Two things have allowed the tiny Beretta to endure for decades. The first is that it was offered up by a company with a great reputation and a long history. The name was well-known and the pistol was available, and that gave the pistol momentum.

Secondly, I believe the Jetfire to be a superior design to most other 25 pistols because it is hammer fired, not striker fired. I can cock/decock the pistol at will, it's a visual indicator of firing condition of the pistol, and I think the hammer simply imparts more firing pin energy than striker fired 25s.

The tip-up barrel is a huge plus as well.

The Beretta 950 BS has an inertial firing pin and can safely be carried with a round in the chamber.

Not arguing the point of the .25 acp being effective, just relaying a story.

I know a guy who was shot in the face by a .25acp at a distance of less than 2 feet.

It was an attempted car-jacking. The perp fired through the door window of the vehicle, the bullet entered the cheek and followed the skull around to the back of the head. I believe the majority of the round is still in his head. Good thing the glass slowed it down.

I've heard these stories and I even have one to contribute to the list of .25 ACP failures.

These pistols go where other guns cannot. If you can carry something bogger, you should do so, but when you can't, the 25 has its place.

Something to keep in mind about “failure” reports involving firearms is that there is little relevance between someone’s surviving being shot and someone’s continuing an aggressive assault after being shot.

The only statistic I’ve seen indicates that there’s about a 90 percent chance of surviving a gunshot. That includes shots to extremities, shots into someone’s “spare tire” fat, etc., but it also includes shots from all types of guns, from rifles to pocket pistols. On the other hand, countless reports and Internet videos clearly demonstrate that very few attackers do anything but turn and run away as quickly as possible when they’re shot at, not to mention what they do when they’re actually hit by a bullet.

There are exceptions, but most of those involve encounters with police by fully-committed hardened criminals who have resolved to go down fighting. Non-LEOs encounter such individuals extremely rarely, and when they do it’s usually not a random event. Such incidents usually involve ongoing neighbor or family disputes.

Most gunshot victims survive being shot. When criminals are shot at, though, very few do anything other than say, “Gosh darn! He’s got a gun: wrong time, wrong place. Leaving now,” (or words to that effect), and they don’t stop to determine whether it’s a 25 ACP pistol or one chambered for 44 Magnum.

Para's points on the jetfire are why I own one. I've also carried it where other things wouldn't go.

quote:

Originally posted by Billy346:
I know that this shouldn't be funny. But it kind of is. ....Must have been some bar fight!

You know how it goes when someone starts getting the better of you in a brawl. Can't beat 'em, shoot 'em! Anyways, it was probably deserved. Seemed to be a wiley bastard in the day!

quote:

Originally posted by Ironmike57:
I think that I'd feel more comfortable with a .22lr or magnum.

I wouldn't trust a rimfire cartridge in a semi-auto pistol, not even the Beretta 87.

FWIW, if you want a .25acp on steroids, look at the NAA Guardian in the .25naa round. From their website...

"To summarize, the load delivers in excess of 1100 f.p.s. velocity to a 50 grain proprietary bullet from Hornady. This generates 134 ft. lbs of energy, specifically from the 2.5″ Guardian barrel (1453 f.p.s. & 287 ft. lbs from a 4″ test barrel)."

I avoid wildcats or proprietary cartridges.

I have both a S&W 351NG (.22 mag) and a Beretta 950bs. I'm sure the 22 mag will hit harder, but the 25 pistol is physically much smaller.

I agree with Para on the .25 being a bare skin round. To that end I picked up some Hornady Custom ammo with 35gr XTP hollow points running at 900fps at the muzzle.

One thing to be aware of in the small caliber tip ups.....blowback can be significant so keep spare main springs handy if you do shoot it more than once a year. It was pretty surprising how much powder I got to the face with mine.

Very interesting.

Awe yes the 25acp, my first carry guns. I started with the "Raven." I know, I know but that was all I could afford back then. A few years later I purchased a Beretta.

That was also a time when young women mostly wore dresses and I always carried mine in my garter belt/holster.

I only used FMJ. Not sure anything else was available back then. If it did, I was not knowledgeable enough about guns to know.

quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
FWIW, if you want a .25acp on steroids, look at the NAA Guardian in the .25naa round. From their website...

"To summarize, the load delivers in excess of 1100 f.p.s. velocity to a 50 grain proprietary bullet from Hornady. This generates 134 ft. lbs of energy, specifically from the 2.5″ Guardian barrel (1453 f.p.s. & 287 ft. lbs from a 4″ test barrel)."

Those NAA's a little bricks though. I owned one in .380 for a short while; way way too heavy for a pocket pistol.

Interesting video. I would assume the same holds true for the .32acp. I have a .32 NAA Guardian I sometimes carry and usually hoped for penetration rather than expansion when I had it hidden away.

These days I prefer my Sig P238 with XTP loads when going small.

quote:

Originally posted by Vern:
These days I prefer my Sig P238 with XTP loads when going small.

And I favor a S&W 638 Bodyguard, but it's not a fair comparison with the Jetfire, as neither are in the same size class with it.

I used to carry a Beretta .25 in my uniform shirt pocket as a backup when working the street many years ago. Regrettably I traded it off for something else long ago. When reading this thread I decided I needed a .25 in the collection. Shortly thereafter I came into possession of a Bauer Firearms Corporation .25 acp. It is all stainless and exceptionally well made. Now on a quest for the right ammo.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
Now on a quest for the right ammo.

I favor the Fiocchi fmj. It seems ever so slightly warmer than S&B.

I am not totally familiar with current mouse gun size comparisons but are the .25 caliber offerings really drastically smaller then a .32 or .380 offering today?

I get the ability to carry a gun when you can't carry a gun but are there not modern ballistically superior offerings in this size/weight class?

Also if we are talking about point blank/contact/face/neck kind of shots wouldn't a decent blade offer equal or more cababilty?

Again nothing under 9mm has ever really interested me outside of a Walther PP in .32 which is a completely different beast, so I am completely ignorant on the subject hence the questions.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
I get the ability to carry a gun when you can't carry a gun but are there not modern ballistically superior offerings in this size/weight class?

If there are, they are less reliable than my Jetfire. Take the KelTecs, for example. Their track record is less than perfect. This is thoroughly documented online.
Now, take a Jetfire in good working order, give it quality factory amunition loaded into properly maintained magazines, and you have near 100% reliability, as near as you're going to get in a self-loading pistol of that size.

Add to this that these other tiny pistols in calibers greater than .25 ACP are almost all DAO, and I'll pass, thank you.

Very Informative Thread,

I don't own a Jetfire, but I do own an original Connecticut, LWS Seecamp 25 ACP - build date 1983. Amazing little gun, had the gun "serviced" at Seecamp right before the company changed hands and moved to Southwick Mass. Haven't run the pistol since the service, but given Para's thread might need to consider putting it into the carry rotation.

Thank you.