MedWheeler
Member
I've had kind of a thing for the .25ACP round, and the guns chambered for it, for about four years now, and have a few of them. One I had been looking for (to compliment my 21A Beretta Bobcat in .22LR) is the Beretta Jetfire, but I never seem to come across them priced under $300, and I know I should be able to.
Yesterday, I walked into the LGS I frequent, and there's one in the case marked $149. Clean and slick, in better-than-good condition, clean bore, and bluing intact. A few minuscule flecks of paint missing from the aluminum frame around the edges of the plastic grip panels. Hammer felt a bit gritty on manual draw-back, but even that seemed to loosen up after only a couple of tries. I did not dry-fire the gun.
Within the hour, I was back home and reading up on this little pocket-peashooter as it sat next to me. I came across some information advising that the early, Italian-made (pre-'68-ban) ones were made without a manual safety lever. I was looking at the right side of the slide and read "Made in Italy." My heart skipped a beat as I flipped the gun over and, lo and behold, there is no safety lever! That makes the gun even more desirable to me as a collector item. I can't believe I missed that completely during my inspection, especially since I repeatedly test the safety levers on my other Beretta, and on the three Taurus versions I have (two in .25, one in .22LR.) The double-XX (Roman numerals) stamp on the frame indicates the gun was made in 1964.
For that price (I didn't bother to dicker, as I don't on guns priced below $200 unless I know the pricing is out of line), I think I did pretty good. I'm not planning on using this as a defensive gun, even though it is even a bit more easy to conceal than my P32. But I'm glad to have it.
Yesterday, I walked into the LGS I frequent, and there's one in the case marked $149. Clean and slick, in better-than-good condition, clean bore, and bluing intact. A few minuscule flecks of paint missing from the aluminum frame around the edges of the plastic grip panels. Hammer felt a bit gritty on manual draw-back, but even that seemed to loosen up after only a couple of tries. I did not dry-fire the gun.
Within the hour, I was back home and reading up on this little pocket-peashooter as it sat next to me. I came across some information advising that the early, Italian-made (pre-'68-ban) ones were made without a manual safety lever. I was looking at the right side of the slide and read "Made in Italy." My heart skipped a beat as I flipped the gun over and, lo and behold, there is no safety lever! That makes the gun even more desirable to me as a collector item. I can't believe I missed that completely during my inspection, especially since I repeatedly test the safety levers on my other Beretta, and on the three Taurus versions I have (two in .25, one in .22LR.) The double-XX (Roman numerals) stamp on the frame indicates the gun was made in 1964.
For that price (I didn't bother to dicker, as I don't on guns priced below $200 unless I know the pricing is out of line), I think I did pretty good. I'm not planning on using this as a defensive gun, even though it is even a bit more easy to conceal than my P32. But I'm glad to have it.