Two .25s (Beretta Jetfire & Colt 1908)

Testing Two .25s

     Yeah, I know, I know, a .25 ACP is no better than harsh language.  A .25 will bounce off a man’s skull.  If I shoot anyone with a .25, he might get angry … blah, blah, blah.  Unlike a lot of pundits and key-pounding, armchair commandoes, I’ve actually seen what a .25 ACP can do.  Just where I work we’ve had four shootings with a .25 and all (ALL) were one-shot stops.  Admittedly, one was a contact or near contact shot (kinda like real life, maybe?), and one was a suicide (but the subject did not move, just fell over). In one the victim didn’t die and was not seriously wounded, but what that tiny bullet did accomplish was amazing.  The other was across a room and it did not, despite all the urban legends, bounce of the victim’s skull.  He did not move or twitch; just dropped.  So my respect for the cartridge is based on real-world observations, not urban legend.

     It’s been said that a lot of the problems with .25s comes from the use of the cartridge in either old worn out (or manufactured out-of-spec in the first place) pieces, or in some of the modern sub $100 junk one finds for sale in less reputable areas.  If the barrel is too large by a couple thousandths of an inch … well I think you can see where I’m going.

     Assuming a good barrel, a good pistol, and good ammo, however, a .25 ACP through the vitals should be about as effective as anything else.  Think about it.  A .50AE is considered “HUGE” but in reality it’s only twice the diameter of the little .25 (slightly less than half actually, but you’ll need a micrometer). If the .25 is so tiny then how can twice tiny be huge?  Power.  Sure, the .50AE, or heck, even the 9x19mm is exponentially more powerful than John M. Browning’s smallest cartridge design.  But wait.  If one is stabbed through the aorta, the heart, or another blood-filled organ of choice by a quarter inch metal rod, isn’t that a bad thing?  I hope my point is made. If not, look around, there are some posts here about 9x18, .40 S&W, and some other bigger bullets that might hold your interest.

     Now, why on Earth am I not only writing about a .25 but even by my own admission carrying one?  Well, see, my preferred little piece of perpetual presence (Kel-Tec’s P3AT .380) wound up in need of service after several years of hard carry and a few thousand rounds.  Minor stuff, really, but I found myself temporarily in need of a tiny pocket gun:  A gun to have when I absolutely did not need anyone to know I was armed:  A gun to be a backup or even tertiary gun.  Well, in my wife’s armory was a Beretta 950B “Jetfire” that I’d given her a couple years prior.  She’d never shot it and showed little interest in it over her other pistols.  There’s a lesson here, boys.  Let Mama-san pick her own pistols.  Anyway, I borrowed it (and in truth had always coveted it anyway).  I qualified with it on my agencies backup course (15 yards and in, even clearing a malfunction from bad ammo and STILL shot 100% with most of the hits in the heart and/or spine).  Now, I carry FMJ ammo since penetration is not the .25’s long suit and at the anemic power level I don’t think expansion can really be relied on either.  Plus, in its role, I need 100% reliability.  So, FMJs it is.  This isn’t a 9mm Luger or .40 S&W so I’m not endangering innocents a block away by risking perforating the bad guy.

     I decided to shoot it some more today and fire it side-by-side with my 1908 Colt Vestpocket .25 ACP.  My Colt was made in 1912 and my Beretta was made in 1966.  The Beretta was made a year before I was and the Colt is 100 years old this year.  First, a basic comparison:

     The Colt 1908 is a single-action, striker-fired pistol.  It features a thumb-safety on the left rear of the frame and a grip safety on the rear back-strap.  The grip safety is firm and takes a conscious grip to engage so the weapon will fire.  Personally I think this is a nice touch on a tiny pistol with a tiny safety lever that might become accidentally disengaged.  It’s a right handed pistol, to be sure, but I can manage it with a bit of innovative manipulation (we left-handed shooters are nothing if not dexterous).  It feeds out of a six round box magazine held in place with a heel-based clip (not a bad idea on a pocket gun really).  The sites consist of a dimple on the rear of the slide leading to a trench down the length of said slide.  A tiny front site sits right at the front in the middle of the trench.  This is not a pistol for aimed fire or for winning bulls-eye matches.

