I believe I will be acquiring one tomorrow. I know that it likes hotter loads like CCI. Any other thoughts or suggestions for this fine little pistol?

I've had one for decades. It works well with anything, don't be fooled by the "hotter loads" crap. Go easy with the cleaning-this isn't a pistol you need to disassemble. Run a patch down the bore, hose off the guts with oil, wipe it done and you're done. Happy shooting-this is one of my faves.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
I've had one for decades. It works well with anything, don't be fooled by the "hotter loads" crap. Go easy with the cleaning-this isn't a pistol you need to disassemble. Run a patch down the bore, hose off the guts with oil, wipe it done and you're done. Happy shooting-this is one of my faves.

Thank you, Fredward! I will take your advice. I look forward to shooting lots of rounds through this. I hope to train my family to shoot semi autos with this little jewel.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BennerP220,

I too had one for years. Very reliable. And fun.

I've owned a few. One in .22 short. Two in .22 LR. I currently own a SAO 950B in .25acp.

A little grease on the rear frame ears will help keep wear to a minimum and keep the chamber clean.

CCI Stinger worked best for me.

I have several....an inox in 22LR, threaded...another threaded one refinished by coyotekiller in ODG, a blued 25acp and a nickel 25acp. Oh, and a fifth one in 22LR...my African dictator gun in blued, gold and walnut. Great guns...the 25acp blued one is my EDC.

My experience is different. I have two. One Inox which is very reliable and one blued which is not so much. With a lot of experimentation I have found it to be 100% reliable using CCI and boresnaking after 50 rounds. Use any bulk pack other than CCI is a disaster. I have ran thousands of round through it thinking it would improve in that category. Nope.

That being said, I keep it clean and run CCI Blazers and it runs great.

Finicky is not an isolated experience. If yours runs great on any ammo never trade it away for anything. Ever.

I've had one for about 2 yrs. now. Very reliable and have had no issues. Using CCI Mini-Mags.

Great looking collection!! Thank you for sharing.

Thanks, Guys, for the information. My buddy who I am getting this from said that it is only reliable with CCI.

quote:

Originally posted by PGT:
I have several....an inox in 22LR, threaded...another threaded one refinished by coyotekiller in ODG, a blued 25acp and a nickel 25acp. Oh, and a fifth one in 22LR...my African dictator gun in blued, gold and walnut. Great guns...the 25acp blued one is my EDC.

I've had a 21A for probably about 15yrs. I didn't shoot it very often and it was a jam-o-matic for years. I could never get through a magazine full without it jamming. I regretted buying it. It definitely wasn't because it wasn't cleaned and lubed.

Finally I guess I shot enough through it when it started working a little better. I found some ammo it just wouldn't digest period. I had a old box of Stingers that seemed to be longer cases that would hang up in the magazines. It was trial and error when finally I found it actually likes Rem Golden Bullet.It wouldn't feed those odd shaped Winchester bullets. I picked up some of the CCI Mini Mags and hopefully they will work good in this gun.
I originally bought it to slip in my pocket for a quick run to the corner store but it's never proved itself reliable enough for me to carry it other then walking the dogs down our street.

Maybe I just got one with problems but I've read others say their's wasn't real reliable either. I don't believe I would ever buy another 21A much less any Beretta. I have a Beretta Nano and it doesn't do much for me either though it has been pretty reliable the couple hundred rounds I fed it.

No no no. The 21a is a bit of a conundrum. Some are great some not so much. My finicky one will plow through mini mags all day. Through mucho experimentation I discovered it was equally happy with bulk pack CCI Blazers. That and a bore snake every 7 mags (50 rounds).

Don’t give up on Beretta. Certainly not before trying my favorite 22 of all time, the 87. If I could only own one 22 that would be it.

quote:

Certainly not before trying my favorite 22 of all time, the 87. If I could only own one 22 that would be it.

Everytime I think about tracking down a 21A, I shoot my 87 and think "why?".

Rhino, the why is because you want to get rid of your threaded 87 by selling to me and going whole hog into the 21a platform. Shoot, I’ll trade you straight up. Lol

I've had Beretta 21A and the 950 for at least 15 years (probably closer to 20yrs).
They both shoot great and I've never had any jamming problems.
Be advised, hotter loads like Stingers will crack the factory black plastic grips. I replaced the 21A grips many times over the years, but recently they have become tough to find and I went with laminate grips.
Great little guns!!

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Rhino, the why is because you want to get rid of your threaded 87 by selling to me and going whole hog into the 21a platform. Shoot, I’ll trade you straight up. Lol

I forgot to mention mine liked some very old Remington Yellow Jackets. Some of my 22 LR ammo I still have from when I worked in a gun shop back in the mid to late 1970's. Those Stingers I mentioned earlier was some of them from way back and it still had a 1.95 price sticker on it.
Being honest if I had to rate this 21A. From 1-to 10 I might give it a 3 but nothing higher. It does seem to be a fairly well made gun.
I just went and dug it out of the safe and that's when I realized I had my 3 magazines loaded with the Yellow Jackets.
I've tried hard to like this little 21A but I don't really think I'd ever trust it for more than a plinker at the range. Next time I'll have to see what it does with the CCI Mini Mags. Hopefully that will put a little more trust in it and I just bought 500 rnds of Blazer 22LR I can run through it. I might add at 10 feet or so. Definitely good enough for close range. I'm surprised how well it shoots if it wasn't so picky what it likes.

I’m sure each is different but a common thread seems to be CCI. Back before the ammo drought I ran a couple thousand rounds in a short time through my finicky one trying to break it in or find what worked. It still chokes on Winchester, Remington, or some BVAC I had from way back. Blazers and of course mini mags work great if I keep it clean-ish.

Even the finicky one I would carry if I had CCI and it was clean. It is straight up perfect for 50 rounds in that scenario. If I only had rems or Winchester I would bring something else.

How do you all carry them? Cocked and locked like a 1911? Hammer down and safety off?

I suppose you could carry cocked and locked but I wouldn’t. It’s got a stiff DA stroke so hammer down is enough for me. The safety locks the trigger doesn’t do anything to firing pin as far as I can tell so hammer down safety off seems plenty safe.

When I had mine I never shot anything through it but cheap bulk ammo, no issues.