.25 ACP roundup and range test
Massad Ayoob says friends don't let friends carry mouseguns but I have always been a little partial to these diminutive rascals. I took my three .25s to the range this week because it's been awhile for two of them and the new one needed a workout.
I kept my target at 3 yards. I wasn't trying to show off hitting at distance with these guns; it was more to remind me of what they can and cannot do.
The Beretta 950-BS was the easiest to shoot and probably the most accurate although accuracy was not really my goal. Its only problem is that its safety routinely pops up and when that happens the gun is virtually inert and it is very frustrating. No tap/rack/bang drill will work. You MUST remember to drop the safety again or no shooting happens! Annoying. When I carried this gun I knew about the issue and was prepared for it to arise but I had forgotten! Still, all in all, a fun little mousie to shoot.
The next gun clockwise is a CZ DUO made in German occupied Czechoslovakia in 1944. It has no sights, just a long trough, and it very hard to hit with. However, it fires every time, no hiccups, every brand of ammunition I used. All were 50 gr FMJ rounds, actually, except a few that were already in the Beretta for a long time and it was time to shoot them and get new ammunition.
The third mousie is my new PSA Baby Browning. PSA replaced my first one (long story in another thread) and this one is marked Fabrique National with Browning logos on the grip panels. It is gorgeous. It is lighter and smaller than either of the other two pistols but not difficult to shoot. It has only two issues - the first is that due to its size you have to be careful when you hold it so you don't get the web of your hand etched by the slide. It's easy to do, pretty naturally, actually, but I did still have some slight redness where it touched me several times.
This gun is about as accurate as either of the other two, probably more accurate than the CZ DUO and maybe a bit less accurate than the 950 BS. I wasn't working too hard for accuracy and for this gun it was a break in period. Sad to say the gun is so finely made (it is precision/hand made) and has such tight tolerances that at least 20% of the rounds failed to feed and I had to do a tap/rack drill to get the little gun to accept cartridges to fire. I think that the main issue is the throat, however, and before I ask someone to polish the feed ramp and throat I will put another couple of hundred rounds through it. Then I will write another review.
It is charming and darling and WILL definitely be carried in a vest pocket as soon as it is broken in.
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