Girsan MC14T ?

Has anyone had any experience, etc., with the Tip-up .380 pistol? It looks like a convenient house gun for weak hands. I just looked at it online and for ME it seems a little too large for conceal carry. But it seems to check off some boxes like easy to chamber a round and ambidextrous controls. Also the obligatory accessory rail. 14 rounds of .380 should be plenty of firepower for a house gun or something. People carry 1911s, so I suppose people could easily carry this one; just not me. It's $500 MSRP isn't outrageous if it's reliable. If they came in 9mm that would be a plus, but the weak hands part may come into affect.
I'm just thinking down the road when I need a bottle opener for a twist off beer bottle cap.

The October issue of Guns&Ammo has a review on the Girsan MC 14T if interested. Just received it myself. Nice it has a aluminum frame plus 13+ 1 round capacity. Article said the slide is rather heavy though. have not read the whole article though. Will report back when finished if you care.

I express radical amounts of "Meh!" when shown blowback 380 guns. In my experience they kick as much if not more than a similarly sized 9 mm while coming up short on bullet weight and muzzle energy.

However, having looked at specs of the MC14T, I do see a niche for it. Those who have issues racking a slide will welcome the tip-up barrel, and its 4.5" length will squeeze every last bit of performance from the 380 round. Hanging a big light on the 1913 rail will increase its effectiveness as a home defense weapon and the added weight would probably help mitigate recoil.

I handled one at the NRA show this year. Pretty similar in size to a Beretta 84 (as you would expect). It would be too big for pocket carry, but not outside of what could be concealed on the belt.

The real niche for it in my opinion though, is for a home defense pistol for someone with hand strength issues that means they have issues racking a slide.

I picked up a gun at a local gun shop today and forgot to ask if he had one or handled one yet. Theoretically it should be okay for weak hands and self defense. I haven't heard much about Girsan quality. Never heard anything bad. But, it's only $500 which is good if it goes bang when needed.
Thanks guys!

LVSteve said:

I express radical amounts of "Meh!" when shown blowback 380 guns. In my experience they kick as much if not more than a similarly sized 9 mm while coming up short on bullet weight and muzzle energy.

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I second this.
My first backup gun was an AMT 380 in the late '70s.
I was afraid to fire that gun (Blowback) because it was so
painful. Late '90s a friend lent me his P3AT (Locked breech).
It was lighter that the AMT with aluminum//composite
frame. I was afraid to shoot it. When I did, it was a
revelation. Low recoil. I got one and it's been my BUG
ever since. I may retire it since I got a LRP.
I've since obtained a LR9 to evaluate and its recoil is not
a bit objectionable. The key is the locked breech and the
composite grip.

I once owned a .25 acp Beretta Jetfire that also employed the pop up barrel feature. No extractor, just a simple flat chamber face and bolt head. Empty brass was just blown out of the chamber during the slides rearward motion. This gun the same?

Problem was a swollen fired case, or a sticky loaded cartridge you wanted to remove without firing could be a problem. I usually carried something I could poke a casing out of the barrel if needed. I should note I had those issues with some dirty unknown military looking rounds. With clean, new production S&B ammo, it ran like a champ.

Larry

There are still a some Sig P250SC 380's out there and if you want easy to rack this one can be racked with one finger pushing on the rear sight . It weight is just under 20 oz do to sig reducing as much unnecessary weight as possible. Standard model is ether 10 or 12 rounds depending on state laws but the 12 or the 15 round mags and X grip spacer ups the capacity . The last year the slides could be optic ready too , well early sig optic ready !

This is not a blow back 380 but a browning basic tilt barrel system and has a DAO trigger and is hammer fired . We have bought for a daughter a sig P250sc in 380acp years ago but she gave it back after never mastering the DA trigger some 8 years later but with a 9mm exchange kit too . Just move the FCU to the exchange kit for a functional 9mm .

