skeeter1
Member
I'd really like to get one of these. Not the target variety, but the simple pocket pistol. They seem to be scarcers than hens teeth around here. I'd be willing to pay shipping and FFL fees.
Beretta Cheetah 87 (.22LR) pocket pistol
- Thread starter skeeter1
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crebralfix
member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2004
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- 1,356
Cheetahs:
http://www.gunsamerica.com/search.c...=0&uid=&words=Cheetah&category=1170&state=All
I thought Cheetahs were chambered in 380. Bobcats Model 21s are their 22 pocket model, which is a great gun too!
Bobcats:
http://www.gunsamerica.com/search.c...e=0&uid=&words=Bobcat&category=1170&state=All
Also check ebang. This site searches gunbroker, gunsamerica, auction arms, and ebang.
http://auctionarms.com/nonjavahome.htm
http://www.gunsamerica.com/search.c...=0&uid=&words=Cheetah&category=1170&state=All
I thought Cheetahs were chambered in 380. Bobcats Model 21s are their 22 pocket model, which is a great gun too!
Bobcats:
http://www.gunsamerica.com/search.c...e=0&uid=&words=Bobcat&category=1170&state=All
Also check ebang. This site searches gunbroker, gunsamerica, auction arms, and ebang.
http://auctionarms.com/nonjavahome.htm
skeeter1
Member
Yes, it is too big to be considered a pocket pistol, but I've already got a couple of those. Better as a holster pistol. As for target handguns, I've already got a great one, Smith M35. I'm looking for something in between, and the Beretta just tickles my fancy.
Erich
Member
I remember when the 87BBs came out in the mid-'80s - back then I never could see why anyone would want a .22 that was slightly larger than a Walther PP, particularly when Beretta made .380s that were the same size. They sold pretty well for us at the gun store where I worked for a couple of years - I still never got it. Why buy a .22 that cost so much and was just a plinker?
Anyway, something had changed in my head by the time I saw the one NIB in a gun store last month. Wow, did it look nice to me. Turns out it was a gun bought by a collector back in '89 (that's "AU" for you Beretta proof code collectors), and kept in a safe ever since (can you believe people actually do this? I know they do - I used to sell to them - but it just seems nuts! Shoot that gun!). The walnut stocks called to me, the bluing gleamed. I held it for a moment and - ah! - it just felt made for my hand.
I couldn't get the thing out of my head all week. I did online research and confirmed that it was actually priced pretty cheap for one of these guns (discontinued since '00). And, hey, my 40th birthday was this month - I talked it over with my wife, and she told me to go for it.
So, I brought it home.
Here are some photos that I took of it this morning. (Before anyone asks, those are figs from the fig tree that came from the back yard of my great-grandfather's house in Italy - he took a cutting with him to America, and I've got one of the cuttings from it.)
I've had it at the range twice this month - very nice. I was able to make a one-hole full-mag group a couple of times with various ammos. The gun certainly groups under 1" at 10 yards, whether DA or SA. The DA is amazingly easy to use (I've been using too many plastic guns lately, and forgot what a real trigger feels like on a semiauto
) and can produce groups just as good as the SA. Off-hand shooting did not produce any close-to-one-holers, but the 8-round mags grouped consistently in small groups less than 1" in diameter total.
Here are some chrono results from the 3.8" barrel:
CCI Blazer 40 gr. Mean 1012 fps/extreme spread 25.4 fps/standard deviation 11.95 fps
CCI Velocitor 40 gr. (old packaging) M 1071/ES 70.17/SD 29.41
PMC Match Pistol 40 gr. M 844.3/ES 42.89/SD 17.63
Aguila SE Subsonic 40 gr. M 870.6/ES 45.79/SD 20.49
Aguila SSS 60 gr. M 697.1/ES 56.01/SD 22.97
Fed Premium Target 40 gr. M 943.4/ES 16.17/SD 6.00 (!)
Federal Champion 36 gr HP: M 1017, ES 40.99, SD 15.03
Interestingly, the Federal Champions - I just bought over 1500 of them - didn't work the action of the 87 reliably.
Remington Thunderbolt 40gr solid: M 942.7, ES 105.8, SD 38.91
J - U - N - K . . . this stuff gave an ES of 255.2 fps from my 4 1/8" chopped K-22!
