Questions on Beretta M1934, .380 ACP

[the naked prophet]

My wife loves her little Beretta M1934, chambered for the .380 ACP cartridge. There are a few problems, though.

The magazines are a serious issue. The followers, specifically. When the last shot is fired, the bolt is held open by pushing forward on the follower. This both makes the magazine very difficult to remove AND when the magazine is removed, the follower pops out, along with the spring, and gets slammed in the slide. Or, the slide just knocks out the follower in the first place and never stops, slamming the spring into the slide and making the magazine impossible to remove. If it wasn't for this, it would make a decent carry gun for her. This happens with all four of her magazines.

I haven't been able to find any sources for Beretta M1934 magazines, or magazine followers. I suspect a different follower design might help, but really don't know how that would be accomplished. Is there some aftermarket follower, perhaps for another .380 that might work? Complicating this question is the necessity of inserting the follower through the top of the mag, as the magazines cannot be disassembled from the bottom. I tried to put in a P3AT follower, but it wouldn't fit. I've got some sheet steel, I could bend one myself, but I don't know if that would work or not.

I think the best option would be for the follower to be so low that the slide would go past it and go ahead and close on an empty chamber. Then when the hammer fell on an empty chamber, reloading would be much easier.

I guess that's really just about the biggest problem. It would be totally sweet to add a modern-style magazine catch, but that would probably be prohibitively expensive.

Any ideas on a magazine follower that would work, or any other ideas to fix this?

 

[JBP]

Nice little pistol and aside from being somewhat anemic the reloading situation that you describe makes it somewhat impractical for CCW.

To remove the magazine cleanly completely bring back the slide and engage the safety.

 

[the naked prophet]

Nice little pistol and aside from being somewhat anemic the reloading situation that you describe makes it somewhat impractical for CCW.

To remove the magazine cleanly completely bring back the slide and engage the safety.

Yeah, and there's the problem. If the magazine follower didn't catch the bolt, reloading would be like on my P3AT - when the hammer falls on an empty chamber, reload!

She likes the gun, and any gun is better than no gun. Once she's used to carrying, I'll work on upgrading her choices. She's already got a Colt Officer's .45 that she likes shooting, but she likes this Beretta much better.

 

[JBP]

If she likes the Beretta see you might want her to try a 9x18 (Bulgarian Makarov, FEG PA-63, or CZ-82). The recoil and size are compatible with the Beretta, there is no reloading issue, and it is a step up in stopping power.

 

[the naked prophet]

She tried a P-64 and a Makarov, both. They're just too big. The only reason the Beretta works for her is the 1911-style single action trigger. The Mak and P-64 triggers are long double action for the first shot and single action with an equally long takeup for the remaining shots. She just can't reach the trigger.