Hi:
Does anyone have and shoot a Beretta Model 21A?
(small double-action auto pistol caliber 22lr)
What type/brand ammo do you use?
Thank you,
Jimmy

Have one but have not shot it in a couple years. In fact I think my sister has it. I shot PMC ZAPPERS and Winchester super X in it. I did have to send it back for jamming. It was returned promptly and works fine now. It was even a decent shooter for its size.

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SC Army National Guard

Winchester Super X always worked well in mine, I believe it's a 40 grain hollowpoint bullet.

i bought one for my wife. i just buy the cheap stuff. seems to work ok.

I bought my first one in 1984, brand new for about $120. I was in college and .22LR was about all I could afford. I shot over 5,000 rounds thru that pistol, half of it the hyper velocity stuff. At first it would jam occasionally, but I replaced the magazine and that took care of the problem. My favorite round was the Remington 40 grain gilded solid point. I would go at least 200 rounds at a time and the gun rarely quit working because it was dirty. Unfortunatly, I shot it so much that the rolled pins started working loose, so I had to buy another. I don't think Beretta intended them to be shot that much. I still have both.

The 21A in .22 LR was a great concealed carry gun for its time because it was a small package, was double action, and ammo was cheap. If you had the time, you could shoot it enough to become very proficient. It was great to have in your pocket when some thug targeting you doesn't expect you to be armed at all.

Remember that the .22LR, and Beretta pistols chambered for that round were in use by other contries intelligence service operatives and by EL Al flight security personnel. In the days before baby Glocks and other small packages, the 21A was about the best thing to come along since sliced bread when ultimate concealment was needed. I tried a lot of back up guns over the years, but kept coming back to the 21A. I don't carry mine anymore, but have found that they are an excellent pistol to start my boys off shooting because the tip-up barrel allows the loading of one round at a time.

One of these days, I'm going to add a stainless version to my collection.

I've been keeping Federal Automatch bulk 40-grain RNLs in mine. It seems to do very well with them (the primers are quite soft and detonate even as the gun gets dirty - as others have mentioned, you want to clean this thing pretty frequently), and they're decently economical in the 325-round pack. I chrono'd a batch a while back and got an average of 849.3 fps, a spread of 29.58 fps, and a standard deviation of 11.40 fps (5950'> sea level, 15% humidity, c. 60° F).

Here are some other numbers:

Winchester Super X Super Speed RN 40-gr plated round nose
M 811.3/ES 46.8/SD 20.89

CCI SGB (Small Game Bullet) 40-gr LFP
M 841.2/ES 67.1/SD 22.79

CCI Blazer 40-gr RNL
M 830.1/ES 143.7/SD 51.41

PMC Zapper 40-gr PRNL (red box)
M 797.5/ES 101.2/SD 52.84

PMC Zapper 40-gr PRNL (orange box)
M 847.7/ES 98.76/SD 38.74

CCI Velocitor (new) 40-gr PHP
M 852.2/ES 71.41/SD 28.14

Aguila SSS 60-gr RNL
M 606.0/ES 47.34/SD 21.07

Aguila Super Colibri 20-gr lead truncated cone
M 494.4/ES 19.74/SD 8.18

CCI Stinger 32-gr PHP
M 1004/ES 86.16/SD 38.45

Aguila Interceptor 40-gr PFP
M 931.8/ES 155.2/SD 55.79

CCI Mini-Mag 40-gr PRN
M 879.9/ES 16.60/SD 7.07

Federal Champion bulk 36-gr PHP
M 928.1/ES 105.9/SD 38.96

CCI Mini-Mag 36-gr PHP
M 848.1/ES 71.00/SD 27.87

Aguila .22 Super Extra 40-gr PRN
M 836.1/ES 68.87/SD 29.42

BTW, I worked peripherally at both trial and on appeal of a case in which one of these little guns was used to kill two people.

Here are some facts on the episode as set forth in the New Mexico Supreme Court's opinion in State v. Coffin, 1999-NMSC-038, ¶ 8, 128 N.M. 192, 991 P.2d 477:

Doctor Julia Goodin, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsies on both Martinezes, testified at trial concerning their gunshot wounds. Chris Martinez, Sr. received two gunshot wounds, one on the left side of the head near the ear, traveling slightly front to back and left to right and lodging at the base of the skull and brain. The second gunshot wound was in the left chest area near the armpit, traveling right to left. Mr. Martinez, Sr. had a blood alcohol level of .269 percent. Chris Martinez, Jr. received four gunshot wounds: one to the left side of the jaw traveling slightly left to right and back to front, exiting through the chin; a second behind the left ear, traveling left to right and back to front, lodging in the base of the skull; a third just below the latter gunshot behind the left ear, with a similar trajectory; and, finally, a fourth in the lower middle of the back, traveling left to right and back to front, hitting the spine. Mr. Martinez, Jr. had a blood alcohol level of .156 percent.

Witnesses reported the Martinez men were behaving aggressively before being shot. Id. at ¶¶ 5, 6. Another witness said both Martinez men dropped to the ground immediately upon being shot. Id. at ¶ 7.

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Now go make God proud...

My 21a also likes 40 gr Federal Automatch and its cousin 40 gr HP Hunter Match. Also works great with Federal #714 40 gr Standard Velocity (Federal sadly discontinued the #714 but still makes the Match version 711b at same velocity) and Federal “525” pack HV 36 gr CPHP.

Oddly, my 21a doesn’t like either CCI 40 gr Mini Mags or CCI 40 gr SV loadings.

I don’t have one right now. I’ve had several of them. Everytime I get one somebody cries until I let them have it. To me it is unquestionably the best 22 pistol of its size. I shot all kinds of ammo and never had any issues. Accuracy is outstanding for a little gun with crude sights. It’s better than a lot of the 32 frame guns. I could hit beer cans at 15yds with them. If I was going to carry a 22 for CCW that be it.

