Onward Allusion
Member
Not odd at all. My wife and I were at the range today and she had a heck of a time with our NAA 32's trigger. Also, the NAA 32 kicks more like a P3AT or LCP because of its straight blowback design.
NAA Guardian or Beretta Tomcat
- Thread starter couldbeanyone
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Not odd at all. My wife and I were at the range today and she had a heck of a time with our NAA 32's trigger. Also, the NAA 32 kicks more like a P3AT or LCP because of its straight blowback design.
I owned a Tomcat for years. They are too fragile for continual use in SD. Broken frame, broken slide, lost parts, poor service but they are accurate when they are working. The P32 works great, conceals better very reliable and cheaper.
Never owned the NAA.
Never owned the NAA.
blueskyjaunte
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I have owned a Guardian in .32NAA for several years. Here is a review I wrote elsewhere shortly after my first range outing with it. I alternate between it and my S&W 637 for "deep concealment".
A much younger version of me said:I got this little belly-blaster about a month ago, but simply haven't had the chance to bring it to the range until today. First problem was finding ammo and the second was getting some "me time".
So--items of note:
1) Ammo is a major pain to find. Corbon is the only company that manufactures loaded ammo, as far as I know. The folks at www.makarov.com have in the past made .32NAA brass and reloading dies available for the .32NAA conversion barrel they offered. That's great if you're a reloader. I'm not. I knew going in that ammo would be scarce, though, so I've managed to squirrel away as much as I'll ever need, I think.
2) The trigger pull on mine, at least, requires a herculean effort. I've found info on doing a home trigger job, and that's #1 on my to-do list. My trigger finger was sore after 8 mags of shooting.
3) The sights are minimal on my particular model. That's fine, I have no intention of doing long-distance shooting with my Guardian. This is exclusively a backup or "hot weather" CCW.
4) This is no flyweight weapon. It's all stainless steel. You could probably pistol-whip someone with it should you miss with all 6+1 rounds. It won't pull your pants down around your ankles though. All told this thing feels very, very solid and I have no concerns about its longevity and reliability.
5) Muzzle flash and rise are pretty significant. It doesn't beat you to death like a .357mag snubbie will, though. The gun is remarkably accurate for such a short barrel.
6) You WILL draw attention shooting this at the range.
7) Stovepipes on last round ejection are common. Apparently this gun uses the next round in the mag as the ejector. No biggie, IMHO. Actually, since the slide doesn't lock open (by design), it's a decent indicator in a stressful situation that you're out of ammo--the trigger loses 90% of its tension when the slide is out of battery.
8) I really like the mag release. The mag pops out with authority and it's easy to manipulate, even for a lefty like me. Heel mag releases just annoy me.
This was my best group of the day--15' offhand, 60gr JHPs. I also shot a bunch of Cor-bon FMJs which seemed to perform similarly.
All told this wasn't exactly "fun" to shoot but it was reliable as heck and surprisingly accurate once I got settled with that darned trigger. No failures right out of the box and I certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of this little cannon--I guarantee it could definitely ruin someone's day. Once I get the trigger squared away I will probably make it a permanent part of my EDC inventory.
couldbeanyone
Member
blueskyjaunte, did you ever get the trigger problem fixed?
krupparms
Member
I must admit that I have not shot the NAA Guardian. But I have the Tomcat & it is one of my favorite carry guns. It is the INOX model. I have found it to be very accurate & reliable. I have used a few different loads in it, but it shoots most JHPs fine. I don't expect much expansion, but that's fine as long as the load is reliable. It nor the other one I had work fine. The first one got sold to a friend that needed a CC peace. Neather has shown any cracks or had any problems. If mine breaks, I will deal with it then. Beretta should continue to work on the design of this gun IMO, as they got it to work in .380 acp. They may have to upsize it & it should carry a few more rounds. Some of us still like all metal guns. JMO. One of the best CC guns from NAA is the Black Widow in .22mag. Accurate & Reliable & very easy to hide!
blueskyjaunte
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- Mar 7, 2013
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My "fix" has been to shoot occasionally and carry often.
Over time the action seems to have smoothed out a bit...or perhaps my trigger finger has gotten stronger.
Over time the action seems to have smoothed out a bit...or perhaps my trigger finger has gotten stronger.
rklessdriver
Member
Shameless link to my review of my NAA Guardian in .32 ACP.
http://www.dayattherange.com/?p=173
Biggest complaint I have with mine is the heavy trigger and then the trigger slap which is terrible.
I have a few of the smaller Beretta Bob Cats in .22LR and I realy like them alot but I have never bought a Tom Cat in .32ACP because of the frame cracking issue.
Will
http://www.dayattherange.com/?p=173
Biggest complaint I have with mine is the heavy trigger and then the trigger slap which is terrible.
