Beretta .32 Tomcat Revisited
There are as many opinions about minimum caliber of carry guns as there are about deer rifles (I use a .30-30). My wife uses a .32 Tomcat, cannot easily rack a slide due to limited hand & wrist strength, the tip-up barrel & DA/SA make it a piece of cake.
You'd like to think that ANY gun would be a deterrent for most folks as no one WANTS to get shot (except the suicidal).
You'd like to think that ANY gun would be a deterrent for most folks as no one WANTS to get shot (except the suicidal).
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a .22 will stop 99% of people, and a .45 may not stop that other 1%. your .30-30 will stop someone. i carry anything i feel comfortable that i can fire accurately. bullet placement is what counts. 0 -
Its what you feel comfortable with. My wife carried a .32 tomcat for a long time until I bought her a new pink taurus .380. She likes the pretty color and the slim design, I like the added power. 0 -
The .30-30 I use only for deer. I use a .32 Walther PP for carry or optionally, a .25 Raven (I know, lots of bad reports, but it functions quite well after reworking several springs, which were too strong, starting with the ejector). 0 -
My wife has a Beretta in .22LR she carries all the time around the place ,doing chores.She shot a prairie dog and a garter snake last week and several rabbits in the garlic patch.She likes it because it's easy to carry .She has a Galco wallet holster. 0 -
quote: There are as many opinions about minimum caliber of carry guns as there are about deer rifles (I use a .30-30). My wife uses a .32 Tomcat, cannot easily rack a slide due to limited hand & wrist strength, the tip-up barrel & DA/SA make it a piece of cake.
I like a 30-30 too, and I don't think there is anyone who would argue that a 30-30 is NOT a good deer round.
But since you raise the deer analogy, lets say you wanted to hunt a 150lb buck. Would you hunt it with a .32ACP pistol? If the answer to that is "no", then how comfortable would you be defending yourself against an armed 150lb human with that same round?
I think the general idea in a defensive carry pistol is to carry the biggest caliber that you're comfortable both shooting and can actually carry concealed on your person.
Racking a slide *IS* a real issue, particularly with the smaller guns that have extremely stiff slide actions. That said, Beretta does make a .380 with a tip up barrel, and this "Cheetah" is a medium sized gun with minimal recoil. It may be a bit bulky for concealed carry, but in my opinion its a far better choice than any .32 in just about any other setting.
Revolvers, of course, also make the issue of stiff slides moot, and they're more reliable than ALL of the "mouse" guns (that as a rule tend not to be all that reliable).
quote:You'd like to think that ANY gun would be a deterrent for most folks as no one WANTS to get shot (except the suicidal).
You'd think so, but if you figure that some assailants will be intoxicated with alcohol and/or other drugs, they may not mind getting shot. . .or frankly even notice if it does happen!
In fact, not knowing you've been shot is a pretty common occurrence, especially with smaller caliber projectiles.
By this logic, you might as well just carry a blank pistol, right?
In my opinion if you're going to undertake the legal liability of using deadly force to defend yourself (which is what you ARE doing in firing ANY gun, even a .22 short) then you might as well be using a gun that can actually DELIVER deadly force.
quote:Originally posted by Bill DeShivs
Mighty hard to get my 30-30 in my pocket.....
Have you considered one of these?[;)]
Again, all handguns are a compromise between size/weight and power. That's the primary reason they exist. . .to be carried easily on the person. The point is, that with ANY handgun you're already starting off with an intrinsically weak weapon. Why handicap yourself further with an anemic round if you can help it?
In terms of concealability, my point earlier is just that concealability is probably no longer by itself a reason to get a 32. The new 380 guns are the same size as (and often lighter than) the Beretta 32s. If you can conceal the Beretta you can conceal a 380. Also, as a matter of practice, in some cases its possible for a gun to be TOO small, where the gun itself doesn't have enough surface area for you to maintain a good shooting grip on it.
Tip-up barrel is a boon to loading the first round, but as a matter of tactics/doctrine, I believe its still highly useful to be able to rack the slide.
What if for some reason you get a failure to fire or a failure to extract? If you can't physically rack the slide then how are you going to load the next round into the gun?
Yes, you can tip up the barrel, try to extract the dud/fired round with your fingers, then eject the loaded magazine, manually strip off a round from the top, insert the new round into the tipped up barrel, drop the barrel, re-insert the mag, and be good to go.
But are you trained/practiced enough to actually accomplish this under life and death-type stress?0 -
Mighty hard to get my 30-30 in my pocket..... 0 -
Self-defense, for me, comes down to a matter of faith, precisely as it did for the founders of this country (those clever folks who gave us the second amendment, without which this forum would not exist). Doing whatever was necessary to ensure the Creator was on your side made this the strongest nation on earth, an idea that has been abandoned by our current "leaders" and is soon to result in this nation's irrelevance on the world scene.
The invincible giant Goliath knew that bigger was better. Didn't quite work out against David's sling and a stone.0 -
Just goes to prove one well placed shot will do the job. 0 -
A small gun with the element of surprise is worth more that a big gun. Be prepared like a good scout. 0 -
One final note: the account of David and Goliath was a military action pointing out that a good offense is the best defense (his task was to get as close as possible, as fast as possible, and throw as hard as possible, trusting the outcome to his creator). Civilian self-defense, however, under the application of present law, is just the opposite, requiring you to retreat as far as practicable before using deadly force on an assailant. Failure to do that may very well land you in prison, a point which should be made in no uncertain terms in concealed-carry training classes (and was, in my recent permit renewal class here in Minnesota by John Caile, who has been in the thick of negotiations with state officials on cc permitting policies). You've got to do whatever's necessary to have the law on YOUR side, guys. 0
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