There are not that many new firearms that spark much interest for me, but I’ve always been a fan of the various 70 and 80 series Berettas, as well as their compact L and M versions of the 92.
That interest in Beretta semi-autos and an interest in .380 ACP in particular meant that when I saw a Beretta 80X in the local gun shop, I had to look at it. After noting the excellent feel and the superb trigger I had to take it home.
Like the other Beretta 80 series pistols it isn’t particularly small or light at 25 oz unloaded and 28.2 oz loaded 13+1.
Beretta removed the usual Beretta bulge on the back strap, gave it a square trigger guard, added a rail for a light, added serrations on the front of the slide, and gave it optics ready rear sights as well as a dove tail front sight.
I’m not a fan of a light on a conceal carry pistol, especially a small one, and adding an optic also goes against the concealment grain on a small pistol. I get Beretta wanting to capitalize on the current fashion trends. I don’t mind the squared off hand guard. but I would like to see Beretta come out with a version with no rail and the traditional slim forward frame.
More importantly, Beretta gave the 80X a delightfully light and smooth DA trigger with a pull weight around 6 pounds.
They also added a decock feature where the safety lever decocks the pistol in the “safe” postion and then can either be left there or returned to the fire position. After decocking, the 80x has a much shorter trigger reach and between the short reach and light trigger pull, a lighter SA pull for the first shot isn’t missed. When it’s decocked and the slack is taken out of the trigger, the bottom of the trigger is in line with the pivot pin for the slide release.
There is an intermediate position for the safety lever that has been put forward by some reviewers as allowing a cocked and locked carry option, like the Model 81 shown here with the 80X. However, in the store I found one 80X would disconnect the trigger lever in this intermediate position while the other would not. On that second pistol pulling the trigger with the safety in the intermediate position moved the safety up to the decock position and decocked the pistol.
A little research after the fact identified that Beretta uses the intermediate position to bring things into contact prior to decocking and it is not intended for cocked and locked carry.
——
Like the other 70 and 80 series Beretta pistols the 80x uses a blowback design, which a bit antiquated by modern standards for the .380 ACP. However, Beretta states it has tuned the recoil and slide weight to minimize recoil. At 28 oz, it’s not much lighter than a PPK/S (31 oz) and it has ample grip area so it should shoot well and my other Beretta .380 ACP blow back pistols are not objectionable.
The 80X uses a guide rod and recoil spring assembly. The spring is retained on the rod by a split collar. Disassembly for recoil spring replacement just requires pushing the spring down off the collar and removing the two halves of the collar to release the spring. There won’t be any need to purchase a whole new assembly or worry about complicated spring replacements on the existing assembly.
Beretta also modified the feed ramp and designed a new magazine for the 80X to ensure reliable performance with hollow points. But that means the double stack .380 ACP magazine for the Model 84 will not work in the 80X.
—-
Using a .380 ACP for self defense is still controversial. However to be fair, when I started in law enforcement in the mid 1980s using 9mm was controversial as hollow point performance was poor and ball rounds were just not effective. The situation with 9mm has clearly changed and it’s almost become the go to for self defense given significant advances in 9mm hollow point design and performance.
The same thing has happened with the .380 ACP and several hollow points will reliably expand at .380 ACP velocities, and a few will also demonstrate penetration in the 12-14” inch range with reliable expansion. The caveat is that getting expansion and penetration requires a fairly narrow velocity range so it’s very much barrel length dependent.
With a 3.9” barrel the 80X will maximize velocity with .380 ACP and should be a good performer with 90 gr XTP. The XTP does well with max loads in the 1000-1050 fps range and that’s readily achievable in a 3.9” barrel.
I have not done any ballistic testing with the .380 90 gr V-crown yet, but the 124 gr 9mm Sig V-crown is a superb performer across a wide velocity range. The testing I have seen for the 90 gr .380 version indicates it performs well with reliable expansion and 12-14” penetration at 860 or so fps in a 3.25” barrel. At higher 3.9” velocities it will either expand even better with similar penetration or will expand more and penetrate less. However, give its 9mm performance I suspect it’ll just expand even better and still give 12-14” penetration.
I’ll see if I can get out do a range test and some gel testing in the next week or so.
Since it’s new, holsters are thin on the ground. Galco makes a multi fit holster that works but I discovered that a Next Holster Guardian that I have for a 4” 1911 works well with the tension adjustment screw and rigger grommet removed to accommodate the longer trigger guard and thinner slide profile. I’ll order another one from Next Holster eventually when they list one for the 80X, but since the 1911 holster works fine there isn’t a pressing need.
