Beretta's Better Idea.

[rintinglen]

In the 1950's, Beretta found itself hustling for sales "in the middle." Though the 1934 was still being used by the Army, and the Italian Navy had adopted the 1951 9 mm, the sales of the 7.65 x 17 mm, M1935 were diminishing. Increasingly, they found themselves also rans, especially outside of Italy. Something had to be done before they found themselves completely out of the picture. Tulio Marengoni and the boys set to work and by 1957 had a completed design in production, ready for sale in 1958. They were an evolution of the earlier 1935 pistol, retaining the open slide and the resulting excellent reliability and accuracy, but correcting the miserable safety and having a sleek, modern look. For my money, the M70 shares with the Mauser HSc the bragging rights for all-time best looking semi-auto pistol.

The early Model 70 had the funky push button safety found on the Model 1951 9mm (How Mack Bolan ever came to regard such a travesty as "La belle Beretta" is an oddity known only to the author. No one who used them would ever describe them as such.) A cross bolt safety at the top of the rear of the grip served to render the gun operable or not, depending which way the button was pressed. This did not serve to ingratiate the pistol with the American gun buying public. After about 4 years, the safety was redesigned to more conventional, 1911 style thumb safety, which was retained through the balance to the production life. The name was slightly altered, so that the 70 became a 70S allegedly in 1977, reflecting the safety change. The 70 series Berettas continued in production until 1985, but they had been increasingly supplanted by the "80" series of DA/SA pistols.

There seems to be plenty of misinformation on the web concerning these pistols. Mine has an "AI", stamped on the frame, not the barrel. None that I have observed have magazine safeties--the "S" reflects the thumb safety, not a magazine safety, at least IME. Mine is ~6 1/2" long, not 6.875". It weighed 23 ounces on the nose, not 23.8. Mine is a 380 ACP, but others were chambered for both the 32 ACP as well as the 22 LR. The Israeli Mossad issued the 22 pistols back in the 70's for both sky marshal and assassination use. Mine is the relatively rare, two-tone, nickeled slide with a blued frame. I have read that some were available with an aluminum alloy frame, mostly 22's, but some 32's as well.

As far as shooting goes, mine is excellent. Though the Silver on silver sight picture left a lot to be desired, I had no trouble shooting a 2 3/4 inch group at 15 yards from the rest. And at 25 yards, I could cover 7 of the 8 shots with the palm of my hand, weaver style, off-hand. I would take one of these for a CCW ahead of a lot of guns.
322307

[jreidthompson1]

So how many readers of the above are going to know who Mack Bolan is?


Edit.. I'm thinking more than I originally thought.. jeepers, hadn't read any Mack Bolan in over 30 years, had no idea it was still going and had gotten to be so many books.

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[elmacgyver0]

So how many readers of the above are going to know who Mack Bolan is?


Edit.. I'm thinking more than I originally thought.. jeepers, hadn't read any Mack Bolan in over 30 years, had no idea it was still going and had gotten to be so many books.

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Just some pulp fiction.

[MUSTANG]

Wow! Mack Bolan. Read all (unless more were printed later) by 1974.

[jreidthompson1]

Wow! Mack Bolan. Read all (unless more were printed later) by 1974.There's over 600 now :)

Hence my edit to my earlier post. I had no idea.

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[Outpost75]

I like my M1951 former Polizia di Stato
322309

[Texas by God]

I liked the m70 .22 LR pistol very much. I preferred it to Ruger’s Mk1 by a bit.
And I liked the Helwan too- the Egyptian copy of the 951.
The cross button safety didn’t bother me at all.


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[jrayborn]

The smaller Beretta's are a weakness for me. I love the model 70's and have several of each model. The 1934 is still a quality handgun, though as mentioned already, the safety isn't ideal. The steel frame .380 are actually much more comfortable to shoot than the next generation aluminum frame guns (like a Bersa for example) or the even more modern .380's with a polymer frame.

The 80 series pistols are fantastic as well, great engineering with the controls right where you need them and double-stack capacity in many models. One of my sons regularly carries a model 81.

I found the 1951 with steel frame is a joy to shoot and accurate. Also have with the alloy frame.

The older Beretta's are showing their age, but an all metal handgun with great engineering in a legitimate caliber will always be pretty useful. Now if I could just find some .380 mags for those model 70's. Not easy to find them...

[Tall]

There's over 600 now :)

Hence my edit to my earlier post. I had no idea.