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60 grain Aguila loads are by far the favorite of my 21A.
They shoot a lot closer to point of aim also.

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I had one that wasn't reliable with any ammo I tried in it. I had another that was pretty reliable with most ammo as long as you kept it very clean.

Guys, Jimmy got his answer 12 years ago. You can PM him to see if he bought one.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I purchase two. One for my Wife and One for my Daughter. Neither one was dependable.
I then purchased both S&W Model 642s. Negative issues.

A while back I bought one.
The seller had two.
One was his and the other had belonged to his ex-wife.
I hope that I didn’t buy the Ex one. Bad Mojo!
Mine likes hot ammo, I load it with CCI.
Works fine as long as it’s Clean and Cold.
When I take it out and run 5-6 Mags fast, it will fail to eject.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Shot 100 rds this morning with 50 rds Fed Automatch, 30 rds Eley Target and 20 rds Aguila Super Extra SV; all with no malfunctions of any kind! I also make a habit of wetting a couple of Qtips with Mil Spec G96 CLP and clean chamber and breech face every 20 rounds or so...that helps with the great reliability I’m getting.

...starting my shooting session I first empty my two magazines (each with seven rounds of Fed Automatch) in rapid succession downrange...all functioned perfectly.

I have a 21A in .25 auto. Shoot it once in a while, very accurate, very reliable. Too fat to carry often, but I have.

I love mine, look for one in .22lr al the time but man they’re pricey near me.

I need to take mine out and play with it at the indoor range.

Ancient thread, but why not. I've owned two of them so far. First one I got in trade for a crummy TV, this one was my most recent:



It was an aftermarket thread job and ran better suppressed than it or the other one did non-suppressed. The CT grips were usable indoors where one always had to wear earpro anyways, outdoors they were useless, as were the sights almost any time (and obviously even moreso suppressed. None I've owned or seen were ever anything approaching reliable, they're bulky for what they are, have crummy triggers, and generally aren't amazing to shoot.

All that said, if I have spare cash in the gun budget, I will absolutely buy the "covert" factory threaded model in the future. It's a crummy gun that is way, way cooler to own than it should be.

Still have the one I used to carry back in the 90's in a wallet holster until those became taboo.
Mine ran great with everything I fed it.
Recently picked up an early SS Walther TPH, will have to bring them to the range for a comparison and report.

I had a Beretta model 21. I was reliable, but I didn't like the sights so I sold it. Did not carry it much either because it was too fat.
Over a couple year period I have owned 5 Walther TPH pistols. They were all Interarms model and they were all replaced under warrenty because they were not reliable. When I would have a problem with one I would call Interarms and they would take it back and give me a new one. I quit after the fifth one wouldn't work properly. The gun was a really nice size but the 22 model was junk. The company stopped producing them for a reason.

I had a .25 for a long time that i bought new. Never had a jam with it, unlike a .22 that i bought used. I couldnt get a full magazine through that one and traded it back to the pawnshop where i got it.
I have a buddy that conducted an informal penetration test, .22 vs. .25. He set up some wood blocks in his garage and let fly. The .22 lodged in about the 3rd block. The .25 went through all the blocks, hit the garage wall, and richocheted back between his legs and buried itself in his workbench. The .25 was declared the winner and further testing deemed unneccesary.

I picked up the Covert model a few weeks back. Can’t wait for my suppressors to get out of jail.

I wish I could find a set of those CT grips. Or even CT to start making them again. Seems perfect for when you are using a can.

Like I said in the post, it's good indoors, just slightly annoying that it's in the place where you can't really appreciate the noise reduction in the can. It was range people catnip though, something about a compact 22 with a silencer projecting a laser dot on the cardboard gets a lot of people asking about it.

Outdoors, you can shoot in low light I guess but the sun totally washed it out.

I have one in .25acp. Good little gun and pretty accurate for what it is. I do have one issue with it. Very often when shooting I suddenly discover that the manual safety lever has come on unintentionally. Not good for a defensive gun.
I've checked the lever. It snaps on and off with a solid click and doesn't seem to have any play or looseness in it. I'm guessing that during recoil that the lever is bumping my thumb somehow. However, despite efforts to adjust my grip in several different ways, it keeps happening. Anybody else have this problem?

The Walther TPH is an excellent size pocket gun, but the .22LR version is known to be quite finicky. I sent mine to M&M Gunsmithing in Alabama. Mike used to work for Interarms and is the true master of getting troublesome Walthers working properly.
He got my TPH working perfectly and the cost was very reasonable.

Not intended to prolong this thread, but I sent both of my 21As back to a Beretta service center last summer for refurbishing. I left the finishes alone, but had the internals inspected and springs and pins replaced as necessary. Oddly, my older pistol which had digested more rounds and suffered pins that worked themselves loose required less work than the newer version. I've only played with them a little bit since getting them back, but they both work. I discovered that neither like CCI Mini Mag primers - they may have not liked them before but I don't remember. I fired a couple of magazines of the new Winchester Silvertip .22LR with no feeding or ejection issues. Got a box of the Federal Punch .22 LR and fired a couple of magazines through one of them and experienced failures to eject. Anyway, I will have to run them a bit more. One thing I noted is that while the sights were never optimal, they're worse now that my vision has somewhat deteriorated and corrective lenses sort of don't meet at the halfway to see the sights all that well. I tried to remedy the problem with orange nail polish on the front sight, but these things are currently more point and shoot than precision currently. Anyway, while they're neat little guns, I am thinking seriously about a J-frame snub in .22LR as a pocket pistol.