Beretta Tomcat vs Kel Tec P32

[u084708]

My wife wants to move up from .22lr to perhaps a 32 and I'm wondering if anyone has both a Beretta Tomcat (.32) and a Kel Tec P32 for comparison of recoil, ease of shooting, etc. It seems to me that a blowback design like the Tomcat might have stiffer recoil than the P32 but I could certainly be mistaken. Any and all input appreciated.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

I had a couple of the early Beretta Tomcats, and gave them up as a bad effort -- lots of mechanical problems. Those seem to have been resolved over the years.

Personally, I'd be carrying the Kel-Tec P-32 (or the similar P3AT which shoots .380, and which I recently bought), as I found the Tomcat to be unusually bulky and awkward to carry in anything but a belt/slide holster. The P-32/P3AT is much easier to conceal, and a lot lighter. And just as accurate.

But, that said, if the Tomcat durability issues are resolved, I suspect your wife would find the Tomcat a more enjoyable gun to shoot. And if you can find a 'smith to do a trigger job, get that, too. (It took thousands of dry-fires WITH SNAP CAPS! to get mine smoothed out.)

Firing pins will break easily in a Tomcat if dry-fired, so be careful. I broke several, even WITH snap caps -- it goes through snap caps rapidly.

 

[drf]

Just traded my Tomcat in on a 38 revolver. I wouldnt own one ofthem again.
Ammo is way expensive and I had nothing but FTE and FTF problems...

My 10 yr old shot the heck out of the Tomcat and he never complained about recoil...

I would go with a revolver in .38 for her instead of a tomcat...32..drf

 

[drf]

Just traded my Tomcat in on a 38 revolver. I wouldnt own one ofthem again.
Ammo is way expensive and I had nothing but FTE and FTF problems...

My 10 yr old shot the heck out of the Tomcat and he never complained about recoil...

I would go with a revolver in .38 for her instead of a tomcat...32..drf

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

My wife had a .32 Tomcat for a little while, and she sold it. The recoil is more painful, the gun is thicker, the trigger is slightly harder to reach, the safety bit into both of our hands, the last round never ejected (not too big a problem), and we couldn't hit very accurately with it. She likes my Kel-Tec a lot more, easier to hit with, nicer trigger, less felt recoil, lighter, thinner.

 

[Gixerman1000]

I have a 3032 Tomcat INOX, it is a little wide but I like it, I have around 500 rounds through it with no problem (even when full of pocket lint) and I can hit cans with it from 15 to 20 yards constantly.

 

[Snake Eyes]

Gee, I don't know......A company thats been making guns for a couple hundred years, or some jimmy hats that figured out how to mold plastic around a barrel in the last 10 years....hmmmm, I wonder????

Get a Colt Model M (1903) and be happy!

 

[Old Dog]

Another vote for the Tomcat ... my wife has one (late model Inox), loves it. I have shot it a considerable amount and find it accurate and reliable (as long as it's kept clean). Wife loves the tip-up barrel. Very well made.

Kel-Tec: my experience with the P-40 and P-11 soured me on Kel-Tecs for good. Crappy trigger, brutal recoil, unreliable for more than one mag's worth of shooting without cleaning. Inexplicable FTFs and FTEs with too many brands of ammo.

 

[gazpacho]

I own 3 Kel-Tec P32s. One for me, one for my wife, and one for practice. Once they prove themselves reliable, they tend to stay reliable. The Customer Service is pretty good about fixing the ones that don't work. I had a P3AT (too much kick for me and not enough accuracy) sent back, and it returned rebuilt from the ground up, brand new. With the +1rd extenders, you get a 10oz. package with 9 rounds in it. Not a bad package.

However, you might be ablt to convince her that a steel 38 Special wold be a good choice. Loaded with 158gr +P LSWHP it becomes a very acceptable self-defence weapon. Even loaded with normal strength lead 124gr or 158gr, it's respectible.

 

[MICHAEL T]

Find her a Colt Mustang Its a 380 with soft recoil My kids shoot mine.

 

[Wilson 17&26]

If you wife shoots little but carries often, go for light weight. I would also recommend installing a pinkie extension on an extra magazine until she becomes accustom to the recoil.

 

[Bikeguy]

I have owned both. I no longer own the Tomcat. I never had any problems with it. My only beef was that it was too heavy and bulky for pocket carry. Shot fine, I liked the tip up barrell, and the grip was much better than the Kel-Tec.

I had to send my first Kel-Tec back numerous times and finally got a new one. Failure to extract. Plan on doing the "fluff and buff" described at ktog.org if you get one and test it extensively before lettign her carry it.

That being said, it is incredibly light, reasonably accurate, and you can carry it quite easily.

 

[mini14jac]

We had two P32s, but I gave mine to my son.
(That's a vote of confidence, by the way.)

I've got a KelTec P3AT now, and I like it a lot.

My wife kept her P32. She doesn't like to shoot it a lot, but she's accurate with it, and it's her carry gun.

I've heard a lof of bad things about the Tomcats, but the KelTecs can have problems too.
The difference is, KelTec will do what it takes to make their guns work.

 

[mtnbkr]

I haven't shot the Tomcat, but I've owned a P32 for nearly 3 years. It has been rocksolid reliable with a DA trigger better than most revolvers. Other than a few specific brands of ammo that it doesn't like (Magtech and Aguila), it is completely reliable. In a test to see how sensitive it is to being dirty, I shot over 250rnds before it started to have failures. After cleaning it completely, it was 100% again. It handles hotter loads than any blowback pistol would (handloads, factory loads are fine for all).

Chris

 

[Clark]

I own a P32 and not a Tomcat.
But I can imagine the Tomcat is a much nicer gun to shoot.
The whole deal with the Kel-Tecs is how small and light they are.
Put a brick in your pocket for the day, and you will be ready to consider Kel-Tecs.

 

[Highpower1]

I own a p32 and love it. It goes with me everywhere and I mean everywhere. No failures to feed and I've burned about 2k rounds through it.