Good article below if your find a P250sc 380 -

Sig Sauer's P250 Sub-Compact .380

MY wife picked up a Bersa Thunder Plus some years back and its a 15 round mag version as a higher cap option over the bersa 380cc she carried some . Cool pistol to for a 380.

My wife keeps some underwood 68ge defender and the 90gr copper hp both so called +P in her ruger max and the p250 since there both use a title barrel system like larger cartridges .

I have the Chippa (Girsan) MC14, which is a Beretta 84 clone but with an enclosed slide. Uses Beretta magazines which is nice. Shoots really well. Well made, well finished.

My question would be, If this pistol is for people with hands too weak to rack a slide, is the trigger pull too heavy for these people to operate?

BE Mike said:

My question would be, If this pistol is for people with hands too weak to rack a slide, is the trigger pull too heavy for these people to operate?

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It's got a traditional DA/SA style trigger, with a thumb safety, so I would think not.

The Beretta 86 was cool.
Beretta 86 By Beretta Guru
The Girsan is not a bad representation of the type.

I was in a small local gun shop when one of the Girsan MC14T's came in. The finish was very nicely done and appeared to be really well made but there was one glaring problem. The barrel release was so stiff that it took both thumbs and considerable force to get it to release the "pop up" barrel. That may have just been a problem with that particular pistol or it may have loosened up with use, but it was enough to be a major strike against it in my eyes.

mckenney99 said:

I was in a small local gun shop when one of the Girsan MC14T's came in. The finish was very nicely done and appeared to be really well made but there was one glaring problem. The barrel release was so stiff that it took both thumbs and considerable force to get it to release the "pop up" barrel. That may have just been a problem with that particular pistol or it may have loosened up with use, but it was enough to be a major strike against it in my eyes.

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A stiff barrel release would negate the other advantages for somebody with diminished hand/wrist strength. Let's hope it's not the norm.

LVSteve said:

A stiff barrel release would negate the other advantages for somebody with diminished hand/wrist strength. Let's hope it's not the norm.

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This was supposed to be part of my question but I forgot to ask.

Better be sure you a person can run a Tap Rack Bang drill on that mc14t or it could be useless if you have a function issue .

hardluk1 said:

Better be sure you a person can run a Tap Rack Bang drill on that mc14t or it could be useless if you have a function issue .

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I watched a video review of it (HammerStriker channel) and one issue that came up was the Tap Rack Bang drill in the case of a failure to fire. It appears that since it has no extractor or ejector, when you rack the slide to attempt to eject an unfired round, it will remain in the chamber and the next round the slide picks up from the magazine will go nowhere and jam between the breach face and the unfired round in the chamber.
The only way to remove the unfired chambered round is to tip up the barrel and dump it out, lower the barrel, then rack the slide to chamber a new round. The reviewer said the slide was very hard to rack to accomplish this drill as well.
I also read the Guns & Ammo article and their review didn't mention this issue at all.

LVSteve said:

A stiff barrel release would negate the other advantages for somebody with diminished hand/wrist strength. Let's hope it's not the norm.

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According to the G&A article, the double action trigger pull is around 8 lbs. That might also be a problem for folks with less than average strength.

Fishinfool said:

I once owned a .25 acp Beretta Jetfire that also employed the pop up barrel feature. No extractor, just a simple flat chamber face and bolt head. Empty brass was just blown out of the chamber during the slides rearward motion. This gun the same?

Problem was a swollen fired case, or a sticky loaded cartridge you wanted to remove without firing could be a problem. I usually carried something I could poke a casing out of the barrel if needed. I should note I had those issues with some dirty unknown military looking rounds. With clean, new production S&B ammo, it ran like a champ.

At the range no big deal. While inder attack…

At the range no big deal. When being attacked well…

Larry

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In addition now another cartridge will either have to be singly loaded into the chamber or with the barrel closed the slide fully retracted to chamber a cartridge from the magazine which of course is a problem with some with weak hand strength.