Beretta's Cheetah .380

[golden]

Beretta 84 is great-but big

J,

I have a fair amout of experience with the BERETTA 92, 96 and 80 series. The BERETTA 84 is the hands down best defense pistol in 380 caliber!
If I wanted a .380ACP for a house or car gun, it would be my first choice over the CZ83, SIG 232, WALTHER PP series and just about any other .380ACP.
It usually has a great trigger, excellent sights (you can get night sights on it), large magazine capacity, light recoil, very good safety on the newer models and is light for the size. Let's not forget that they are among the most reliable .380ACP pistols in my experience.
It is the only .380ACP pistol that I have shot that is totally reliable with the FEDERAL Hydra Shok round, which would be my first choice for it.

The CZ 83 may equal it in reliability and most other areas, but has a second rate safety mehcanism and is heavier.

Now for the bad part, THE BERETTA 80 SERIES IS BIG!
If you are planning to carry concealed, you may as well carry a compact 9m.m. unless you have a problem with using 9m.m. for recoil or legal reasons.

One of the reasons that the 84 does so well, is that it is so large. I have shot 9m.m. pistols about the same size like the GLOCK 19 and SPRINGFIELD ARMORY XD Sub Compact. The 84 Cheetah has a large grip area, about the same as the Compact version of the BERETTA 92, so you get an excellent grip as long as you can handle full size pistols.

The single collumn magazine versions of the 80 series have a marginally slimmer grip and lower magazine capacities, but that is all.

They are no longer being imported by BERETTA. The price is probably one reason and the competition from all the compact and sub compact 9m.m. pistols would be another.

You can probably rent or borrow one to test shoot. It it is what you are looking for, then it has few peers.

Jim

 

[beatledog7]

Hex, that's a beautiful pistol.

I have a BDA with the old "B" medallion grips as well, but I read a lot of cases in which the medallions fell out of the grips and got lost. They're hard to come by these days. I stored the B grips and installed a set of rubber Pachmayrs for carry and range use.

 

[Critical J]

@ golden

Thanks for the supportive
response, but I'll have to
disagree with you on one:

84 is gonna be totally concealable, but the 92 Compact was still a stretch and definitely not feasible in all situations. It won't take much pre-gaming to work the Cheetah into any conceavable outfit. Check the link @ bottom of Comment #1 for the full story of my big let down over the 92c

If Beretta made a comparable open-slide 9mm,
roughly the same size, then I'd be all over that!

 

[wally]

Great pistols, but very large for a .380 these days. Expensive. My wife loves her model 86 since with the "tip up" barrel she never has to rack the slide, being single stack and a bit narrower than the 84 also helps with her very small hands.

 

[Critical J]

.380 Ammo

So, being that it's not '09 anymore, how much is a box of .380 rounds going for these days as compared to 9mm or .45s?
I mean, I have an idea, but in yall's areas...

 

[huntsman]

^ in these times your price is what you are willing to pay for ammo, traditionally (for me at least) .380acp will be more (as much as $2.00) than 9mm and less than .45acp. Before the craziness I bought as low as $13.00 a box but mostly it's been $17.00 for the cheap stuff.

 

[golden]

We will have to agree to disagree

J,

I did pack a CHEETAH on several occasions and I could just as easily have packed a SPRINGFIELD ARMORY XD Sub Compact or WALTHER P99. I did with both of them.

I use a pancake style holster on my strong side hip for all three. This is where the bulk of the 84 works against it. I like a pocket carry and that is pretty much out of the question with the Cheetah.
The largest I have used in a pocket carry is the SIG 232 with loose cut pants.

The main factor against the 92 Compact is that the barrel slide is longer, so you need a deeper holster and the weight. From a bulk standpoint, I found the 84 to be just as bad as the 92 C.

For ammo, check with WALMART. I have seen .380ACP ball ammo available again at two of my local WALMART'S. Price is still not down where I want it to be.

Jim

 

[TennJed]

Are the size specs on the BDA the same as the Beretta? I love my 84. Poems can get into caliber debates all they want but I like guns, and the Beretta 84 is one of the finest ever made. I wouldn't mind haveing a BDA also. Are there any difference between the 2 other than the safety?

 

[rgwalt]

^ in these times your price is what you are willing to pay for ammo, traditionally (for me at least) .380acp will be more (as much as $2.00) than 9mm and less than .45acp. Before the craziness I bought as low as $13.00 a box but mostly it's been $17.00 for the cheap stuff.

$18/box after tax for brass FMJ import ammo. A bit more for Remington I think. .380ACP is expensive. Yet another reason why I'm getting away from it as a carry caliber.

 

[Critical J]

@ rgwalt

So, basically we're talking .38 Special
prices here or a little less than,
I think I can live with that...

 

[huntsman]

I wouldn't mind haveing a BDA also. Are there any difference between the 2 other than the safety?

fully enclosed slide.

My Idea of matching platforms

S&W 4566 BDA

 

[HexHead]

Hex, that's a beautiful pistol.

I have a BDA with the old "B" medallion grips as well, but I read a lot of cases in which the medallions fell out of the grips and got lost. They're hard to come by these days. I stored the B grips and installed a set of rubber Pachmayrs for carry and range use.

I don't remember what glue I used to finally keep them on. Probably Super-Glue.

 

[Jim Watson]

Agree that the BDA is closest in operation to the B92, what with the Waltheroid decocking safety on the slide.

Among Beretta models in the 8X series, there are a number of variations and sub models, but the key difference is that the earlier guns had a Coltish thumb safety. You could carry the gun cocked and locked. If you wanted to get to a DA start, you had to ease the hammer down manually.

The later guns still have the lever on the frame, but it is now a decocker.
I THINK the change was made when they went from the graceful round trigger guard to the hooked trigger guard to mimic the 92.