The “80 series” pistols are some of Beretta’s most well-loved smaller autos, and to me the 86 is not only the prettiest of the lot, but is among the most attractive semi auto pistols ever made. I love the swoopy Italian looks, the curve of the trigger guard and dust cover, the thickness of the forward part of the frame, the walnut grips, the organic contours of the slide and exposed barrel… it’s all just gorgeous to my eye.

It’s also about a 75% sized variant of the familiar 92 series at least visually, which is kind of cool. You don’t really get the entire impact of that until you see and handle one in person, which I was finally able to do yesterday. This example looks to be nearly unused, and the rotating barrel tip-up lever was initially very stiff with either lack of oil or hardened lube, until I got some fresh oil in there and wiped everything down. Then it turned easily and snicked into place positively.

That brings us to the really unique feature of this pistol, and what distinguishes it from its 80-series siblings: its tip-up barrel. I imagine the intent was to captures some customers among lady shooters or older buyers, or otherwise people with hand strength issues, or simply those for whom retracting the fairly stiff slide would be undesirable. So you can insert a loaded 8-round magazine with the slide closed, then rotate the barrel release lever and the rear of the barrel pops up, allowing you to insert a cartridge directly into the chamber. You then press the barrel down into place and rotate the lever rearward. Voila… fully loaded and ready to go. This can be done with the DA/SA trigger either in DA or SA mode, and the hammer can be locked safely with the frame mounted safety lever, which is nicely placed and actually useful for those who wish to carry the pistol cocked and locked.

If the barrel is up, the slide is prevented from moving, for any who were curious.

Theoretically, if you never have a misfire or other malfunction, you never have to actually touch the slide at all. To unload, you remove the magazine, rotate the lever, and either tip the muzzle up to drop the loaded round out of the chamber or pluck it out with a fingernail.

Interestingly there is no extractor, unlike the other Cheetahs, so if you have a misfire/dud things could get complicated. The usual tap/rack drill would likely result in a nasty double feed, so for serious purposes you’d probably want to practice rotating the barrel and dumping that round or remove the magazine and rack the slide with the muzzle up. With its DA trigger you could also just try pulling the trigger again but IME if a primer won’t fire on the SA stroke, a DA stroke will rarely make it happen. Not sure if the lack of extractor was a cost-saving move or what. They were never inexpensive guns, though, and have premium checkered walnut grips and some I’ve seen have gold triggers as well.

The DA trigger is very nice, at around 9 or 9.5 lbs and very smooth. There’s a little stacking just before the hammer drops but zero grit or staginess over its travel. The SA trigger has the typical Beretta take up to a very firm wall, and then it breaks very crisply at about 6.5-7 lbs. There is some overtravel but it’s very nice overall. My only complaint is a very long SA reset, which is like 97% of the way out to the point your finger comes off the trigger. I had one or two “malfunctions” where I simply hadn’t reset the trigger. The reset is very soft and not audible either, so if you were using this pistol for serious purposes you’d want to train well with that.

The sights are 3-dot, with the front milled into the front of the barrel/pivot support and the rear dovetailed into the slide and staked in place. They were regulated well for me, and I was able to easily hit the 8” plates at 20 yards offhand nearly every time, with the impacts just above the top of the front sight where I prefer them. Recoil is predictably sharpish, as you’d expect from a blowback .380, even one that weighs 23.7 ounces with an empty mag according to my scale.

The pistol feels substantial and good in the hand, much like a beretta 92, and is nearly as wide. My 92 has LOK slim grips (which are awesome) and the stock 86 is essentially the same width through the grips. I have XL sized hands and can get 2 and a half fingers on the grip, with my pinky overhanging a bit. The bottom of the frame is well rounded and the magazine baseplates are flush with the front strap when inserted, so it’s still very comfy in the hand. There’s not a lot of room for the support hand so I moved to a thumbs-locked-down grip rather than thumbs-forward and that was fine.

