The Beretta 85BB thread ended up convincing me I needed one of these, and when I found some surplus available on gunbroker, I had to give it a try. I figured the .32 would make a good platform to shoot with my kids and teach new shooters on.

The one I got was imported by RGuns, and there seem to be quite a few floating around out there right now from this particular batch. I read somewhere that they are Italian Fish and Game police guns, but I don't know if that's true or not.

I'd say the gun itself is in 95% condition, and the grips are a little worse off than the gun itself. It shows signs of having been carried (nicks and dings on the grips, wear on the high points of the slide, etc.), but whoever carried this one was clearly nicer to it than I've ever been to a duty gun. The import mark isn't too bad. It's on the right side of the frame above the trigger guard.

When I got it it was gooped up heavily with some kind of sticky packing grease. It was so gummed up that you could barely rack the slide. I field stripped it, removed the grips, and washed it down good with Hoppes and brake cleaner, then lubed it. It took some doing, but the gummy grease is all gone, and the slide glides on the rails like it's on ball bearings. Typical Beretta. The grease did it's job, though...I can't find any rust anywhere on this thing.



The gun is a nice size...big enough to fill the hand but no bigger than it needs to be. It feels a lot like my 92, however being straight blowback instead of locked breach, the slide doesn't have quite the same mechanical positive stop that then 92 does...it just kind of builds up pressure against the spring until you can't pull it back anymore. The trigger is typical Beretta...long and smooth, not too heavy.

I managed to scrounge up three different types of factory ammo in the last couple of weeks, and had a small batch of my reloads using 60gr XTPs as well. One thing that was a little frustrating is that regardless of the ammo type, the gun doesn't want to feed from slide-lock. If you stick a mag in and drop the slide, the round will hang up partially into the chamber and they're a bugger to get out. The type of ammo didn't seem to change this, either. The longer OAL round nose stuff did it just as bad as the short XTPs. We solved the problem by seating the mag with the slide forward and quickly racking the slide...it fed ok that way, and we didn't have any feeding issues while firing the gun. I have a couple of spare mags on order...I'm curious to see if that will resolve this problem.

Accuracy was decent once I got warmed up. These are a couple of the better targets from 7 yards. They weren't all this good, and each of these still has a flier, but if I do my part the gun will shoot.





The Hornady Custom XTPs were the softest shooting, and were pretty accurate. But they also didn't get a complete powder burn, and left a lot of unburned powder in the barrel. For over $1/round, I wasn't impressed.



I liked my 60gr XTP handload over Titegroup, but it was a little snappier than the other loads. I'll probably tweak it a bit and see if I can't get it to shoot like the Hornady Customs but with a complete powder burn.

Like any surplus gun, it's a bit of an project, but I'm glad I bought it and I'm sure I'll get good use out of it...especially once reloading components come back in stock.

Those are lovely little (mid-sized) pistols. I have a .22 and wouldn't part with it for any price anyone would pay.

I'd say you shot it very well. I have several 81 Series pistols and love them all but I have trouble with the dot on dot sights with my old eyes. You made a nice choice.

Congratulations, I ended up with 3 81s of different vintages. The dot system takes me a bit to re-adjust but we really enjoy the pistols and the caliber...though I think twice these days of burning through my “cheap” stock. You did well - wonder if the feed issue is due to the magazine? I’m sure you will get sorted - enjoy that beauty!

I'm looking forward to hearing more feedback coming in. There was a recent article on loading for one in Handloader. One thing the author mentioned kind of gave me pause; apparently there's a pretty fair range in the bullet diameters loaded into commercial .32 ACP ammo.

What a beautiful handgun. Looks like it shoots as good as it looks!

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
I'm looking forward to hearing more feedback coming in. There was a recent article on loading for one in Handloader. One thing the author mentioned kind of gave me pause; apparently there's a pretty fair range in the bullet diameters loaded into commercial .32 ACP ammo.

