the naked prophet
Member
My wife got one because it fit her tiny hand. Smaller than anything else out there when you take the trigger into account. Single action, blowback, exposed hammer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M1934
First thing, it's tiny. Little hammer, little barrel, etc. The finish is good, not a speck of rust. Some cosmoline still under the grip panels. This was a WWII era gun, manufactured in 1944 for the Italian Air Force (no import marks). The machine work is good, very few machining marks except on the feed ramp. The feed ramp is very rough, nearly serrated. Other than that, good machining overall.
The safety is weird. Definitely need two hands to take off the safety - it must be rotated 180 degrees to go from safe to fire. Located where the slide release is on most modern pistols (and when on safety, will lock the slide back). Not convenient at all, requires the use of the off hand to unsafe/safe the pistol.
The magazine catch is the standard old european heel catch. Not convenient.
The last round slide lock is where the slide itself just hits the back end of the magazine follower. This causes problems when reloading, as the slide puts forward pressure on the magazine and makes it difficult to remove. Once you remove the magazine, the slide snaps forward again so you have to rack the slide after a reload. Again, not exactly convenient.
The trigger at first glance appears to be a sliding trigger similar to a 1911, but it does in fact hinge instead of slide. Not sure why, because the trigger linkage is similar to the 1911, and slides back just like the 1911. There's some odd tab that protrudes from the trigger linkage up through a slot in the top of the bakelite grips, and into a tiny notch in the slide. My best guess for this part is that when the slide is back the lack of a notch in the slide will disconnect the trigger.
The gun will not fire out of battery, which is good because the rough feed ramp would keep round nosed bullets from feeding completely smoothly. The slide would stick about 1mm from closing completely. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer would push the slide forward the rest of the way, instead of hitting the firing pin. What I thought at first were light strikes turned out instead to be the slide refusing to go into battery.
Besides the problem with the rough feed ramp not allowing the slide to go fully into battery, there was not a single jam. Very smooth pistol, but way too tiny for my hands. I suffered badly from hammer bite in the two magazines I fired through the gun. The wife loves it though.
As it is, the pistol may need a little work to become a decent carry pistol. First off, the tiny military sights need to go. The local gunsmith can probably put a set of low-profile tritium dots on it just fine.
Second, the trigger is pretty stiff and gritty. A thorough detail strip cleaning should help there (as I doubt it has ever been detail stripped, and probably still has cosmoline and grit in the trigger mechanism) but maybe some polishing as well. The firing pin channel should also benefit from that.
The feed ramp will obviously be smoothed with very fine sandpaper by hand. I don't want to remove any significant metal, but it does need to be smoother. If that doesn't solve the problem with not going into battery (which only happened with the round nosed bullets and not the FMJSWC), we may add a new or maybe a slightly stronger recoil spring.
The magazine catch is, shall we say, very positive. It gets a good 1/4 inch of grip on the back of the magazine, and has quite a strong spring. Magazine insertion is kind of tricky because it must be pushed such a distance back to get it into the magazine well, not to mention how hard you have to push. I would have the gunsmith grind it down until it's a bit smaller (but still with a positive grip) and lighten the spring on it a little.
If hammer bite is a problem for her after extensive practice, we may try to have a bit of material added to the semi-beavertail, the same idea for people who add an extended beavertail to their 1911s.
If it was me, I would carry the gun in a good molded leather holster with the safety off. The safety is just too difficult to turn off when drawing for a CCW piece. With the heavy trigger, this should be no less safe than the Glock I carry. Overall, we are pleased.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_M1934
First thing, it's tiny. Little hammer, little barrel, etc. The finish is good, not a speck of rust. Some cosmoline still under the grip panels. This was a WWII era gun, manufactured in 1944 for the Italian Air Force (no import marks). The machine work is good, very few machining marks except on the feed ramp. The feed ramp is very rough, nearly serrated. Other than that, good machining overall.
The safety is weird. Definitely need two hands to take off the safety - it must be rotated 180 degrees to go from safe to fire. Located where the slide release is on most modern pistols (and when on safety, will lock the slide back). Not convenient at all, requires the use of the off hand to unsafe/safe the pistol.
The magazine catch is the standard old european heel catch. Not convenient.
The last round slide lock is where the slide itself just hits the back end of the magazine follower. This causes problems when reloading, as the slide puts forward pressure on the magazine and makes it difficult to remove. Once you remove the magazine, the slide snaps forward again so you have to rack the slide after a reload. Again, not exactly convenient.
The trigger at first glance appears to be a sliding trigger similar to a 1911, but it does in fact hinge instead of slide. Not sure why, because the trigger linkage is similar to the 1911, and slides back just like the 1911. There's some odd tab that protrudes from the trigger linkage up through a slot in the top of the bakelite grips, and into a tiny notch in the slide. My best guess for this part is that when the slide is back the lack of a notch in the slide will disconnect the trigger.
The gun will not fire out of battery, which is good because the rough feed ramp would keep round nosed bullets from feeding completely smoothly. The slide would stick about 1mm from closing completely. When the trigger was pulled, the hammer would push the slide forward the rest of the way, instead of hitting the firing pin. What I thought at first were light strikes turned out instead to be the slide refusing to go into battery.
Besides the problem with the rough feed ramp not allowing the slide to go fully into battery, there was not a single jam. Very smooth pistol, but way too tiny for my hands. I suffered badly from hammer bite in the two magazines I fired through the gun. The wife loves it though.
As it is, the pistol may need a little work to become a decent carry pistol. First off, the tiny military sights need to go. The local gunsmith can probably put a set of low-profile tritium dots on it just fine.
Second, the trigger is pretty stiff and gritty. A thorough detail strip cleaning should help there (as I doubt it has ever been detail stripped, and probably still has cosmoline and grit in the trigger mechanism) but maybe some polishing as well. The firing pin channel should also benefit from that.
The feed ramp will obviously be smoothed with very fine sandpaper by hand. I don't want to remove any significant metal, but it does need to be smoother. If that doesn't solve the problem with not going into battery (which only happened with the round nosed bullets and not the FMJSWC), we may add a new or maybe a slightly stronger recoil spring.
The magazine catch is, shall we say, very positive. It gets a good 1/4 inch of grip on the back of the magazine, and has quite a strong spring. Magazine insertion is kind of tricky because it must be pushed such a distance back to get it into the magazine well, not to mention how hard you have to push. I would have the gunsmith grind it down until it's a bit smaller (but still with a positive grip) and lighten the spring on it a little.
If hammer bite is a problem for her after extensive practice, we may try to have a bit of material added to the semi-beavertail, the same idea for people who add an extended beavertail to their 1911s.
If it was me, I would carry the gun in a good molded leather holster with the safety off. The safety is just too difficult to turn off when drawing for a CCW piece. With the heavy trigger, this should be no less safe than the Glock I carry. Overall, we are pleased.
