Does Anyone Have a Beretta 21A that Works?

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Confederate

Confederate

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I've got the stainless .22LR, and I'm embarrassed to say that my little .22LR Jennings is more reliable. It'll go bang, bang, bang through about five magazines full before it starts jamming, but my Beretta jams too often for me to totally be comfortable with.

Of course, it could be the ammo I'm using. I'm told the Beretta 21 works better with the speedy little 33-grain rounds. I don't know if it'll help, but today I polished the ramp, and I don't think the factory did a great job of segwaying into the barrel (it's a tube that's forced into the stainless barrel housing). Still, I shined everything up. Anyway, most of my problems seem to be feeding malfunctions.

Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks!
 
I tested 2, a .22 & a .25, each with different loads.
Bought the 25, it was reliable.
Denis
 
My 21 requires the hottest .22 LR high speed stuff I can put in it. I finally took mine apart and ground down the recoil springs a little. It allows me to use more normal ammo in it. The recoil springs are under the grips.
 
My 21A has been 100% reliable with CCI Minimags and Stingers. Stick to those and it should work, if not send it back to Beretta USA. Its a great little BUG.
 
Nope....After 2 trips back to the factory and NO success, someone else is pocketing this "pride & joy"....
Honestly, I loved the tip-up barrel, weight, looks, etc., but Beretta & I just could not get it work with any reasonable reliability even with various ammos....
I'm sure others have had some better success, but mine was the proverbial lemon.
 
Does Anyone Have a Beretta 21A that Works?
Click to expand...
No and that's one plus it's two replacements. A liberal dose of Militec-1 did get the third one to the point it would occasionally fire a full magazine without jamming.
That one may have eventually smoothed out to a degree of satisfactory reliability, but I was tired of messing with them.
Regards,
Greg
 
Does anyone know if the barrels are interchangeable between the 22 and the 25? Not really as strange a question as it might at first seem. Looking for something along the lines of a PSM (Russian 5.45x18) or in my case a 22 caliber from a necked down 25 case (5.7x16 or close). Just not sure which pistol 22/25 sisters have interchangeable parts. I can rechamber the 22 barrel.
 
You might also consider the inherent nature of the rimfire round: one-that it has a rim; two-that the primer is in the rim; and three-quality control on such a high volume product is going to have its share of misses as well. These factors were behind the principal reason for the creation of the .25 ACP cartridge.
I remember reading an article years ago where a writer tested a number of small to medium sized .22s; guns like the Walther TPH, Beretta 21A, IJ TP22, Walther PPK, Beretta Model 70S, and others. His conclusion: the smaller you go in size with a .22, the more reliablility problems you have. When everything like the firing mechanism, springs, magazine, frame, barrel, and slide all become smaller, the tolerances for all these parts becomes all the more critical. Less space means less room for error. Tighter tolerances in manufacture and assembly are required, in order for everything to function properly.
 
I had great luck with any 22lr ammo in
my 21A that was not bulk packed.My
favorite load was the Federal small
game load that's packed in the 100
plastic box.Any bulked packed ammo
would give me too many Failures to
feed to make them worth while.
 
my 21A shoots everything I put in it,the CCI Blazer,Aguliea(sp) Vipers,Stingers,Wolf,every thing except some 40 year old Canadian "Canuck" ammo.even shoots some week Russian "something Junior" ammo. jwr
 
I had a minx, 22 short, POS. Tried everything. Finally got it to feed half way reliable, only jam maybe once or twice per mag, :rolleyes: after bending on this and that on the magazine, but it wouldn't reliably fire any HV ammo, took two or three hammer strikes. :rolleyes: Yeah, I have a reliable, accurate Phoenix Arms HP22, also. Shame, ain't it? ROFL! I got rid of the Baretta, no more tip up .22s for me! I reckon I'll go with the QUALITY of Phoenix Arms for pocket .22 firepower. ROFLMAO!
 
I have two of these, one stainless and one black.
The stainless one is ammo picky, reliable only with Remington Vipers:rolleyes:
The blue one is fine with the vipers, Federal automatch, Federal 510s, CCI minimags-that's about all I've tried.
I'd say without a doubt, try some different ammunition types before counting it out.
Mine also like to be clean and lubed, they are not range guns that you can shoot a brick through without cleaning.
 
I have a Beretta 70S that is flawlessly reliable, so the rimfire aspect really isn't a factor. I also have a Jennings J-22 that's flawless.

Now, I understand that ammo may be the determining factor here, and I've never tried CCI Mini-Mag, Stinger or Yellow Jacket ammo. I'd sure like to get it working, though.

BTW, anyone remember a miserable llittle striker-fired auto called the Sterling .22LR/.25? It got favorable reviews in all the mainstream gun mags -- mags that never had an unkind word to say about any of their advertisers; however, a couple of independent rags trashed the guns every year they were published. Sterling tried to fix their .22LR by opening up its ejection port and trying different springs, but nothing seemed to work. Some of the guns worked, but they couldn't quite get the quality control down. Too bad, since they were nice looking things.

Most .22LR palm pistols simply haven't worked. I just hope I can get my little Beretta to work!

Thanks for your replies!
 
Confederate

As I posted earlier, smaller in a .22LR semi-auto isn't necessarily a good thing. I also had a Sterling .22LR that was never as reliable as the ones the gun rags tested (imagine that), so I got rid of it sometime back. I still have my most reliable .22LR, a Beretta Model 70S, that has served me very well for many years now. Hope your little Beretta works out okay for you.
 
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Run four rounds in the magazine and one in the pipe. Any more than five rounds is a crap shoot on whether it'll feed ok, at least with mine.
 
Mine works. It's not 100%, but pretty close. The only real problem is the odd light strike, which always fires on the second trigger pull.
 
mine works well with remmington gold solids. has to be cleaned after every range session. will start to jam after about 100 rounds
 
Did this gun come with two mags, because I think I only got one. It occurs to me that I should try another magazine, and maybe some of you guys who have been having problems with yours should try, too.

Also, from what I understand, many M21A owners, the gun HATES Federal ammo, though some of you say some types work. But these things can change over time.
 
I think I may have seen one or two of them complete a CCW Qualification course of fire over the years without malfunctioning, but my memory is clouded by the greater number of them that haven't.

Just had a couple of folks come through a course recently with a couple of pocket .22's, one of which was a little Beretta. Neither completed the course without 2-3 malfunctions. One of the guys was using Stingers.

You can have one of the best quality .22 LR pistols ever produced ... but you're still going to have to use .22 LR rimfire ammunition in it.
 
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