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

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If that’s good enough, buy one. If not, buy a bigger caliber Beretta … and if you ever need a defensive handgun for its intended purpose, you’ll thank me and Beretta after it’s all over.

Endnotes

1. “A Timely Tomcat,” by GB, Combat Handguns magazine, New York City, November 2004 issue, P.6.

2. “.32 ACP Triple Play” by Mike Boyle, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement magazine, New York City, February 2005 issue, Pp. 32 and 84.

The Beretta .380s

When I was young, if you wanted to purchase a high-quality .380 automatic pistol, you basically had three choices: Beretta, Browning, and Walther. The classic Colt Pocket Model had been gone since World War II, though since it was a John Browning design many of its features lived on in the Belgian pistol that bore his name. The sleek, but complicated, Remington Model 51 was likewise long since discontinued.

The First Wave

ACP

Over its many years of service – and its many more as a popular concealed carry handgun all over the world – the 1934 series earned a reputation as perhaps the most rugged and heavy-duty .380 made. It was certainly the most shootable. Its solid weight helped to absorb recoil and unlike some contemporaries such as the Walther PP and PPK, its slide did not bite the hand upon firing. When sold commercially in the United States, imported by Galef, the .32 was known as the Puma and the .380 as the Cougar. These guns were manufactured until 1959.