Beretta Bobcat 21A for CCW anyone?

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I still have one in .25 I used to carry from time to time.

I have moved on to other, lighter more powerful “subcompacts”, that don’t have external hammers or other sharp edges, when I carry them these days.
 
I've carried one as my 2nd gun when carrying a 9mm as my primary.

I got it at a great price, but if I had to pay full price for one, I would have gone with the .25ACP version...more reliable
 
So I just wanted to chronicle my experience with the Beretta Bobcat real quick.

I’ve been carrying a Bobcat in .22LR with some regularity for the last 3 years. It’s one of only two guns I ever carry regularly so Iguess you could say it’s earned it’s place. The other gun is a Walther PPQ 9mm, and outstanding pistol above all others IMO but it should go without saying that I cannot always conceal a full size duty pistol with a flashlight so that’s the only reason for a pocket pistol in my CCW rotation.

I didn’t carry the Bobcat much when I first got it because I was learning what ammo it liked and didn’t like and learning the nuances of it to make it reliable. After much testing and about 3-4k rounds of shooting I determined that the best ammo for toting the Bobcat around town was the CCI Velocitor. Not quite as fast as the Stinger (which is really only fast out of a rifle length barrel), but more useful is the 40 grain bullet, which I feel gives a longer recoil impulse to impart energy into the gun for cycling as well as increased penetration that 36 grain bullets. That it’s going 200 FPS faster than your typical Mini-Mags is also a bonus because again, the extra energy and longer recoil impulse gives a healthy energy to the gun for cycling. Rimfire may be less reliable than centerfire but choosing premium ammo like CCI Velocitors or Mini-Mags will close the reliability gap. Keeping the chamber clean is key to reliability on the Bobcat.

Being a .22 also provides for soooooo much more training time, confidence building, and gun break-in, if you will, and that is to me much more valuable than whatever perceived or real increase in reliability in the .25 ACP version.

One downside is the lack of an extractor so I polished the chamber and feed ramp to help make it easier to keep clean.

The trigger is pretty good for how small of a DA/SA pistol this is and considering all other competitors in its class. I’m pretty accurate with the Bobcat inside of 15 yards or so on small targets and maybe 20 yards on a silhouette. Not gonna lie the small size makes it pretty difficult to keep up with duty pistols at distance.

Keeping the chamber clean is critical because extraction will slow down and cease with enough fouling and it only takes a few magazines depending on ammo used. The cleaner ammo like CCI will get you 5 or 6 mags before failures. Of course when on the street I only have one mag so I only need it to cycle 8 times but I need it to do so prefectly. So for the purposes of range practice or for evaluating a gun + ammo combo over long round counts, I run a bore snake through it every other magazine and by doing this I can go 150-300 rounds or more without problems.

I have a leather pocket holster for it that looks like a wallet from the outside, so this is where this little pistol shines, because it beats the heck out of whatever gun you left at home because you couldn’t carry it in your gym shorts.

These little pocket Berettas seem harder to come by these days so I think it’s a cool gun to carry and it’s proven to be reliable for me.
 
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I have a Bobcat that is from 1997. It works best with CCI ammo, Mini-Mag or Velocitor and also seems to like Remington Golden Bullet and surprisingly Thunderbolt. I have found the Remington QC seems to vary batch to batch though so always test a few mags out of a box before I consider it for carry vs range use.
 
AFDEA943-ACAC-4935-B753-89486FCF8ACA.jpeg My Beretta 21 is part of my carry rotation. It’s the Inox version and works well with Stingers and Mini-Mags. I have a couple micro .380s but the 21 handles so much better. I slip it into my pocket when I walk the dog and feel decently protected.
 
Mine liked old Winchester Super-X 40 grain RN lube alloy from the late 1960s. I had a bunch and used it for years. I know exerts are changing at using then 30 year old ammo in a HD gun, but it was the most reliable load and shot well. The newer higher velocity Super X and lowered QC did not work as well and I moved to CCI 40 grain mini mag solids. For absolute reliability I loaded one round short in the magazine. After a decade it got less than reliable and when I handled my first Kel Tec P32 the Beretta went in reserve as soon as I got some range time with the Fantastic Plastic.

BTW I used to carry my Beretta M21A .22 LR in a small freezer bag drawn down to have as little air as possible in it in my bathing suit pocket when swimming in the Gulf of Mexico or local rivers and springs. On our return home I would shoot the gun before cleaning it. Shot through the bag usually gave me one shot then the bag fouled the action, but I got one shot. I moved to Sandwich bags of lighter construction and again got one shot through the bag and occasionally another or two. If I took the time to rip the top off the sandwich bag I managed to dump the full mag a couple of times, but the necessity of putting my left hand in front of the muzzle during the draw concerned me greatly and I stopped doing that.

only once did I have a leak at the seal and one other time an edge on the gun made a pin hole in the bag. In both cases removing the gun from the water filled bag and giving it a shake allowed the gun to be fired until empty. I checked the barrel for bulges from capillary action of water but never noticed any.

not recommending carry or shooting like this to anyone, just sharing my experience.

-kBob
 
I had an old Jetfire .25 years ago. Not the most confident pistil to carry but better than a rock. Back then I wanted a .22 DA like that, but never really found one that sang out me locally.

Stay safe.
 
I carried one for years as a back up when there were few other small options. I think the Seecamp may have been the other option and they were impossible to find and if you did they were big $$$. Mine liked Stingers and that is what I ran in it. Still have it but have better options in the safe these days. Do let the kids shoot it some as it is cheap to feed and low recoil.
 
Mine liked old Winchester Super-X 40 grain RN lube alloy from the late 1960s. I had a bunch and used it for years. I know exerts are changing at using then 30 year old ammo in a HD gun, but it was the most reliable load and shot well. The newer higher velocity Super X and lowered QC did not work as well and I moved to CCI 40 grain mini mag solids. For absolute reliability I loaded one round short in the magazine. After a decade it got less than reliable and when I handled my first Kel Tec P32 the Beretta went in reserve as soon as I got some range time with the Fantastic Plastic.

BTW I used to carry my Beretta M21A .22 LR in a small freezer bag drawn down to have as little air as possible in it in my bathing suit pocket when swimming in the Gulf of Mexico or local rivers and springs. On our return home I would shoot the gun before cleaning it. Shot through the bag usually gave me one shot then the bag fouled the action, but I got one shot. I moved to Sandwich bags of lighter construction and again got one shot through the bag and occasionally another or two. If I took the time to rip the top off the sandwich bag I managed to dump the full mag a couple of times, but the necessity of putting my left hand in front of the muzzle during the draw concerned me greatly and I stopped doing that.

only once did I have a leak at the seal and one other time an edge on the gun made a pin hole in the bag. In both cases removing the gun from the water filled bag and giving it a shake allowed the gun to be fired until empty. I checked the barrel for bulges from capillary action of water but never noticed any.

not recommending carry or shooting like this to anyone, just sharing my experience.

-kBob

298e0969dab2dd0f686d045765aa94c3.jpg
 
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