Who makes tip-up barrel .32 ACP?

[Waitone]

Who makes a tip up barrel .32 ACP pistol other than Beretta? Taurus has a .22LR tip up but not the .32 ACP.

Reason for my interest is an acquaintance can not cope with a slide and does not want a revolver.

Suggestions?

 

[alamo]

Only Beretta comes to mind. I think it's a Beretta or nothing.

 

[Bill Z]

The Beretta still has a slide. The tip up barrel just lets you load or unload a round in/out of the chamber. This is really the only safe way to carry one of these with the chamber loaded since there is no decocker on it and you can start with the hammer down, tip the barrel up, load it, then insert the magazine.
Same for unloading, drop the mag and then tip up the barrel to remove the round. These pistols do not have an extractor or a slide lock, so that is the way to handle that.
Don't insert the mag with the barrel up or tip up the barrel with the mag in. The barrel locks the slide down on these.

They are quite an accurate little pistol to boot, the triggers just suck and there's nothing you can really do about it except get used to it.

 

[Nick96]

Beretta also makes a tip barrel .380 in their mid-frame pistols (Model 86 as I recall - but don't hold me to that). The Beretta .32 Tomcat is the only tilt barrel .32 I'm aware of though. Taurus has some .22's & .25's - as does Baretta - but no .32's.

I'd seriously look at the mid-frame tip barrel .380 Beretta over the small frame .32 though. The mid-frame is going to be a much better platform to shoot - and shoots a bit more potent round. The .32 Tomcat is neither really small or light for the caliber - at least not significantly smaller or lighter than the mid-frame .380 for practical purposes. You'd be better off with an "Airweight" S&W .38Spl J frame revolver than the Tomcat (similar weight & size with a much more potent round, much better reliability & simpler operating system).

 

[JohnKSa]

Have her try the Kel-Tec P32. The locked breech design means that the slide spring is surprisingly light. My wife has very low hand strength and yet has no problem with this pistol.

BTW, my wife did not like the Beretta 32. The trigger was pretty bad and I seem to recall that she had trouble with the barrel latch.

She does have a Beretta 86 that she likes a lot. It's fairly user friendly.

 

[gvass]

"Who makes a tip up barrel .32 ACP pistol other than Beretta? "

In France several such .32 pistols were made before WW2, some of them were used as service pistol...guess who lost the war?)

For modern day CCW these are out of question.

 

[prisoner6]

For modern day CCW these are out of question.

All tip ups or just the older French firearms?

 

[gvass]

"All tip ups or just the older French firearms?"

The single action only, mostly hammerless old French guns are definiatley.

But for me, the Tomcat .32 is not enough reliable.

There is no extractor. If you have only one missfire, than the whole gun became useless. There is no way to ectract the unfired round in a gunfuight from it with a quick "rack-bang".