Those base pads were not helpful in resolving the nasty malfunctions I experienced with all three types of ammo I tried, however, since you can’t really get purchase on them to rip them out of the grip frame when a round is jammed against the barrel ramp and preventing the mag from releasing. I ended up locking the slide to the rear, pushing the top round backward into the magazine lips fully (made possible by the open-top slide), and removing the mag to dispose of the damaged round, which usually had significant setback and would have been risky to fire.

The first time I loaded the pistol and shot it, using WWB “target and training” 95 grain FMJ RNFP, the top round feeding from the magazine jammed/nosedived against the feed ramp. I observed and didn’t see any obvious setback so I tugged the slide rearward a little and let it go, and the round chambered. A few rounds later this happened again, but the round was jammed firmly against the ramp and another attempt to send it home just pushed the bullet into the case so I had to halt proceedings and do the above described method to get the damaged round out. I quickly gave up on this ammo, as the wide, flat point was obviously a problem for this Model 86.

I tried some Hornady American Gunner 90 grain JHP (XTP bullets) next, with similar malfunctions and bullets set back. So I went to the store and got a box of Federal 95 grain FMJ RN, which I figured would resolve any feeding issues. It was better, but not perfect.

I was able to get through several mags without issues, but I still got at least one round jammed into the barrel ramp resulting in that nasty type 2 malfunction and bullet setback. The slide bit my support hand thumb somehow during a malfunction clearance, and the rear edges are very sharp, as is the cutout for the safety lever, which is what I think got me. I didn’t get any slide bite on my shooting hand thanks to a 92-style tang, but the web of my hand did start to sting a bit. It’s more comfy than the Walther PPKs and PPK/Ss I’ve shot, but it’s not “Downy soft” by any means. Still very fun to shoot when it’s running properly.

I may try another brand of RN ammo but overall the experience was bittersweet, since I’d been lusting after this pistol for decades, but it just wasn’t reliable for me. Still I’m happy to have had the opportunity, and I still think it’s about the prettiest automatic ever made.

I’ll try to figure out some pics later.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1KPerDay,

I had one of those for a time. Agreed about the appearance, fit and finish.

I have one I purchased from a collector/estate that has never been fired except for factory. It is a beautiful Cheetah but I can't tell you anything about how it shoots !

After James Reeves from TFB TV did his review of his (I think an 84BB?) I had to try one. I found a new discontinued one (I think an 85) at a local shop. The original TFB review stated these can be "snappy", but I didn't think much of it, as it was only a .380. Sure enough, that was my number one dis-like. And decided to let it go.

If I see another at a good price, I'm not opposed to giving it another try. But it will most likely fall under a gun just to have. Vs. something I would carry or use often.

I didn't shoot mine very much, but I'm sure I'd remember if it was "snappy." And I don't.

I found my 84BB to recoil more than a 380 should. (it's blowback, so kind of expected). Sold it.
Also have a 81 (32 ACP). I could rave about it for hours but suffice to say, 32 ACP is a dream to shoot in this pistol. I can find no cons about it.

Oh yea. There are a bunch of better choices unless you are just buying one to stare at. They don’t shoot well compared to locked breeches designs. They are snappy for size.

The sweet spot of the cheetah lineup is the 87. Everything works. They would sell millions of these if it wasn’t for price. They are pricy and I don’t think they import them anymore. I broke a firing pin (20+ years of shooting) and it was a bitch to find a replacement.

Owned an 84 and still own an 85. They are/were beautiful. Not great shooters. Buy a 32 barrel and reload. That is good advice if you love the platform. Much nicer to shoot that way.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
I didn't shoot mine very much, but I'm sure I'd remember if it was "snappy." And I don't.

Yeah, ammo choice made a difference. Surprisingly the XTP felt softer/lighter than the FMJ loads I tried (when they were functioning). The XTP was not painful and didn't sting the web of my hand at all. But the others did.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Oh yea. There are a bunch of better choices unless you are just buying one to stare at. They don’t shoot well compared to locked breeches designs. They are snappy for size.