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I think there were around 20 when I read them (before MTV!) but the character / book series kept on being profitable even though the original author had retired from actual writing. The Executioner series was still going strong through the eighties and nineties.

[georgerkahn]

The smaller Beretta's are a weakness for me. I love the model 70's and have several of each model. The 1934 is still a quality handgun, though as mentioned already, the safety isn't ideal. The steel frame .380 are actually much more comfortable to shoot than the next generation aluminum frame guns (like a Bersa for example) or the even more modern .380's with a polymer frame.

The 80 series pistols are fantastic as well, great engineering with the controls right where you need them and double-stack capacity in many models. One of my sons regularly carries a model 81.

I found the 1951 with steel frame is a joy to shoot and accurate. Also have with the alloy frame.

The older Beretta's are showing their age, but an all metal handgun with great engineering in a legitimate caliber will always be pretty useful. Now if I could just find some .380 mags for those model 70's. Not easy to find them...

I LOVE my 34 .380, albeit my finger really gets a work-out vis its humongous trigger pull! I fell in love with their overall design, and through the years have had their Model 21A in .22lr; one in .22 short; and even later their TomCat in .32! The only one which troubled me was the .22 short model -- and I never did determine if it was the pistol or the ammo I had -- I do not ever recall firing a full magazine through it without a failure. The 21A in .22lr was for many years my inside front jean pocket EDC arm, and opposite to the "short" model had never had any ftf! ! I kept mag full and chamber empty, and got pretty adroit (practice!) in getting that first round to fire. Imho, all Beretta pistols are awesome!
geo

[rintinglen]

The fly in the ointment with the Beretta cross bolt safety is that it doesn't stay safe. Nor does it stay fire. But a casual bump can send it in the opposite direction without the user knowing it. Having carried a gun in harms way and been in a scuffle or three while armed, I can easily envision bad things arising when a bang occurs when it shouldn't, or doesn't when it should. I had a Beretta 1951, Navy Surplus pistol that I purchased from Classic Firearms for a year or two, and while I can concur with the reliable and accurate statements, it would take a lot of persuasion to convince me that it was hot stuff as a duty gun. If it is to be carried at all, it needs to be in condition three, safety off (hopefully), and then rack the slide when danger is perceived. The holster must protect the safety from accidental operation.

One other advantage that the Model 70 has over its predecessor, the 1931/1934/1935 series, is the take down lever. Like the 1951 and the later 80 series guns Beretta made, takedown is easy. Align the semi-circle cutout on the slide with the lever, rotate the lever forward and push the slide forward and off. Easy-peasy. Just make sure the flat on the lever is parallel with the slide rail when you go to put it back. The same basic design, varying only in caliber was known as the Jaguar in 22 LR, as the Puma or the Falcon in 32 ACP, , and supposedly, the Cougar in 380, at least for a time while imported by Galef. I wish I had bought one of the 22 M-71's while they were available a couple years ago for cheap. The phony silencer blocking the sights and the push button safeties kind of put me off, but I have since read that the silencers are easily removed, and the guns themselves have the reputation of being pretty accurate for a pocket pistol. Sigh, you can't own them all. But that doesn't stop me from wanting.

[elmacgyver0]

I have the Minx, Bobcat, Jaquar, Tomcat, a couple of Cheetahs and a 92S, don't know what kind of cat it is perhaps a Panther or Mountain Lion.

[georgerkahn]

I have the Minx, Bobcat, Jaquar, Tomcat, a couple of Cheetahs and a 92S, don't know what kind of cat it is perhaps a Panther or Mountain Lion.

I recall the.22 short pistol was/is the Minx? Through the years I had two of these, and neither would function to my want -- the first, I was lucky to get two successive shots; the second seemed to always have a random jam from a full mag. I really am curious 1/ If yours functions 100%? and 2/ If it didn't, what magic was done to improve it? (I had entrusted the 1st to a professional gunsmith who returned it to me (no charges) admitting his inability to get it to function well. I went back, telling him I now had it working 100%. The answer to his question as to what was done? I told him I re-registered it as a single shot :) :) :)
Thanks much!!!!
geo

[Texas by God]

A friend has a Minx .22 Short pistol that we shot a lot when we were young. It was accurate enough to head shoot bowling pins and I never saw it jam. I have always wanted a Jetfire- the .25 ACP version - but the stars haven’t aligned yet.
A feature of the m70 that I thought was neat was the ability to reload the magazine without removing it from the pistol.
We had a man size steel silhouette at 100 yards back then and it wasn’t very hard to hit it shot after shot with the m70 with Stingers.


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