MatthewVanitas
Member
With rent-money burning a hole in my pocket (danged cash-paying tennants), I strolled into Southside Pawn to have a looksee.
Being a total moron, I'd just bought a Beretta Minx for pretty much market price, and was still smarting from that. Not being one to learn quickly, I noted a Beretta Jetfire sitting in the display case.
I figured "well, I've never had a little quarter-bore before", so I ask to see it. Sticker reads $99, which _would_ sound reasonable... BUT:
The entire slide is patina and a little scab, the grip-screws are buggered, bore looks okay, trigger is good, and the ever-resourceful Bubba took a Dremel to the foreward end of the frame for reasons unknown. It deliberately stops before getting to the serial number, so it's not a defacement. Best I can figure out, it's an extremely amateur dehorn job.
But it gets better: when I go to slingshot the slide, it slung but didn't shoot. Slide just sat back retracted. Not locked back, just no forward momentum. I take a squint, and notice that there's a piece of music-wire protruding from the grips, rubbing up against the slide. This gives me some clue.
I argue it a bit with the clerk, he quotes me $65, I walk out the door.
A half-block down, I pull a U-turn, come back in and offer him $175 for the 1902 S&W .38Spl Hand Ejector and the Beretta Jetfire as a package deal. He agrees, provided I pay sales tax and accept "as-is" designation. Bagged up, NICSed up, and out the door into the Austin sunshine.
I get to my meeting early, so I sit in my car in the parking lot. As I suspected, it takes fifteen seconds with a Bic pen to get the little Beretta up and running. That piece of music wire is indeed the recoil spring. Just lift the slide up a little, jimmy the wire into the notch on the slide, and all is shipshape.
So now I have less than $50 into a Beretta .25 ACP single-action pocket-pistol. Looking forward to taking this little critter to the range. I've been keeping it by the computer and learning its manual of arms one-handed (properly cleared and 4-rules). I love how the tip-up barrel pops up! It's not pretty, but it's a Beretta. Debatably James Bond's pre-PPK pistol, depending who you ask (others argue Beretta 418 or 1920).
Will have to post pictures later on, must rack out now. I'd actually been planning to waste $50 the next time I saw a SNS .25 in a pawnshop, but I think this option turned out even better. Only a few downsides to this piece so far, all cosmetic. Remember: People don't **** up guns, People with Dremel tools *** up guns.
Must rack. Actually, I'll hit the tip-up release on the Jetfire a few times first. DONK-CHIKK!
-MV
Being a total moron, I'd just bought a Beretta Minx for pretty much market price, and was still smarting from that. Not being one to learn quickly, I noted a Beretta Jetfire sitting in the display case.
I figured "well, I've never had a little quarter-bore before", so I ask to see it. Sticker reads $99, which _would_ sound reasonable... BUT:
The entire slide is patina and a little scab, the grip-screws are buggered, bore looks okay, trigger is good, and the ever-resourceful Bubba took a Dremel to the foreward end of the frame for reasons unknown. It deliberately stops before getting to the serial number, so it's not a defacement. Best I can figure out, it's an extremely amateur dehorn job.
But it gets better: when I go to slingshot the slide, it slung but didn't shoot. Slide just sat back retracted. Not locked back, just no forward momentum. I take a squint, and notice that there's a piece of music-wire protruding from the grips, rubbing up against the slide. This gives me some clue.
I argue it a bit with the clerk, he quotes me $65, I walk out the door.
A half-block down, I pull a U-turn, come back in and offer him $175 for the 1902 S&W .38Spl Hand Ejector and the Beretta Jetfire as a package deal. He agrees, provided I pay sales tax and accept "as-is" designation. Bagged up, NICSed up, and out the door into the Austin sunshine.
I get to my meeting early, so I sit in my car in the parking lot. As I suspected, it takes fifteen seconds with a Bic pen to get the little Beretta up and running. That piece of music wire is indeed the recoil spring. Just lift the slide up a little, jimmy the wire into the notch on the slide, and all is shipshape.
So now I have less than $50 into a Beretta .25 ACP single-action pocket-pistol. Looking forward to taking this little critter to the range. I've been keeping it by the computer and learning its manual of arms one-handed (properly cleared and 4-rules). I love how the tip-up barrel pops up! It's not pretty, but it's a Beretta. Debatably James Bond's pre-PPK pistol, depending who you ask (others argue Beretta 418 or 1920).
Will have to post pictures later on, must rack out now. I'd actually been planning to waste $50 the next time I saw a SNS .25 in a pawnshop, but I think this option turned out even better. Only a few downsides to this piece so far, all cosmetic. Remember: People don't **** up guns, People with Dremel tools *** up guns.
Must rack. Actually, I'll hit the tip-up release on the Jetfire a few times first. DONK-CHIKK!
-MV
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