Beretta 81s range report

[GhostHawk]

I saw an interesting Youtube video yesterday using .22lr 40 gr standard velocity ammo.
From a 10/22 the bullet mushroomed perfectly but only penitrated some 12".

From a Ruger semi auto with 3.5" barrel 3 shots all penitrated 18" but did not mushroom.
They did leave very nice large permanent cavity's which were all 3-5 inches deeper than fired from the rifle.

Speed is not always an aid for penetration!

Now those little .32acp's are moving a third slower, but bullets will have close to or over twice the mass.
I would not count them out.

I don't often carry but if I did it would be a .32 of some flavor. Simply because I know I can be much more accurate with it.
And the muzzle blast is not going to mess with my head near as much as even a 9mm. So IMO, they have a place. YMMV. And that is fine.

[Bodydoc447]

I got one of the BB models from AIM Surplus. It shoots well enough with PPU factory loads and with Missouri Cast bullet 78 grain RN over 2.0 Titegroup. Haven't done much with it since I got to be the first one on my block with this year's flu. On the road to recovery and looking forward to doing some accuracy testing.

[jrayborn]

I got three of the "B" models and one "BB". Have been experimenting with 70 grain Berry's RN plated bullets over 2.7 and then 2.9 gr of Power Pistol for 810 and 850 FPS. I will try 3.1 grains tomorrow I hope.

[GhostHawk]

Brass arrived, nicely cleaned. Spent some time running it all through the FA hand deprimer, then sized, flared, charged with 2 grains of Red Dot and loaded. Half 93 gr round nose, half .314 TC. Then they all got a trip through my new .32 factory crimp die which seems to have a carbide ring to remove bulges. Put just a very nice light crimp on them. Plunk test says the Beretta likes em.

Range trip soon.

[Petrol & Powder]

Looking forward to a full report.

[NBraun]

Just bought one of these today. Looking forward to start loading for it. I'm not yet setup to cast my own, so I was curious if you guys know if anyone sells a flat nose bullet in the 80-90 grain range?

[jrayborn]

Welcome to the forum NBraun, I have been looking to buy molds not bullets but I would expect someone out there sells one you might like. Good luck!

[NBraun]

Thanks! You would think more company's would have at least one selection of bullet between 71 and 100 gr, but pretty much all of them only have the 71gr RN and 100 RNFP.

[GhostHawk]

Distance was a solid 20 feet.
On the left was the Lee 93 gr round nose

On the right was the Lee .314 90 gr truncated cone. Both lubed with 2 light coats of BLL.

Load was just under 2 grains of Red Dot and a CCI small pistol primer.

In the nature of full disclosure, and to be honest, I was sitting down. Right arm was resting on a small sandbag back by my elbow.

Still mighty fine shooting IMO from a 67 yr old man with a 209$ gun.

That is not the first target. I did alternate 5 of the round nose and 5 of the TC once on a previous target. Then I used some typwriter correction fluid (White out) to put a small white dot on the very tip of the front sight.

Then I shot that target. Round noses first.

I quit there. I probably should have put up a fresh target and repeated it.
But I got the results I pretty much expected. I am a big fan of that little Lee .314 TC 90 gr tumble lubed boolit. It just plain shoots, doesn't care what in, from .30-30 small game loads to .32acp. It shoots, period. That's my story and I'll stick to it.

And yes, I am LOVING this little Beretta.
But then I have not met a .32 yet I did not like.

Hope this is helpful for some of you.

FYI powder was measured with a homemade dipper made from a .22lr empty taped to a popsicle stick. Adjusted to throw 2 grains of Red Dot with a slight mound. These were charged with a tap on the powder dish which removed the mound and put a slight hollow. So slightly below 2 grains. Probably about 1.95. All 50 brass were sized, flared, primed, charged. Then as I was inserting boolits I would do 5 round noses, and then 5 TC's.


But

[NBraun]

Those of you that are loading heavy for the 32, i'm looking to double check my thoughts. I picked up some 100gr RNFP coated bullets sized to .313, I plan to start at 4.6gr's of 2400 and work up from there. Does that sound safe? I've read the other threads on the topic, but since this is my first foray into 32acp I wanted to double check.

[Outpost75]

Those of you that are loading heavy for the 32, i'm looking to double check my thoughts. I picked up some 100gr RNFP coated bullets sized to .313, I plan to start at 4.6gr's of 2400 and work up from there. Does that sound safe? I've read the other threads on the topic, but since this is my first foray into 32acp I wanted to double check.

The .313 bullets will not chamber unless you use Lee Factory Crimp die to remove body bulge! The 81 generally needs .311". Use 2.5 of Unique, AutoComp or Power Pistol. Or 5 grs. of #2400 or whatever fills the case with #2400 to zero airspace without compression. Minimum OAL is 0.945".

[NBraun]

Thanks Outpost, I figured that would be the case with the .313 bullets but wasn't sure.

[Divil]

Meister 78gr. RNL .312 bullets chamber just fine in my 81fs.

[Rapidrob]

I just ordered an 81 today along with a spare magazine and a new Italian Police hanging belt holster as they would have used on duty.
I won't be CCW'ing the pistol but will be shooting the snot out of it in my club. I hoping it will do well at our running man target rapid fire match as recoil seems to be very low which is good for sight recovery on a moving target.
I have several .32's and have molds and brass. Now I need to find what loads the pistol/brass can be safely loaded to.

