All things considered, though, the Neos is a cool little gun. I like it better than any of the other Guigiaro-designed Beretta handguns. It’s built for fun, and in a safe, responsible recreational shooting environment, it will consistently deliver that fun. Its price, reliability and inherent accuracy, make it a splendid value, and that low price makes it a very affordable portal through which to enter the world of high-quality Beretta firearms.
The Model 87 Series
Beretta introduced the Cheetah Model 87 in 1988. It was a companion gun to the Model 84 and Model 85 series .380 caliber pistols and was functionally identical except for being chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge. The same year, the firm offered the Model 89 Gold Standard, an aptly named target pistol that was built on the same frame but in single-action-only mode, with a skeletonized slide running under a high sight-ribbed barrel. The Gold Standard came with an exquisite target-grade trigger pull.
Along about 2000, the Model 89 Gold Standard seemed to disappear from the line, replaced by the Model 87 Target. Where the Gold Standard had resembled a cross between a Cheetah .380 and a Hammerli match pistol, the Model 87 appeared to be a Cheetah frame with the trigger squared a little in front. It also had a barrel/slide assembly that was in essence the one from the Gold Standard, but trimmed down a bit from the top and with a Weaver-style scope rail that also acted as a low-profile sight rail. The Model 87 Target pistol has its own 10-shot .22 LR magazine and will not accept the seven-round magazine of the .22 caliber Model 87 Cheetah.
This impromptu “trigger stop” made a world of difference in the shootability of the Model 87.
At a solid 41 ounces, this gun still is not as heavy as most of the dedicated .22 caliber target pistols that find their way to the national championships at Camp Perry. It can be described as “target pistol lite.” However, its compact grip frame fits exquisitely in smaller hands. Remember, it has evolved upward from a frame size that many categorize as a “pocket pistol.” Trigger reach is excellent for shorter fingers.
The backlash problem is diagnosed and solved. Out of the box trigger resistance begins at this point …
… and sear releases at about this point, at which time …
… the trigger lashes this far back to the frame, which can move the gun just as it’s firing, ruining accuracy. The solution …
… is a trigger stop, here quickly rigged with a bit of floor protector. Pull starts here with the trigger at rest …
… and breaks at the same point …
… but now immediately comes to a soft, cushioned stop. Backlash cured!
The muzzle weight has grooves to allow additional weights to be added. Matte finish is evenly applied to this businesslike pistol.
Taking a sight picture, it’s as if you were looking down a long pier going out toward the water; a pier with a handrail on each side. This slim pistol’s balance is excellent, and there are attachment points provided to hang weights from the front if the shooter wants a more muzzle-heavy feel. Overall, this blue steel pistol, despite its matte finish, just reeks of quality. The skeletonized slide runs smoothly under a rugged sight rib that sits above the action like a bridge, keeping the sights solidly oriented to the barrel. In this, it reminds the shooter of two of the most proven American match target .22 pistols, the High Standard Victor and the Smith & Wesson Model 41. Its frame composition has been described as “zirconium-aluminum alloy.” The slide has extensions running on either side toward the muzzle, with finger grooves. This is one pistol that you pretty much have to operate by reaching up underneath the front, with thumb on one side and fingertips on the other, and push back to activate the gun. The good news is that these grooves are a safe distance back from the muzzle, making this a much safer handling protocol than doing the same with, say, a Beretta 92 or a 1911 pistol with trendy forward slide grooves.
The barrel weight and sight rib enhance the monolithic muzzle of the Model 87. The barrel weight is removable.
The trigger pull is smooth, with an easy roll, reminding the shooter of the old Model 34 .380 or Beretta’s middle period pocket pistol in .22 LR, the Model 70. However, it had horrendous backlash, perhaps the worst I’ve ever encountered on a .22 caliber single-action auto. When the sear released, the trigger and finger took a long plunge straight back until they stopped against the frame. This unfortunate circumstance, called backlash or overtravel, is ruinous to accuracy.
The Model 89 Gold Standard, as I recall, had an adjustable trigger that was hugely better. It is sad that this attribute did not survive in the Model 87 Target incarnation.
My friend and fellow gun writer David Fortier recently wrote up the Model 87 Target in the 2005 Shooting Times Handgun Buyers’ Guide. He tested a dozen different match-grade .22 loads at 50 yards. This is twice the distance at which most handguns are accuracy tested, and is the yardage at which precision slow fire takes place in classic American bull’s-eye matches. All 12 loads grouped well under 2 inches at 50 yards. Two grouped under an inch: Eley 40-grain Tenex delivered 0.87 inches, and Wolf 40-grain Match Gold did 0.67 inches. David wrote that he was firing off sandbags with a Burris 2x to 7x variable telescopic sight attached to the Weaver rails.
That, my friends, is match-winning accuracy. It’s built in at the plant in Italy. The trick is getting that accuracy out of the pistol.
David explained that he shot his at a seminar that Beretta held for the writers at the company he works for, Primedia. He described his test pistol’s trigger pull as follows: “The trigger was a bit heavier, 4.5 pounds, than I like. Don’t get me wrong. It was crisp with zero creep, no overtravel, and only took 3/16 inch of forward travel to reset.” (1)
I re-read that. “Huh? No over-travel? How come David and his buddies at Primedia rate? Where do I get an 87 like that?”
Apparently, the test gun provided had been specially tuned at the factory. Much more overtravel, resulting in backlash, is present in every out-of-the-box Model 87 Target I’ve run across.
Now, by the time I read David’s article, I had been shooting a test sample Model 87 Target provided by Beretta for this book. It was certainly a sweet-shooting little gun, but I wasn’t getting nearly the five-shot groups David was. I was using the iron sights, not a 7X scope, and that could have been part of it. I’ve seen David Fortier shoot, and I can tell you he’s a superb marksman, and that could have been a part of it. But after fighting with the trigger group after group, while the “best three shot” clusters were indicating tremendous accuracy potential, the fact that his pistol had no overtravel and mine