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

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Circa 1992, the Models 84, 85, and 86 became the Beretta Cheetah series along with the Model 87, which was the same gun in .22 Long Rifle. The design was updated to make the frame-mounted safety lever function as a decocking lever as well.

This, for the most part, is a good feature. Lowering a double-action pistol’s hammer by hand is asking for an accident. There is huge potential for slippage.

If you’re going to carry a double-action Beretta .380 in double-action mode, the Cheetah series (or the Browning BDA) makes enormous sense. If you are accustomed to carrying a 1911 or other type pistol with a frame-mounted safety that is pressed down for “fire” and up for “safe,” you will have commonality with the Cheetah in its double-action mode, and that makes awfully good sense, too.

At the same time, one thing I liked about the earlier design of the Model 86 was that its manual safety design made possible cocked and locked, single-action carry. It was my experience that a person whose limited upper body strength made it hard for them to operate an auto pistol’s slide, often also had fingers so weak or so limited in reach that the long, heavy first shot pull of a double-action trigger would be difficult for them, too. I’ve encouraged a number of people in this situation to go with the older style Beretta 86, and as long as they could live with the .380 ACP power level, they were happy with it. Those same people, almost always, found themselves carrying the gun cocked and locked because it was much faster and much easier for them to get off the first shot. Sometimes, that was the only way they could get off the first shot.