45 ACP.... :)
 
fourbore said:
I have a Beretta 21a and also tried CCI mini mags. A mistake to follow the internet on this. I think on any 22LR, you need to figure out for yourself.

My gun loves CCI Std Vel. Not only reliable but it hits right to point of aim at 15 yards. The guns prints perfectly centered groups UNDER 2 inches at that 15 yard distance.

Performance is amazing for the size and sights on the gun. Never had any mis feed or failure to eject with CCI Std Vel. Not yet.

Dont think magnum or any performance mumbo jumbo, do experiment too find what works. You might be surprised.
Click to expand...
I have the same experience. I can hit golf balls at 15 yrds on a regular basis.( with eye glasses on, those are the smallest sights) Mini mags and browning 40gr seem to work the best with a rare stovepipe. Mine does like to stay clean and wet.
 
Doc TH said:
My experience has been that once broken in the 21A will function without problems with any CCI ammo (pretty much all I use) and also with high quality target ammo. However, after 30 or 40 rounds the chamber will accumulate burned powder residue and must be cleaned with 1 or 2 passes of a bore brush.
Click to expand...
This has been my experience also. I use CCI Minimags in mine with no problems.
 
Wow. Making me feel good about . . .

You all are making me feel good about my Taurus PT-22 which runs well now (2 jams out of 100 plus shots) al though it had to go back to Taurus for repair before it shot well. If I ever feel need for a BUG it will be the one.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
And my . . .

. . . little 26 year old Phoenix HP22 has never had a malfunction of any kind and I have only cleaned the bore.

This was all plinking, but I'm just sayin'.

Rmocarsky
 
unreliable

Thanks to those of you who saw the more positive alternatives to the giving of the Beretta to my son.
Your interpretations are exactly correct.
Pete
 
There is nothing inherently unreliable about the 21a. There is the same old laundry list of suspects: magazine, recoil spring, dirty, certain exotic wizebang HP ammo. Mini-mags should work, but; they are not accurate in my gun. Cheap ammo may have the occasional dud, nothing like an issue per magazine. I generally do not top/off my magazines,but; that is just me.

There is one issue with the 21a, if you do get a dud, there is no extractor to let you manually cycle the ammo out. On the other hand, it has a fairly good single action pull for what it is. My 21a is accurate and that makes any gun more fun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top