Being in front of and behind many a gun store counter has taught me that the pocket pistol sells. Full-sized handguns and long guns simply don’t move quite like today’s pocket polymer .380s, single-stack 9mm’s, and .38 Special snub-nosed revolvers. The gun industry has consistently striven to put more power into as small a package as possible and they’ve have succeeded. But that does not make them perfect. In fact, these are among the most challenging handguns to shoot due to their small size and relatively high powered cartridges they fire. Unfortunately, it seems it is often those who have no business around such handguns always seem to buy them. That makes me nostalgic for smaller-caliber pocket pistols that predate the era of the micro .380. A few pistols are still chambered in .32 ACP and .25 ACP, but availability isn’t anything close to what you’ll find in a .380. There is also a small but growing number of pocket guns chambered in .22 LR. One of these holdouts that’s still in production is a model I wish would make a comeback—the Beretta 21A Bobcat.
Table of contents
Beretta 21A Bobcat Quick Specs
Caliber: 22LR
Capacity: 7+1
Grips: Black plastic
Front Sight: Fixed blade
Rear Sight: Fixed, milled notch
Barrel Length: 2.4 inches
Construction: Aluminum frame, carbon steel slide
Finish: Enamel black aluminum, blued steel
Weight: 13.1 oz. loaded
Safeties: Half-cock, manual thumb safety
MSRP: $410
The Origins of the Beretta Bobcat
The Beretta 21A represented one of the latest and simplest presentations in pocket guns when it debuted in the 1980s. The essential design dates back to the early 1950s with the Beretta 950 Jetfire.
The Jetfire was a single-action hammer-fired pocket pistol chambered in .22 Short and .25 ACP. The slightly larger Bobcat improved on the old Jetfire with a DA/SA action gun that could be carried with the hammer down and safety off for immediate use.
The then-new pistol made the scene around the same time as new developments in .22 LR ammo. Reliable, high powered ammunition like the CCI Mini Mag and Stinger was to push the .22 Short and the .25 ACP out by the wayside. Over the years, the Bobcat has been made in 22LR and .25 ACP. When I first searched for a Beretta Bobcat of my own, only the stainless steel Inox version in .22 LR was available, but as rare as hen’s teeth. I ultimately settled on a used standard blued model with black plastic grips. Since then, the .25 ACP version has been discontinued and Beretta reinvested in the design in their threaded barrel Covert and suppressor-sighted 20X.
Quirks and Features and a Tip Up Barrel
The subject of this review is the base model in .22 LR, although I later picked up an older .25 ACP version. Like all Bobcats, my blued steel model is American-made and has the same general lines as the full-size Beretta 92 service handgun—albeit shrunken and a little stripped down. Mine, and the current models, come with black plastic grips bearing the Beretta logo and housing a flush-fitting magazine release button.
Above the grip is the slide bearing the markings of Beretta USA and abbreviated gripping serrations at the rear. There’s a tiny groove rear sight and the front blade sight is fixed. The barrel is also fixed. When I say fixed, I mean the barrel does not tilt or unlock when the slide is operated, making this pistol a straight blowback design relying on the weight of the slide and the recoil spring to cycle the gun when it’s fired.
This doesn’t work organically with larger calibers like 9mm Luger or .45 ACP, but it does just fine with the low pressure 22 LR in a pocket pistol like this one. Oddly enough, unlike most blowback guns the Bobcat doesn’t even have an extractor. Instead, the design relies on gas pressure to eject an empty case after firing.
Operationally, the Beretta 22 Bobcat is a double-action pistol, meaning a long pull of the trigger can cock the hammer and fire the first round. Each subsequent shot is fired with a cocked hammer and therefore a lighter trigger pull. The Bobcat has a manual thumb safety on the left side of the pistol under the slide that allows you to carry the pistol “cocked and locked” with the hammer back, if you elect to do so.
The double-action trigger pull is on the heavier side, running about 8 lbs. of pressure on my Lyman trigger scale. Smoother and lighter than say, a double-action revolver, but still heavy enough for safety without throwing rounds off target. The double-action feature also helps if you have a dud round in the chamber. Pulling the trigger again allows the hammer to strike the round again—a handy feature for a 22. With the hammer cocked, the trigger pull has quite a bit of mush, but breaks at a clean 2 lbs. 10 oz. With a bit of practice, it wasn’t too hard to lob rounds into my eight-inch steel plate at thirty yards, a somewhat ridiculous distance for a gun meant for bad-breath encounters.
The Beretta 22 has heavier trigger springs to reliably set off the rims of the rimfire ammunition, but it has been my experience with my .25 ACP version, that the trigger pull is about the same between both models. But the .25 ACP is a bit more reliable with its centerfire ammunition.
Disassembly
The Beretta 21A takes down for cleaning similar to the way it is loaded. First the magazine is withdrawn from the grip and then the barrel release pushed to free the barrel. From there, pull the barrel forward on its hinge pin. Grab the slide and draw it up and forward off the two small rear rails. The slide is now off for cleaning.
Beretta Bobcat for Sale
Where to Find Your Beretta 21A Bobcat
- Gun.Deals ($$$ compare)
- Primary Arms
- Guns.com
Beretta Bobcat Review: On The Range
The Beretta 21 A Bobcat was one of my “bucket list” guns, but I have no illusions about .22 automatic pistols and their role in self-defense. My run with the Bobcat was not perfect, but it highlights both the advantages and disadvantages of .22 pistols in that role and where the Bobcat stacks up.
