Call me Ahab

posted by Caleb on Jul 1

Stolen from Bane:

 I wanted to mention something about guns that wasn’t about gun control. The cherubs and seraphim tell me that a major American ammunition manufacturer is getting ready to pop, so to speak, a high performance .380 round tailored specifically for the little Ruger LCP. Well why not? With sales still grinding through the stratosphere, the little LCP has redefined “pocket pistol” and given the long dis’sed .380 a quick poke in the butt. Mine is the very definiiton of “reliable” and it’s now generally stoked with Cor-Bon DPXs.

As a very big fan of the .380 ACP, I can only say that this is awesome.  A .380 round optimized for short barrels like those on the Kel-Tyke and the Ruger LCP would probably sell like freakin’ hotcakes, and I would probably buy a .380 just so I could have an excuse to run the round.

posted by Caleb on May 13

I mentioned yesterday that I had picked up a Beretta 950 Jetfire from Gander Mountain, it’s a little pocket sized .25 ACP. Beretta has been making pocket pistols in .25 ACP since the early 1900s, in fact, I have one of their early 1919 models - sort of the great grandfather to the Beretta 950.

The Beretta 950 is a single action, semi-automatic magazine fed pistol; like most pocket guns it’s blowback operated. Because it’s chambered for .25 ACP, it lacks an extractor, although the Beretta style open slide usually allows for positive ejection of spent cases. While pre-1968 models lack an external safety, mine does the safety which allows me to carry the little pistol cocked-and-locked.

Of course, you want pictures. Click for a fullsize picture.

With the pocket holster, it just drops right into a jeans or trouser pocket, and can basically go anywhere that there aren’t metal detectors or pat searches. Sure, the .25 ACP isn’t a manly super-blaster of a cartridge, but when I can’t carry the 9mm or the .45, it certainly beats going around unarmed. Sort of by way of compensation for the tiny, tiny bullets, the 950 does have an eight round magazine, plus one round in the tip-up barrel/chamber - giving you nine rounds of .25 ACP.

The biggest appeal of this gun to me, aside from the fact that it says “Beretta” on the gun, is that it really is a spectacular deep concealment piece in terms of ease of carry. I’ve never made any bones about the fact that I’m a small of stature, and being able to be carrying a 9 round pistol plus an 8 round reload without even a hint of a “print” is a nice feeling.

posted by Caleb on May 12

You know, I’ve always wanted to say that - cackling super-villain style and shouting “Curse you Super-Guy!” always seemed like a lot of fun.

Of course, I’m not actually mad at Gander Mountain per se, it’s more that because of Gander Mountain I took an unplanned dig in to my firearms finances.  I had gone to the range to shoot this month’s e-postal match, and figured that a stop at Gander Mountain would be completely harmless.  Little did I know how wrong I was.

I was browsing the used gun case, when my eyes fell upon a used Beretta 950 Jetfire, the single-action .25 ACP pocket pistol that Beretta has made since the early 1950’s (1953, I think was the first year).  For the low, low sum of $169.99 plus tax, I could take this little pocket pistol home plus 4 magazines and a pocket holster.  With my known enjoyment of Beretta pocket guns (I own a 1919 .25 ACP and a 1935 .32 ACP), I figured “what the hell” and plunked down the plastic-fantastic.  A quick NICS check and some paperwork later, I was the proud papa of a brand-new-to-me Beretta.

The moral of the story is of course to never, ever go to Gander Mountain.  Or something like that.  You know, at the rate that I’m accumulating Berettas, you’d think I was collecting them or something.

posted by Caleb on Dec 3

A new, updated and awesome .32 load from Federal, offered in conjunction with a new Ruger SP101. It’s called the .327 Federal Magnum, and I want one. You can never, ever have too many compact carry revolvers; I figure a .32 Super-Dooper Magnum Blaster would be the perfect compliment to my 2 inch .45 ACP.

Now, what really interests me about this gun are the ballistics that Federal is claiming for this cartridge. They say it’s going to beat the terminal ballistics of a .38 Special +P from a snub nosed revolver, and the test figures from Federal would seem to back that up.

Subjected to the standard FBI protocol tests for effectiveness through barriers, the 115-grain .327 Magnum load reaches 15 inches in bare gelatin, 16 inches through heavy clothing, 16 inches through plywood, 14.5 inches through wallboard, 13 inches through auto glass, and 20 inches through single-layer vehicle body steel–all with substantial bullet upset ranging from .40 caliber (steel) to .60 caliber (auto glass).

So it expands, and appears to penetrate well. Of course, you should always take manufacturer’s statements with a bit of a grain of salt, but the numbers for the .327 Magnum are pretty promising. I just hope that Ruger doesn’t dump it to the wayside like they did with the .480 Ruger.

The other thing that I like about this new gun/cartridge combo is that it’s clearly marketing to the small person/woman concealed carry market. But instead of making a pink gun (it’s okay Taurus, I still love you) Ruger/Federal decided to take a proven platform and chamber for what appears to be an excellent self-defense package. Being a small dude myself, I don’t enjoy shooting full house .45 ACP +P loads out of my snubby very much, so I will definitely appreciate a smaller, less punchy cartridge for personal defense.

posted by Caleb on Aug 30

Short story - I won the auction for the vintage 1920s-ish Beretta .25 Auto. I literally got it for a steal, so as soon as I get my FFL and the money out to the seller, it should be on its way home to me.

I love having a C&R license.

