Beretta 950 Jetfire question

S

Sid

New member
This is my carry pistol. I bought it used on Gunbroker and it was in excellent condition. I practice with it regularly and shoot about 1000 rounds through it every year. Some guy told me that it was not build to be fired that much. Is this true? How much firing can this little gun take?
 
that gun can take it. the .25acp is a very low pressured round. however, since beretta doesn't make it any more you might want to trade it for their current manufactured .25acps.
 
Some guy told me that it was not build to be fired that much.
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Out of curiosity, who told you this? A friend, a cop, perhaps a gun store owner?

99.9% of pistols on the market will never be worn out by their owners. If you do wear out the Beretta, you will have spent many times what it was worth in ammunition.
 
JERRYS. said:
...since beretta doesn't make it any more you might want to trade it for their current manufactured .25acps.
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While I agree with the general gist of your comment, their current .25 ACP products are larger than the Jetfire due to the addition of DA capability and the ability to chamber .22LR, which is a longer round than .25 ACP and .22 Short and requires more generous magazine geometry. Additionally, many 950 fans don't see the point of having DA capability or a thumb safety on a pistol like this. (For the uninitiated, the later 950BS added a sear-locking thumb safety, but the original 950 and 950B lacked this feature, and were designed to be carried in Condition 2 and thumb-cocked when the shooter was ready to fire.)

My advice is to buy extra 950 Jetfires while they're still cheap. :)
 
I'm fully aware of the 950's history and versions. unless (as you said) he buys up a bunch of these guns, he will likely have to get a different gun should his break, unless he knows a true gunsmith and the spare part he needs is available.

that said, I still stand by my statement that the gun can take pretty much all he can give it. besides, after thousands of rounds he would have spent enough in ammo to buy another gun like this.
 
JERRYS.,

What .25 ACP product is Beretta currently making? I know of no such product, as the M21 Bobcat is no longer made.

The .32 ACP version of the M21, the M3032 Tomcat, had some problems with the frame cracking, but it was redesigned to eliminate that concern. The Tomcat frame weakness may have been what prompted the inaccurate advice Sid was given.

Sid,

I hope you are carrying FMJs in your Jetfire. JHPs in .25 ACP do not penetrate adequately to cause a physiological stop.
 
JERRYS. said:
that said, I still stand by my statement that the gun can take pretty much all he can give it.
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Actually, I didn't intend to imply otherwise.

It's still worthwhile buying extras IMHO. They're cheap and it's a good excuse. :cool:
Limnophile said:
...the M21 Bobcat is no longer made.
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Beretta is notorious for sporadically interrupting production and/or U.S. sales of pistols that don't start with "M9", "9", or "PX". :rolleyes:
 
The Jetfire was not built or intended for high-volume use.

There's no set ceiling, but you WILL wear it out at that rate.
Denis
 
I have a 950 with safety and no safety. I have the model 20 usees 950 mag and just little bigger Its a DA/SA I have 2 of the 21 in 22 . Sorry can't carry like the 950 or 20 . .
I don't know if you can wear a 950 out. But a 1000 rounds a year is expensive . I would shoot a little less and buy a couple more 950's . They are the best of the little 25 autos.

If you ever need for SD I would fire 4 or 5 rounds fast as possible.
 
I have never seen a worn-out 950, and I have seen a lot of them!
That doesn't mean they can't be worn out, though.
But, there is very little to wear on them, other than the slide rails on the frame.
 
I've never seen a worn-out Jetfire either, but I've never known anybody to shoot one that much. :)

Got mine in about 1981, probably doesn't have 200 rounds through it.
It'll never reach a thousand while I'm alive.

Not low quality, just not built for extended shooting.
Denis
 
I think that people need to realize that the Beretta 950 Jetfire is not really the pistol people put thousands of rounds through. It's not a service pistol.

As others have pointed out, I highly doubt there are a lot of Beretta 950 Jetfires that have even a thousand rounds through them.

I think Limnophile is correct now that I think about it. The .32 ACP version of the Jetfire had a lifespan of two to three thousand rounds before the frame cracked (near the trigger). Beretta didn't realize do anything when adapting the Jetfire to .32 ACP. Later .32 ACP models I believe were stronger (along with the Inox models).

Just have a good time with it. I think Gary Busey used one in Lethal Weapon.
 
JERRYS. and carguychris,

It does appear that Beretta has renewed production of the M21A and the M3032. That's great news. Thanks.

I need a pocket pistol and the M3032 is at the top of my list, as its manual of arms is close to that of my compact CZs (except for the absence of the slide staying open after the last shot). Prices on Gunbroker went through the roof, and I just checked and see a NIB M3032 (not an Inox) is priced in the mid-$500s, despite Beretta's MSRP being $390. I think I see a purchase in my not-too-distant future.
 
9x18,

I think most handguns are designed to take more than normal wear and tear. The M950 may not be a standard duty pistol, but it was designed around the .25 Auto, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be able to reliably fire as many rounds as an M92, which was designed around the 9 Luger. Sid's useage seems to speak toward the M950 being durable.

The flaw with the M3032, before Beretta fixed it, was that it was initially just an M21A that was slightly enlarged to carry .32 Auto. The design wasn't beefy enough to account for the additional power of the .32 relative to the .25. Reinforcing the frame solved the problem. You are correct about the Inox version never having a frame cracking problem, presumably because the Inox metal is stronger.
 
.380 is about as low as I'd want to go.

The .25 has no stopping power. Very weak rounds, most air rifles at Wal-Mart are about as powerful these days. But, it's your life. You take the risks.
 
There's a great deal of difference in longevity between a design intended for a rarely-fired pocket pistol vs a design intended for military use. :)

Shoot 'em all you want, just don't be at all surprised if you don't get 10,000 rounds out of one.
Denis
 
There's always one of these "It will just make them mad!" guys. :mad:
A .25 to the brain works pretty well- as well as a .380. No handgun has any "stopping power" unless it's CNS shot.
 
DPris,

What specifically are the great differences in duty handgun vs pocket hangun design other than size? What part or parts do you predict will wear out prematurely on a well used pocket pistol, and how much faster will it wear?

M12,

The .380 has no stopping power either, and this is true for virtually all semiauto pistol calibers. What counts most is penetration, and FMJs in .25 Auto can meet the minimum FBI criterion. One gets a much smaller wound channel, of course (half the cross-sectional area for the .25 vs a FMJ .380), but if deep concealment is essential, that may be a reasonable tradeoff. Plus, the pocket .25 may well have a greater magazine capacity than the pocket .380, which helps to ameliorate the smaller wound channel.

I just called my LGS to put in an order for a Beretta Tomcat. They did not know that Beretta is producing them again. They are going to ask around to try to find one for me. I comfortably carry a compact usually OWB; but, there are times it would be more prudent to have a pocket pistol in my pocket.
 
I'm not going to dissect them part by part, the difference in intended uses of both should be quite obvious, along with the fact that a tiny pocket Beretta is not going to hold up like a combat Beretta pistol.
Take it or leave it.
If you want to wear out a 950, by all means go ahead & do it. :)
Denis
 
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