Does this just mean that Beretta has more lawyers than Seecamp? It can’t mean they have better lawyers than Seecamp, which was represented by current NRA director Howard Fezell in the lawsuit that beat the Maryland Gun Board’s attempt to ban that pistol in that state. I have to go on the assumption that the gun’s maker knows the pistol better than the gun’s user, and if they worry about me carrying it chamber loaded, I worry about it when I carry it. For most of a month I had a Gold Dot in the chamber, the barrel closed on an already lowered hammer, and seven rounds of easy-feeding Federal ball in the magazine because I hadn’t put the requisite 200 rounds of any one hollow-point through the mechanism and don’t trust any handgun until I have. And … I thought about the safety factor and the owner’s manual every day I carried this gun.
Beretta Tomcat vs. Seecamp LWS-32
Let’s get right down to it. How does Beretta’s entry in the Seecamp market compare to the gun that defined that market?
The Beretta points much better. The Seecamp points low, a tough thing for a gun that has no sights. Most anyone will hit better with the sighted Beretta, even though the Tomcats all seem to shoot low. The Seecamp is a lot more portable: slightly shorter than the Tomcat, much smaller in height (you can get one finger on its grip, but two on the Beretta’s), and a significant 3 ounces lighter, while holding only one less round of ammo. The LWS-32’s double-action-only trigger is smoother and more controllable than the Tomcat’s. The Seecamp is on a restricted diet by its manufacturer: Winchester Silvertip and Glaser Safety Slugs only, while the Beretta has no such limitation.
Seecamp endorses carrying their .32 with a round in the chamber. Beretta does not.
Perhaps most important for many, the Beretta .32’s suggested retail price is much lower than that of the Seecamp.
Bottom Line
The Beretta 3032 Tomcat came to me with only one magazine. This is the way most pocket pistols are sold. The industry has come to believe that any blithe spirit who trusts his life to a sub-caliber firearm probably isn’t into carrying spare ammo. This tells you something about the market profile you’re matching yourself to when you consider buying one.
I’d rather you carried a .32 auto than a .25, or no gun at all. But this is not the accurate, point of aim/point of impact, glass smooth, and sufficiently potent Beretta that the U.S. military adopted for soldiers, and that INS adopted for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. It’s a damn good pocket pistol, more affordable and more available and more accurate than the Seecamp .32 whose market it was designed to invade, but that’s all that it is.
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
My first centerfire handgun was a Beretta Model 1934 that had come back from the European theater as a souvenir of WWII. This .380 had been standard issue in the Italian military. The Model 1935 was functionally identical, but chambered for .32 ACP. The .380 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) was the American term for a cartridge known as the 9mm Kurz (9mm “short”), 9mm Corto, 9mm Browning Short, or simply 9X17mm.
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.
An early Beretta 86 shows its relative size in an adult male hand. The pistol is ambidextrously “cocked and locked,” making it easier for weaker hands to operate.
There are a lot of these rugged old pistols still out there, and a lot of shooters who still appreciate them.
The Second Wave
By the time John F. Kennedy replaced Dwight Eisenhower in the White House, the 70 series Berettas had begun to replace the 1934 style. Known as the Model 100 in the U.S. market, this new pistol was sleeker than the 1934, though similar in many ways including the open slide and the single-action design. It also retained the good shooting characteristics. However, there were some distinct differences.
A current production Model 84 is shown on safe with the hammer down in the double-action mode …
… off safe, cocked and ready to fire …
… and being decocked, which on later models is accomplished by thumbing the frame-mounted lever up past the on-safe position.
One strange safety catch was exchanged for another. The awkward lever above the trigger guard on the left of the 1934’s frame had to be rotated forward, down and then up, 180 degrees, to get it into the “fire” position. The Series 70 had a cross-bolt safety forward of the grip tang. In theory, the median joint of the right thumb would press it inward to “fire,” and it would have to be pressed back out from the other side for “safe.” In practice, most people found it not only different, but just plain difficult. The same had proven true earlier, when Beretta had put it on their 1951 model 9mm Parabellum service pistol. Once the safety was disengaged, though, the 70 series demonstrated superb shooting characteristics. Its more steeply angled grip felt better in many hands (including mine) and made it point more naturally for many shooters (including me.)
Here is the ambidextrous, 14-shot Beretta Model 84 Cheetah .380.
The 1934/35 pistols had come with conventional “European-style” butt heel magazine releases. The 70 models had a push-button release low at the rear of the left grip panel. This was seen as a more ergonomic way for thumb and fingers of the left hand to remove the magazine from the butt, and this feature was found on Beretta 9mm Parabellum pistols throughout the third quarter of the Twentieth Century, and remains on the small-frame Beretta pocket pistols.
The more or less conventional slide stop lever on the left