About a year ago, I fell in love with the Tomcat. I love how it feels in the hand, and after much research on the gun and .32 ammo, I bought one and ordered .32 DPX for it.
I bought the gun used from a forum member, who measured it and told me it was a wide slide version. It wasn't; cracking developed after 50 rounds in the problem strip. I put it on ice, and bought an Inox version from GB. This was supposed to eliminate MOST of the problems, but I was wary. It too developed the crack.
I tried one technique that had been claimed to work, to cut out the little bar of metal that is affected by cracking. The internets claimed that it had no structural integrity, and that the crack was purely cosmetic. It looks like it, so I tried it. DON'T DO IT. Cutting out the bar on both my blue normal slide, and the Inox wide slide, I tried firing the blue first. several rounds in, pieces of aluminum from the frame right near where the cuts were made started breaking off. I put the gun away, and didn't risk the same with the Inox. I sold both for parts. At no point did I fire any of the DPX ammo, this was all Beretta spec ball ammo.
Bottom line: don't trust them. Some people's never develop problems, but the wide slide won't necessarily fix it. What you want is the rare titanium version, of which I've never seen or heard of a serial number above 800, although 1500 were supposedly made. They go for about $1400 on Gunbroker. I gave up at that point. It's .32, which would be acceptable if everything else was golden, but you might get cracks, hurt yourself, or shell out $1400 for one that in essence is weaker design, heavier, more expensive and less powerful then my $300 LCP. Great concept, and I was sad to give up the platform, but logic rules.