[Rapidrob]

I bought one hand picked along with a spare magazine on Tuesday. It showed up today at my friends house who is a dealer. I asked him to open up the box and he said " I think you are going to like this. It looks to be brand new". "holster wear?" I asked. "Don't see any. What to sell it to me?"
It's a 70 mile drive to his house, so I'll post photo's tomorrow after I pick it up. He's been a good friend and never charges a fee to log the pistol and NICS call.
The Italian Police holster should be here as well. I found one for 16 bucks delivered that is supposed to be unissued,NOS.
I loaded up a couple hundred 71 grain cast bullets to try out this Saturday. Bullseye,Unique,231,Red Dot, Rex#2 and PB, just for giggles to see which one likes my cast .312 bullets that I make my own tumble lube for.
I have some FMJ's loaded up as well to check for accuracy against my cast bullets.

[Rapidrob]

The pistol could not be picked up until yesterday at the range. And as promised by my dealer the pistol is new,unfired! It has not had a round up the loading ramp nor dragged across the magazine follower. The pistol frame and magazine shows no signs of wear what so ever. A patch wiped down the bore came out with a light film of old oil only. WAHOO!
The spare magazine I bought had been used and rates a 9/10 scale. Light scratches in the bluing and drag marks on the follower.
I fired 100 rounds through the pistol using my hand loads of a cast 85 grain bullet lubed with my own Tumble-lube. The bullets drop from the mold at .312.
As stated by others here, the only complaint about the pistol is the thrown brass when fired. Most go to my 3:30 o'clock with the last round always going to my 5:30 and somewhere about ten yards behind me.
The target was set to 25 yards and the pistol fired with ten rounds in the magazine each time.
The rounds grouped very well as shown by others here on this post.
I fired two groups of ten shots as fast as I could into the target. With the very slight muzzle flip and large sights firing the shots one after another was very easy to do. The reset of the trigger after the first double action trigger pull makes for the follow up shots to be fired faster than most other pistols of this size/type/ I'm impressed.

Now for something really fun to try! As you know to change the caliber from .32ACP to .380 ACP all you need to do is change out the barrel and magazine ( or bend the feed lips).
This got me thinking. How have they designed the pistol to do this? The engineers at Beretta beveled the face of the slide to allow either the semi-rimmed .32 ACP case to slide down into the slight recess and center-up, or allow the larger .380 ACP case to just fit inside of the slide face. How cool is that!
So keeping that factor in mind, guess what other cartridge you can safely fire out of your Beretta 81 in .32ACP?
.32 S&W. ( wrongly called the Short)
The rimmed base just fits inside of the slide face and since the .32ACP is semi-rimmed,the slightly larger .32 S&W rim still allows the breech to be fully sealed when fired! Since room has been left in the movement of the extractor,snapping over the .32S&W rim poses no problems at all. There is still play left in the extractor.
You can load 9 rounds of .32 S&W into the magazine with no rim lock. The rounds feed and eject with no issues. Most brass is only a few feet from you at your 4 o'clock.
And the bullets are just crazy accurate! The much slower .32 S&W round is more like a wad cutter out of a .38 S&W. It's going 650-750 fps and is for the most part made of lead for factory ammo.
Recoil is so slight as to be almost not present. The gunshot is very quite. If one was lucky enough to own a threaded barrel for a suppressor, this would make for a very,very quite pistol. Not owning a threaded barrel to try this out, I do not know it the slide would cycle or not.
I had several members shoot my pistol in .32ACP and all love the pistol. Two of them ordered their own pistol last night on line.
I showed the pistol to my wife Elaine and she too wants one. The pistol fits her hand well and the 11 pound double action trigger was no problem for her. She loves the 3-4 pound single action trigger pull as well.
I would like to know what type/brand of ammunition the Italian Police Forces were issued for this pistol?
With today's new solid copper Extreme Cavitation bullets for sale ( see the Youtube vid on these test) the new ammo and this pistol would make for a very nice CCW. Add the fact the follow up shots are so fast due to the low recoil impulse, I would say many may choose to carry this pistol. Two in the chest and one in the head the bad guy is going down.
Here is the pistol right out of the box. Notice the feed ramp:

Here is the right side of the pistol:

The left side of the pistol:

The first ten shot string rapid-fire at 25 yards:

The 2ND string at 25 yards,rapid-fire:

And the .32S&W.Six shots rapid-fire at 25 yards. With the very light recoil accuracy is impressive:

You have to love this pistol. After all it is a Beretta.

[jrayborn]

I just got a model 85 in .380 as a single stack. What a nice pistol. Then went and got a model 70. Goodness I am hooked on Beretta's!

[429421Cowboy]

In regards to spare magazine sourcing for these little blasters, Classic Firearms seems to have gotten a few of the surplus units in and has them in stock. Robertson Trading Post also has modified 84 mags for a little cheaper that most say work pretty well, even for being modified .380 mags.
I have had my eye on one of these for awhile now, alas they are low on the list and gun priorities have been put on hold for awhile this year.

[Dimner]

I bought 4 of those mags from classic firearms. All turned out to be excellent. Only one of them seemed to have seen any slight use.

[GhostHawk]

I bought two which gives me a total of 3.

The little nylon holster has a spot for a spare mag above the pistol.

That gives me 24 with a single mag swap.

All 3 seem to work fine at the range.