Now if I could just get Midway USA to get some Speer Gold Dots in stock in .25 ACP, I’d be all set.
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posted by Caleb on Aug 24

Lot’s of discussion about the .25 ACP lately; I have one more thing to add, for now. Someone is buying ammo and ostensibly shooting said ammo for it.

I tried to order a box of FMJ and a box of Speer Gold Dots from www.midwayusa.com last night, and both are sold out and on backorder status.

I suppose it’s probably to feed the supply of teeny mouseguns chambered for the cartridge.

posted by Caleb on Aug 24

Apparently, I got Jay all fired up to post pictures of his various mouseguns.

For the record, I dispute the inclusion of the Makarov and the J-Frame snubbie as mouseguns, I don’t count .357 and 9mm Mak as mousegun calibers.

But it certainly is a great excuse to post some gun porn.
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posted by Caleb on Aug 21

It’s been too long since I fed the fans that originally came here because of a link from Mouseguns.com (which is still one of my better traffic referrers).

I found a cool link whilst bouncing about the internets for the terminal ballistics of the puny .25 ACP. Some guy shot a bunch of .25 ACP rounds into water jugs and recorded his results, which seem pretty cool. Again, not scientific tests per se, but the data is interesting; and best yet he doesn’t draw any “conclusions” he just puts his data out there for you to read.

It does seem to back up Fits‘ belief in the Speer Gold Dot as a good round out of a .25 ACP. Not only did it expand a little bit, but the penetration wasn’t too shabby. It also just adds more data to my belief that Glasers from a mousegun are a silly-assed idea.
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posted by Caleb on Aug 21

I do believe that this is the “eternal mousegun debate”, that is if you’ve decided to carry a popgun that starts with a “2″, which should you choose, the .22 LR or the .25 ACP? You’ll sometimes here people saying that the .22 LR produces superior ballistics to the .25 ACP, so you should carry that. That statement is only partially true.

The .22 LR does produce superior ballistics to the .25 ACP, when you fire the .22 out of a pistol with a four inch barrel. From a 2-3 inch barrel like you’ll find on most teeny mouseguns, the .22 LR actually produces very similar ballistics to the .25 ACP. If you look at this article on the topic of .22 vs. .25 and compare the ballistics from the Baby Browning to those of the .22 mini revolver, you’ll see that they’re remarkably the same.

This article from the Firearms Tactical Institute tests various .22 LR ammo in ballistics gel for penetration. I’m not asking you to agree with their conclusions, but their data is interesting. The only .22 LR round that “outperforms” the .25 in terms of muzzle velocity is the CCI Stinger, which should be noted still failed to expand at those muzzle velocities. You can decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

The most important factor in a defensive pistol is its ability to go “bang” every time you press the trigger. The reliability factor does create something of a problem for the .22 LR mouseguns; the rimmed cartridge and the occasional lack of attention to detail that is sometimes paid to .22 ammo are big strikes against carrying it in your teeny defensive gun. Additionally, the rimfire ignition system is less reliable than a centerfire ignition system; the .25 ACP is a centerfire cartridge. On the issue of reliability, the .25 ACP wins easily.

Personally, if I were to carry a small semi-automatic pistol for self defense, I would probably go with a .25 ACP. Although (in the past) I’ve carried a Walther P22, a few recent issues with CCI Stingers being poorly loaded or having other ammo related failures have caused me to retire the P22 to “fun gun only”. For the P22 haters, don’t take that to mean that I don’t love my P22 any more, because the issues were strictly ammo related. However, when a “quality” round like a CCI Stinger is having issues, it made me question the logic behind carrying a .22 LR.

When it gets down to it, the debate about which is a better manstopper is no debate at all. They’re about the same, and both calibers are going to make little dinky holes in an assailant. For me, the deciding factor would have to be reliability, and that would make me pick a .25 ACP.
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posted by Caleb on Aug 20

I get a lot of crap from my dad because I like Berettas. I have vague memories of him being less than thrilled when he had to switch away from his .357 for a Beretta when the Sheriff’s Office mandated the change to the new “wondernine”. When I was a Coastie, I had the service issue M9 Beretta, and despite the known issues with the 9mm cartridge in ball form, I never once had a problem with the gun. I was one of very few people that was not enthusiastic about the switch to the new Sig Sauer pistols; I don’t really believe that a .40 S&W FMJ offers significant advantages over 9mm FMJ.

However, that’s beside the point of today’s blog. As I’ve mentioned, I have a terrible case of Gun ADD, which causes me to flit from one potential purchase to another. A lot of times, if I don’t like how a gun shoots, or how it fills my hand, I’ll turn around and sell it pretty quickly. However, one C&R purchase that I’ve been thrilled with is my ‘35 Beretta. I blogged about it while guest blogging at Sebastian’s, and in the four months since then it’s become one of my favorite guns.

So, while looking for a new gun to purchase next month, I stumbled across a couple of places to find a model 418 Beretta, .25 ACP. A good James Bond fan would know that this is the gun that Bond carried prior to his .32 ACP Walther, and was forced to trade in during a scene in Dr. No. Obviously, the .25 ACP is rather anemic, and wouldn’t be my first, second, or third choice for a defensive cartridge. But then again, I wouldn’t be buying this gun as a “primary defensive weapon”; I’d be buying it because 1) It’s an old Beretta, and 2) James Bond.

It remains to be seen whether or not my gun ADD will hold out long enough.
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