Comments on: Beretta 950 Jetfire

By: Mikee

Mikee — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:48:52 +0000

I own a 22LR version of this Beretta, and tested it extensively with as many brands of ammo as I could get. I settled on Remington Golden Bullets as the most reliable ammunition when the gun was new, with zero failures to fire, zero failures to eject, and zero jams after 100 rounds, compared with up to 8 failures for other brands of 22LR.

However, now that the little gun has about 1000 rounds through it (light use over the course of 2 years at a gun range), retesting ammunition showed that performance of Remington Golden Bullets depended on the individual box of bullets, more than the gun, as one box produced 5 dud rounds within the first 50 from a box of 550.

I’ve retested with multiple brands of ammo, and while a good box of Remington Golden Bullets seems to still work just fine, the gun now also fires without failure for any brand of 22LR with bullet weight of 36 grains or higher, and standard to high velocity. Subsonics are a bit iffy, with some failures to eject, and shorts or CBs won’t work except as single shots manually loaded in the chamber.

All this goes to show that for a mousegun, a centerfire wimpy caliber like a 25, that does go bang every time the trigger is pulled, might have an advantage over a rimfire with reliability that shows a strong ammo dependency.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:49:14 +0000

I used to think that, but the unreliability of rimfire ammo vs. centerfire ammo made me give it up.

By: Tennessee Budd

Tennessee Budd — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:15:57 +0000

When I was making extra $ delivering pizza, I carried the (then-)wife’s Beretta Bobcat. I’ll take a .22LR over a .25 any day.

By: Tam

Tam — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:54:03 +0000

I love the Jetfire. I’ve owned three of them. I abandoned my first one in favor of the Tomcat, but when I got another Jetfire, I ditched the ‘Cat.

Neither .25 nor .32 is exactly the Hammer of Thor, and I shoot the single-action Jetfire so much better than the pivoting-trigger Tomcat, plus it is much more concealable. When you just can’t carry a gun, a Jetfire is the next best thing.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:44:09 +0000

I have a pocket holster for the .25, it’s absolutely fantastic. I really want to get a Beretta Tomcat next, the .32 ACP bigger brother of the Jetfire.

By: Jay G.

Jay G. — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:29:27 +0000

Caleb,

I’ve had excellent luck concealing my Kel-Tec P3AT in a pocket holster. Have you thought of one of those?

6+1 rounds of .380 ACP is, IMHO, a significant improvement over 8+1 .25 ACP…

By: countertop

countertop — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:21:25 +0000

used to have one. boy I hated the 25ACP. It always struck me as a harsh round - not so much more powerful than a .22 nor smaller than a .380 to justify its use.

It was a nice gun, but clearly not a pleasure to shoot.