Читать книгу Gun Digest Book of Beretta Pistols. Function | Accuracy | Performance онлайн

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This pistol has no slide release lever and no slide lock. If it has been run completely dry, you have to “jack” the slide to the rear and let it fly forward.

A signature feature of the 950 pistol is the tip-up barrel. Beretta continued this concept with their double-action Model 21 .22 LR and their Model 86 .380 ACP. Taurus applied it to their double-action-only clones of the Model 21, the PT-22 and PT-25. On the 950 there is a lever above the trigger guard on the left side of the frame that’s pushed forward to cause the barrel to pop up with its breech in the air and the muzzle down. To allow for the tip-up feature, the 950’s straight blow-back action has no extractor.

The author’s daughter, Cat, looks back from adulthood at the .22 Short Beretta Minx pistols with which she started a distinguished pistol shooting career.

For comparison, here is a S&W Model 342 AirLite (top, with Crimson Trace LaserGrips) and “long-barrel” Beretta Minx.

The tip-up design eliminates the need to jack a slide at all. Its mechanism is easily manipulated, and readily allows anyone to check a chamber, even if they have very little strength. This is one reason I really like this auto pistol for teaching handgun techniques to kids. It also makes enormous sense for adults whose physical strength in the hands or upper body is limited.