This is true. The chamber is pretty picky, too. I had found some 100gr cast bullets at Midway, and figured I'd load up a couple to try. They won't chamber. The bullet is too long and it won't work with the tapered case...if you seat it deep enough to fit in the mag it produces a bulge that won't allow it to chamber. Thankfully a buddy loads .32 S&W, so he traded me those for some 60gr XTPs which seem to work well. Hopefully things get back to normal some day and I can try out some other cheaper options for plinking. I was also pleased to see that it doesn't appear to have any issues with rimlock, even with a variety of OALs, which I was told could be a problem in .32 ACP.

I concur with OP's initial review. Except, mine had no trouble from slide-lock. Same vendor, and condition. Bought extra mags for it, also.
If you just have the 'one-with-the-gun', that may be the issue(?).

Wrung it out just slightly yesterday, LOL. By that, checking POA/POI with the 4 types I had on hand. All were pretty close at the 25yd line, save for PMC 71gr, which was snappier and printed several inches higher.

The gun is an absolute joy to shoot. I would hope that 13rds of the little JHP buggers would prove persuasive should they ever be needed.

The Beretta 81bbs are great little pistols. I have two, one a recent import. The other has no import marks(it was probably bought by an American service member overseas and brought back), and is in excellent condition.

quote:

If you just have the 'one-with-the-gun', that may be the issue(?).

Correct, I just have (had) the one mag. I just got home from a work trip, and the two mags I ordered from RGuns Tuesday night before I left were on the counter, so hopefully they prove to be the solution. I was really impressed with RGuns...they had some sketchy reviews online, but they definitely delivered, and fast!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 92fstech,

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I was really impressed with RGuns...they had some sketchy reviews online, but they definitely delivered, and fast!

I concur.

Well, I finally got a night at home and had a chance to spend some more time looking at the 81. The new mags didn't fix the problem, so I dug a little deeper.

I discovered there was a nasty sharp lip around the top of the chamber mouth right where the rounds were hanging up coming out of the magazine. I carefully stoned it away, then sanded with some fine grit paper and polished on low speed with a dremel buffing tool. It function checked ok at the house last night, and I had it out to the range this morning and put 25 rounds of my meager .32 stash through it without issue (5 rounds in a mag at a time). I'll have to shoot it some more before I'm confident it's fixed, but I think I have it solved.

Just got one of these from R Guns last month. They are from the Italian Forestry Service, stamped on the left side. Lots of proof marks on these, very cool history. Fantastic shooters with no recoil.
My first one was in very good shape, looks to have been carries a lot but almost no wear from shooting. The second one I ordered had a little more external wear and appeared to have been shot a lot.

Only issue I had was a chipped extractor, but it runs fine. Ordered a spare from Numrich.

these threads have cost me money. just ordered my 81bb and four extra mags tonite from R Guns

quote:

Originally posted by bolo4tom:
these threads have cost me money. just ordered my 81bb and four extra mags tonite from R Guns

I think you'll be happy with it!

thank you, im sure I will. I own a few other Berettas but none in .32 since I sold the Tomcat. looking fwd to getting it

i got my Beretta last week. it was in better condition than I was expecting. I had ordered new plastic logo grips and screws but the lil pistol really didn't need them as the originals were in great shape. It was however, so heavily greased up the hammer would fall in slow motion and the slide was difficult. after 3 hrs of cleaning and reassembling, now it functions perfectly and is absolutely crazy accurate. glad you guys pushed me to spend my money on this lil 81BB. ETA, mags were also full of grease, had to break those down and clean them as well. 175 rnds down range and not one single issue

Very nice! That thing looks pristine, and those wood grips look almost perfect! And yes, they definitely came gooped up. I had to strip down my mags, too, including the extra ones that I bought, to get everything cleaned out. I didn't mind, though...it gave me a chance to inspect everything, and whatever that stuff was it did a good job of keeping rust off the gun.

based on the experiences here, I knew it was going to be in great shape but it was still better than I expected. ill take gunked up over rust all day, everyday

Just got my first set of LOK grips off of the big river site for the 81bb. WELL WORTH the $68, or so.