I have a few of the smaller Beretta Bob Cats in .22LR and I realy like them alot but I have never bought a Tom Cat in .32ACP because of the frame cracking issue.
Will
horsemen61
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I like the looks of the tomcat but I will never buy one until the frame issue is actually resolved
I have both and prefer the tomcat
EVERYONE,
I have both the BERETTA Tomcat and NAA Guardian in .32ACP.
I carry the Tomcat a lot of the time and very rarely carry the Guardian.
The Guardian is smaller and can be concealed a little better, but otherwise comes off poorly compared to the Tomcat.
The Tomcat is larger, but has an aluminum frame, so weight is similar. The larger grip and sights make the Tomcat more accurate in my experience. It is just easier to hang on too with the Guardian being so small that it is not pleasant to fire, despite the weight.
The sights on the Guardian are just too small and the magazine release is also very small. These are not a problem on the Tomcat. Also, the heel mounted magazine release button is much easier to use and works very well on a gun this small.
The operating drill of the Tomcat is better. You fire both double action on the first shot, then the Tomcat switches to single action. The Guardian is double action only and in this small a gun, that makes it harder to use.
The Tomcat is so easy to load and clear a round due to the pop up barrel, it puts in into a completely different league. My wife, who is not a gun person, loves the pop up barrel as it is so simple to use and understand. She took my first one after trying it.
I will keep the Guardian in case I need a really small gun, but the Tomcat is the one I carry most of the time, when I go below the size of my WALTHER PPK.
Jim
EVERYONE,
I have both the BERETTA Tomcat and NAA Guardian in .32ACP.
I carry the Tomcat a lot of the time and very rarely carry the Guardian.
The Guardian is smaller and can be concealed a little better, but otherwise comes off poorly compared to the Tomcat.
The Tomcat is larger, but has an aluminum frame, so weight is similar. The larger grip and sights make the Tomcat more accurate in my experience. It is just easier to hang on too with the Guardian being so small that it is not pleasant to fire, despite the weight.
The sights on the Guardian are just too small and the magazine release is also very small. These are not a problem on the Tomcat. Also, the heel mounted magazine release button is much easier to use and works very well on a gun this small.
The operating drill of the Tomcat is better. You fire both double action on the first shot, then the Tomcat switches to single action. The Guardian is double action only and in this small a gun, that makes it harder to use.
The Tomcat is so easy to load and clear a round due to the pop up barrel, it puts in into a completely different league. My wife, who is not a gun person, loves the pop up barrel as it is so simple to use and understand. She took my first one after trying it.
I will keep the Guardian in case I need a really small gun, but the Tomcat is the one I carry most of the time, when I go below the size of my WALTHER PPK.
Jim
HankR
Member
Yes. All bad.
The Tomcat never really worked right. First they kept saying the Tomcat wasn't broken in, shoot more rounds through it and it would get better. Then one week they said we'd shot too many rounds through it, and it was worn out and we couldn't expect such a small pistol to last forever (we're talking around 500 rounds, less than whatever number they had previously told us was the minimum to break it in).
Then we sent it back and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally we called and they actually transferred us to the actual gunsmith that was working on the gun. He told us the frame was cracked, it was a known problem, and they'd probably replace it with an Inox (just coming out).
Couple of weeks later we called back, and got transferred up the customer service chain. We told the manager we had sent is a gun that turned out to have a cracked frame and were waiting on the replacement. He whined and moaned and finally yelled and told us there was no frame cracking problem, it was just internet rumors. Despite what his gunsmith had told us. Despite the clunkier Inox replacing the the older models. He agreed to send us a new old model (not Inox). So we waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally we called back and they had no record of ever receiving our gun, and no plans to send it back. I'm not sure what happened after that, but a new gun did finally show up. We shot about 100 rounds through it and it's in the back of the safe somewhere, the lady it was meant for having learned to appreciate a S&W 3913 during the gun's lengthy stay at Accokeek.
This all happened 15 or so years ago, so maybe things have changed. I don't intend to buy another Beretta, so I'll probably never know for sure.
Talionstallion21
Member
I have two tomcats and used to own a Guardian 380. I much prefer the tomcat and have sold the Guardian. You really need to try both out. As you can see from the responses everybody has an opinion. I also prefer the tomcat to my LCP. The tomcat, in my opinion, is way easier to shoot than the guardian and the lcp, is more accurate as a result, and fits my hand way better. I don't carry the tomcat but would not have a problem with it for up close personal protection. Have never had a single problem with either tomcat, inox and matte black. I did have rare ejection issues with the guardian and early on with the lcp but most recently lcp has been fine. I use a tiny plastic shok buffer inside the slide of the tomcats to help prevent frame crack. So far so good after many hundreds of rounds of various brands.
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