The sweet spot of the cheetah lineup is the 87. Everything works. They would sell millions of these if it wasn’t for price. They are pricy and I don’t think they import them anymore. I broke a firing pin (20+ years of shooting) and it was a bitch to find a replacement.

Owned an 84 and still own an 85. They are/were beautiful. Not great shooters. Buy a 32 barrel and reload. That is good advice if you love the platform. Much nicer to shoot that way.

Yeah, I've been thinking about getting a .32 variant. I'd like a PP in .32 also.

They are definitely snappy. Are they abusively so? Of course not, it’s 380 not 44 Magnum. Shoot an 84/85/86 next to a similar sized locked breach 380 and come back and tell us all how similar in recoil impulse they are. That’s baloney. When the “X” version came out, the infamous Beratta BOX lol, the forums were filled with people wondering or claiming Beretta did some magic to soften them recoil wise. Of course that was all nonsense. Physics is physics. My tiny S&W Bodyguard 2.0 weighs a fraction of my old Cheetahs and it is way softer shooting. Pick up a metal P238 and it’s even better. Walther PPK’s, 84’s, 230’s are beautiful. They are snappier than a 9mm short should be. They aren’t fun range guns compared to other choices. But beautiful.

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

Had an 81 with a second barrel to enable shooting .380.

Beautiful gun, fantastic craftsmanship.

Trigger was smooth but long and with a horribly long reset. This can be corrected on the 92 with Langdon parts, but I don't think he makes those for the Cheetah. The problem was also exacerbated for me with my big hands trying to work work with the smaller grip and shorter trigger reach. I'm one of those ogres that actually likes the standard 92 grip.

The sights on mine had a weird "split-the-front-dot" sight picture where the lower half of the front dot is covered by the rear sight, almost like it wasn't cut deep enough. It doesn't really matter because I align the posts and only use the dot as a focal reference, but it was distracting.

Mainly, I just hated trying to recover all of my expensive and hard to come by .32 ACP brass so I could reload it. Ultimately, I sold it because what's the point of a gun that has no practical role in my daily life and it's not even fun to shoot because of the brass issue. If money was no object and I was ok just buying factory ammo for it I'd have probably kept it, but that's just not the reality of my life.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
My tiny S&W Bodyguard 2.0 weighs a fraction of my old Cheetahs and it is way softer shooting.

Totally agree.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Had an 81 with a second barrel to enable shooting .380.

Beautiful gun, fantastic craftsmanship.

Trigger was smooth but long and with a horribly long reset. This can be corrected on the 92 with Langdon parts, but I don't think he makes those for the Cheetah. The problem was also exacerbated for me with my big hands trying to work work with the smaller grip and shorter trigger reach. I'm one of those ogres that actually likes the standard 92 grip.

The sights on mine had a weird "split-the-front-dot" sight picture where the lower half of the front dot is covered by the rear sight, almost like it wasn't cut deep enough. It doesn't really matter because I align the posts and only use the dot as a focal reference, but it was distracting.

Mainly, I just hated trying to recover all of my expensive and hard to come by .32 ACP brass so I could reload it. Ultimately, I sold it because what's the point of a gun that has no practical role in my daily life and it's not even fun to shoot because of the brass issue. If money was no object and I was ok just buying factory ammo for it I'd have probably kept it, but that's just not the reality of my life.

Yeah I kinda feel the same about getting into the .32s. I don't really need another caliber LOL

A couple of photos for those who may not be familiar with the 86...

That is a beautiful gun.

Always wanted a Beretta 86. That's just one sexy pistol.

ARman

quote:

Originally posted by Tooky13:
A couple of photos for those who may not be familiar with the 86...

thanks Tooky!0

I love the 80 series. I was really hoping they would release the new 80X in .32ACP by now. Threaded barrel version.

Beautiful 86.

European .380 is hotter than the domestic production and will help. S&B .380 FMJ runs great in my Cheetah.
You might want to try a fresh recoil spring.

I’ve had similar function issues in blowback pistols that have a weak recoil spring.

quote:

Beretta 86

The only 80 sereies I'd buy, but I really like tip up barrels.