That interest in Beretta semi-autos and an interest in .380 ACP in particular meant that when I saw a Beretta 80X in the local gun shop, I had to look at it. After noting the excellent feel and the superb trigger I had to take it home.
Like the other Beretta 80 series pistols it isn’t particularly small or light at 25 oz unloaded and 28.2 oz loaded 13+1.
Beretta removed the usual Beretta bulge on the back strap, gave it a square trigger guard, added a rail for a light, added serrations on the front of the slide, and gave it optics ready rear sights as well as a dove tail front sight.
I’m not a fan of a light on a conceal carry pistol, especially a small one, and adding an optic also goes against the concealment grain on a small pistol. I get Beretta wanting to capitalize on the current fashion trends. I don’t mind the squared off hand guard. but I would like to see Beretta come out with a version with no rail and the traditional slim forward frame.
More importantly, Beretta gave the 80X a delightfully light and smooth DA trigger with a pull weight around 6 pounds.
They also added a decock feature where the safety lever decocks the pistol in the “safe” postion and then can either be left there or returned to the fire position. After decocking, the 80x has a much shorter trigger reach and between the short reach and light trigger pull, a lighter SA pull for the first shot isn’t missed. When it’s decocked and the slack is taken out of the trigger, the bottom of the trigger is in line with the pivot pin for the slide release.
There is an intermediate position for the safety lever that has been put forward by some reviewers as allowing a cocked and locked carry option, like the Model 81 shown here with the 80X. However, in the store I found one 80X would disconnect the trigger lever in this intermediate position while the other would not. On that second pistol pulling the trigger with the safety in the intermediate position moved the safety up to the decock position and decocked the pistol.
A little research after the fact identified that Beretta uses the intermediate position to bring things into contact prior to decocking and it is not intended for cocked and locked carry.
——
Like the other 70 and 80 series Beretta pistols the 80x uses a blowback design, which a bit antiquated by modern standards for the .380 ACP. However, Beretta states it has tuned the recoil and slide weight to minimize recoil. At 28 oz, it’s not much lighter than a PPK/S (31 oz) and it has ample grip area so it should shoot well and my other Beretta .380 ACP blow back pistols are not objectionable.
The 80X uses a guide rod and recoil spring assembly. The spring is retained on the rod by a split collar. Disassembly for recoil spring replacement just requires pushing the spring down off the collar and removing the two halves of the collar to release the spring. There won’t be any need to purchase a whole new assembly or worry about complicated spring replacements on the existing assembly.
Beretta also modified the feed ramp and designed a new magazine for the 80X to ensure reliable performance with hollow points. But that means the double stack .380 ACP magazine for the Model 84 will not work in the 80X.
—-
Using a .380 ACP for self defense is still controversial. However to be fair, when I started in law enforcement in the mid 1980s using 9mm was controversial as hollow point performance was poor and ball rounds were just not effective. The situation with 9mm has clearly changed and it’s almost become the go to for self defense given significant advances in 9mm hollow point design and performance.
The same thing has happened with the .380 ACP and several hollow points will reliably expand at .380 ACP velocities, and a few will also demonstrate penetration in the 12-14” inch range with reliable expansion. The caveat is that getting expansion and penetration requires a fairly narrow velocity range so it’s very much barrel length dependent.
With a 3.9” barrel the 80X will maximize velocity with .380 ACP and should be a good performer with 90 gr XTP. The XTP does well with max loads in the 1000-1050 fps range and that’s readily achievable in a 3.9” barrel.
I have not done any ballistic testing with the .380 90 gr V-crown yet, but the 124 gr 9mm Sig V-crown is a superb performer across a wide velocity range. The testing I have seen for the 90 gr .380 version indicates it performs well with reliable expansion and 12-14” penetration at 860 or so fps in a 3.25” barrel. At higher 3.9” velocities it will either expand even better with similar penetration or will expand more and penetrate less. However, give its 9mm performance I suspect it’ll just expand even better and still give 12-14” penetration.
I’ll see if I can get out do a range test and some gel testing in the next week or so.
Since it’s new, holsters are thin on the ground. Galco makes a multi fit holster that works but I discovered that a Next Holster Guardian that I have for a 4” 1911 works well with the tension adjustment screw and rigger grommet removed to accommodate the longer trigger guard and thinner slide profile. I’ll order another one from Next Holster eventually when they list one for the 80X, but since the 1911 holster works fine there isn’t a pressing need.