Federal Velocitor 40 gr HP (new packaging): M 1051, ES 75.42, SD 29.46
I think this stuff is probably pretty much the same forumulation as the old packaging Velocitor - though it proved slower in both the 87 and the K-22.
CCI Stinger 32 gr HP: M 1222.5, ES 33, SD 13.43
Federal Gameshok 40 gr solid: 963.7, ES 16.53, SD 6.85
It's fun for plinking old vitamin bottles at a bit beyond 25 yards.
Anyway, something had changed in my head by the time I saw the one NIB in a gun store last month. Wow, did it look nice to me. Turns out it was a gun bought by a collector back in '89 (that's "AU" for you Beretta proof code collectors), and kept in a safe ever since (can you believe people actually do this? I know they do - I used to sell to them - but it just seems nuts! Shoot that gun!). The walnut stocks called to me, the bluing gleamed. I held it for a moment and - ah! - it just felt made for my hand.
I couldn't get the thing out of my head all week. I did online research and confirmed that it was actually priced pretty cheap for one of these guns (discontinued since '00). And, hey, my 40th birthday was this month - I talked it over with my wife, and she told me to go for it.
So, I brought it home.
Here are some photos that I took of it this morning. (Before anyone asks, those are figs from the fig tree that came from the back yard of my great-grandfather's house in Italy - he took a cutting with him to America, and I've got one of the cuttings from it.)
I've had it at the range twice this month - very nice. I was able to make a one-hole full-mag group a couple of times with various ammos. The gun certainly groups under 1" at 10 yards, whether DA or SA. The DA is amazingly easy to use (I've been using too many plastic guns lately, and forgot what a real trigger feels like on a semiauto
) and can produce groups just as good as the SA. Off-hand shooting did not produce any close-to-one-holers, but the 8-round mags grouped consistently in small groups less than 1" in diameter total.Here are some chrono results from the 3.8" barrel:
CCI Blazer 40 gr. Mean 1012 fps/extreme spread 25.4 fps/standard deviation 11.95 fps
CCI Velocitor 40 gr. (old packaging) M 1071/ES 70.17/SD 29.41
PMC Match Pistol 40 gr. M 844.3/ES 42.89/SD 17.63
Aguila SE Subsonic 40 gr. M 870.6/ES 45.79/SD 20.49
Aguila SSS 60 gr. M 697.1/ES 56.01/SD 22.97
Fed Premium Target 40 gr. M 943.4/ES 16.17/SD 6.00 (!)
Federal Champion 36 gr HP: M 1017, ES 40.99, SD 15.03
Interestingly, the Federal Champions - I just bought over 1500 of them - didn't work the action of the 87 reliably.
Remington Thunderbolt 40gr solid: M 942.7, ES 105.8, SD 38.91
J - U - N - K . . . this stuff gave an ES of 255.2 fps from my 4 1/8" chopped K-22!
Federal Velocitor 40 gr HP (new packaging): M 1051, ES 75.42, SD 29.46
I think this stuff is probably pretty much the same forumulation as the old packaging Velocitor - though it proved slower in both the 87 and the K-22.
CCI Stinger 32 gr HP: M 1222.5, ES 33, SD 13.43
Federal Gameshok 40 gr solid: 963.7, ES 16.53, SD 6.85
It's fun for plinking old vitamin bottles at a bit beyond 25 yards.
LoadedDrum
Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2004
- Messages
- 612
I found a used one a couple of months ago. It is the best 22lr pistol I have tried. It is easy to field strip and reassemble. It does not jam. The mags come out easy. The only thing I think it needs is an Ultimate clip loader like they have for Rugers.
They used to make a target version of the 87 that just had a slick and I mean slick barrel weight/extension, not the tacticool monstrosity they sell now.
I looked one over very carefully at a Gart Sports like 10-12 years ago, and it just felt really good in my hand. But wow it was pricey.
That's a very stylish pistol, for lack of a better word.
RU Guns has a pic:
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/ber_87_t.jpg
I looked one over very carefully at a Gart Sports like 10-12 years ago, and it just felt really good in my hand. But wow it was pricey.
That's a very stylish pistol, for lack of a better word.
RU Guns has a pic:
http://world.guns.ru/handguns/ber_87_t.jpg
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