One thing to note about .22 pistols is how dirty the ammunition is. I made sure every range session started with a properly cleaned and lubricated pistol. The pocket pistol, in general, need more care at lower round counts. Even more true with .22 LR, where ammunition sensitivity can affect both reliability and accuracy. To that end, I shot the Beretta 22 with ten different types of ammunition just to be sure. Those include:
CCI Blaser High Velocity 40 grain
CCI Mini Mag 40 grain solid
CCI Stinger 32 grain hollow-point
CCI Velocitor 40 grain hollow-point
Federal Target 40 grain standard velocity
Remington Thunderbolts 40 grain
Remington Viper 36 grain solid
Winchester Western 36 grain hollow-point
CCI No. 12 ratshot (for pattern testing only)
Federal Automatch 40 grain
Operation
Loading the Bobcat is an easy proposition. The loaded magazine holds seven rounds. You can get an eighth round in, but you will not be able to work the pistol’s slide or fully seat the magazine. So, keep seven rounds in the magazine.
With the magazine inserted into the grip, you can either rack the slide back or push the barrel release with your thumb. The slide is small and the cocking serrations brisk. I found it easy to rack after thumbing the hammer back. But with all that fussing around, it is just as easy to hit the barrel release. The barrel pops up horizontally and you can load a single round directly into the chamber. Close the barrel and you are ready to shoot.
Accuracy
With their short grips and light weight relative to full-sized handguns, pocket pistols don’t tend to be very enjoyable or easy to shoot. But the virtually recoil-less .22 LR chambering makes shooting the Bobcat downright fun.
While the grips are relatively large, the Bobcat barely allows for a three-fingered grip. Even so, it’s easy to fish the pistol from a pocket or holster and get it on target. The minuscule fixed sights take some getting used to, but once I got them on target, dumping my eight rounds into palm-sized groups as far as seven to ten yards out wasn’t a hard proposition. The sights barely move from shot to shot and it is easy to go fast, sometimes too fast. Rather than the louder report of a centerfire pistol, the Beretta pops with every shot and brass is thrown in any direction. Without an extractor, brass is free to run wild wherever gravity takes it. I once had a piece of hot brass down the back of my shirt that had me dancing for a hot second. As easy as the Beretta is to shoot, it might not be the best possible option if your clothing is on the looser end.
Reliability
Anyone who says they have put a thousand rounds through their 22 without any problems is probably fudging the numbers a bit. The .22 LR is a rifle round that was never meant to be put into handguns. The Bobcat came around as reliable, higher velocity loads in .22 LR were coming to market.
As a result, more pocket pistols chambered for the round became available. Viable, yes, perfect no. The .22 LR’s rimfire ignition isn’t always consistent and the round leaves a lot of residue when fired. In a thousand rounds, I’ve counted fourteen malfunctions with the Beretta Bobcat.
Ten of those were with Federal Target 40 grain target loads. Almost without fail, this standard velocity ammunition would fail to cycle the slide, leaving an empty case still in the chamber. Interestingly, the manual that came with this particular pocket popper recommended the use of standard velocity ammunition. But just about anyone I know who shoots or carries a Beretta 22 runs rounds like CCI Mini Mags or Stingers–rounds that are higher up on the food chain velocity-wise.
As mentioned before, there is no extractor to pull the empty case out of the chamber, clearing it for the next round. The Bobcat relies on gas pressure to eject the empty shells. It works, until you deal with underpowered ammo or if you can’t ignite that dud round in the chamber. The instinct, as with all other pistols, is to then rack the slide to clear the malfunction. Since there’s no extractor, you have now stripped a round from the magazine and that empty case is still stuck in the chamber
To clear a case or dud round from the Bobcat, you have to hit the barrel release. The barrel pops forward and the round comes flying out. After about two hundred rounds, in simulated malfunctions, I found that the gun was so dirty that I had to use a fingernail to clear the case.
Caveats aside, the Bobcat was more reliable than I expected. Aside from the underpowered Federal Target loads, I had only two malfunctions—a CCI Stinger and a Winchester Western round that failed to eject once the gun got past the two hundred round mark in a range session. I also had two Winchester rounds fail to fire, requiring a quick second-strike to set them off. With high velocity and hyper velocity ammo, the Bobcat will run like a top, more than long enough to get you out of trouble.
With the Beretta 22, reliability is up to good maintenance and good ammunition. The .25 ACP version I own has, to date, had only one failure to cycle to speak of.
The Beretta 22 Bobcat: How Viable Is It?
The Beretta 21A Bobcat is mechanically interesting pocket pistol and features some of Beretta’s best styling, but it can be hard to swallow from the standpoint of personal defense. This is particularly true in light of competing options like the Ruger LCP or the S&W Bodyguard. Those pistols are even lighter and feature thinner grips compared to the Bobcat and both shoot the more powerful .380 round. They also feature an actual extractor, which makes any malfunction clearance that much easier. But I find myself still entertaining the Bobcat. In fact, I later shelved my LCP .380 for a 21A Bobcat in .25 ACP.
The Beretta Bobcat, whether it is in .22 LR or .25 ACP, might be many things, but punishing to shoot is not it. The hottest solid rounds from these cartridges can penetrate deep enough to stop a threat with decent shot placement, yet the recoil and report would never startle a new or inexperienced shooter. I have seen pocket .380s sold as the answer for many new gun owners who “just want something” for personal protection. Never mind that those little guns can be miserable to shoot—therefore you aren’t likely to practice.
Even with its flaws, the Bobcat’s tilt-up barrel is still a good design for those with limited hand strength or injuries. Even if you don’t fit into that category, the little Bobcat is infinitely easier than most larger caliber alternatives to shoot and to shoot well. When negotiation and situational awareness fail, a well-kept Bobcat is going to be better than that “just something” you dread pulling the trigger on.
The original version of this article ran on The Truth About Guns in July 2019.
For more on pocket pistol, check out following BBC reads:
0 Comments