     The Beretta 950B “Jetfire” is a single-action pistol with an external hammer.  It does not feature a manual safety unlike the 950 BS (S=safety) which appeared two years after mine was made to be allowed for US import under the 1968 Gun Control Act (enter various profanities here).  It features a very innovative tip-up barrel which allows the pistol to be loaded and unloaded without manipulating the tiny slide.  It features an eight round magazine giving it a total capacity of an impressive nine rounds.  It is normally carried hammer down and the hammer is cocked upon preparing to fire.  I prefer to keep the hammer on half-cock.  The inertial firing pin does not protrude from the breech face with the hammer at full rest, but it’s so very close I just feel better with it on half-cock.  The hammer sticks up at such an angle so that one’s thumb almost naturally passes over it when drawing the pistol so the cocking motion is very easy to carry out.  The magazine is ejected by a button set into the lower portion of the left rear grip.  It’s well protected by the grip, almost as secure as a heel-clip and I have yet to accidentally hit it.  The Beretta has sights marginally better than the Colt, but c’mon, we’re talking itty-bitty teeny-tiny sites and on a pistol meant to be shot quickly at very close range and under conditions when proper site alignment and trigger squeeze are not really options.

     So, let’s wring ‘em out.  First off, the Colt was handicapped.  The magazine I had for it just didn’t like to work with more than three rounds in the pistol.  It appears to be the right one for the pistol, but there’s no guarantee and it certainly isn’t stamped “Colt.”  The ammo I started off using was some Federal 50 grain FMJ I’d procured.  I like Federal ammo but this particular batch has been nothing but trouble.  The cases split, often as not, and they seem a wee bit out of spec as they tend to take a LOT of force to seat in the chamber of ANY .25 auto I’ve tried them in.  Silly me trying things again.  Still, shooting from seven then five yards I did pretty well.  At seven yards for some unknown reason I fired six rounds (with alibies for problems related to the questionable mag and dodgy ammo) right handed.  I don’t know why.  I’m actually ambidextrous but I normally shoot left handed.  Maybe being a typical Browning design, it just felt better that way.  Who knows.  The next six round I fired “properly” (i.e. left handed) from five yards.  The group was not much different and only a couple of flyers were questionable.  I also shot pretty fast, as one might do in a self-defense scenario.

     The pistol looks rough in the photos but it looks a lot better than when I got it.  Still, it worked well, magazine and ammo issues aside, and was relatively easy to shoot.  It’s so tiny, though, you can only really get one finger on the grip.  One’s trigger finger seems to find its way into the trigger guard just in an effort to stabilize the pistol when picking it up.  This is where that heavy deliberate pressure needed to overcome the grip safety is a good thing.

     The Beretta Jetfire also did not like the Federal ammo. It shot it okay, but I had to really work at getting the rounds to chamber fully.  I gave up in pretty short order and shot some American Eagle 50 grain FMJ (also Federal but from a more reliable source) and some Aguila 50 grain FMJ.  I should have shot the Colt with the same ammo, but once I put it down, I honestly just didn’t want to stop shooing the Beretta.  It shot overall very well and more accurately than one has a right to ask of such a tiny pistol.

     All the Jetfire’s groups were smaller than the pistol.  That’s smaller than heart sized.  The one big problem I have with the Jetfire (and Beretta’s similar pistols) is that the hammer tends to bite the web of my shooting hand about as often as the slide likes to abrade it, which is more often than not.  My best shooting featured three rounds going one right after the other into one ragged hole from five yards (or was it seven?  Not much difference in accuracy from either post).  Unfortunately by then my hand was hurting to the point I scattered the other rounds a bit farther apart.  Still, all in all, it wasn’t a bad group.  All groups were shot one-handed.

     There are many different micro-blasters out there in .32 and .380 that aren’t much bigger.  However, some people (like my wife) simply cannot shoot anything with that degree of recoil.  For her it’s due to a plate and screws in her arm.  For others it’s a matter of arthritis, strength, or any number of medical issues.  Some folks just WANT a tiny gun.  I think I paid less than two hundred for this lightly used and well cared for Jetfire.  Ammo ain’t cheap but it’s about on par with .32 and .380 so shop around.

     Ultimately, while bigger may be better, if you need for whatever reason, or find yourself limited to a diminutive caliber, get a good quality pistol, make sure everything works, feed it ammo it likes, stick with FMJs, and then just do YOUR part.  Your part, by the way, is to practice drawing from concealment, shooting one-handed, and doing what you can to avoid trouble in the first place.