I have two of the old Berettas 380 with the pop up barrel. This was the New York police backup pistol of choice when the came out. I love my 380 Beretta so much it goes to church with me every Sunday.
Thanks for doing this review, I am thinking of buying this pistol so have been doing research on it and was happy to find your take. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone show barrel temperature in a gun review before, that is a great idea when you think about it. If I may suggest, I don’t think the failures to lock back, nor the one malfunction, had as much to do with the ammo as it did your grip on the gun. Hear me out, if you play back your own video and look close, you can see that when the slide fails to lock back, your thumb knuckle is riding on the slide lock lever. Before you even completed your third mag I correctly predicted that the slide would lock back that time because I could see your grip had changed and your thumb was lower. Also, the time the gun malfunctioned, your thumb had drifted north and was dragging on the slide. With this in mind, you might want to test those ammos again, just for funzies. As a female with smaller hands, I figured this out as I have more than once seen guys with bigger hands encounter this same problem on other small (low caliber w/a light slide) automatics. It is surprisingly easy to be completely oblivious to the fact that you are doing it on a 380, whereas on a blastier 9mm you'd either figure it out, or your thumb interference wouldn't be enough to affect the slide and cause a malf. 380 pistols do offer perplexing challenges to shoot well due to the fact the light round usually lends itself to the manufacture of a smaller, lighter gun with less real estate in which to put your hands, but then that very feature makes it harder to grip the gun in a really "correct" way. If you find your thumb interference a hard habit to break, try shooting the gun one-handed, or teacup style, and I betcha the problem goes away. Let us know if that works out. Cheers. 🙂
Bought my MC14T in April 2024. After the 1st 50-100 rounds the slide locked back on empty without fail. I fully suspect less expensive ammo has a tad less powder charge resulting in less force on the new slide spring. Also, extraction is from powder charge only, so varying powder loads from manufacturers will affect lock-back operation. The slide does have an ejector, and throws the shells to the right and rear. I also load my magazines with a yellow Magula loader, just easier on my aging hands. ( A must for my glock-17+ round magazines) Winchester White-Box Flat-Nose .380 ACP seems to be the least agreeable ammo for this pistol, but I had several hundred rounds of it, free, before I even bought this pistol, so I am using it up 1st. I did buy Hornady XTP for self-defense purposes, but this is not my EDC at this point. At 30.5 oz fully loaded and the 4 1/2" barrel it's not bad for CC, just not the most concealable. (EDC duty goes to my 1st generation P3AT, which also does not like WWB, and gets priority on the XTP rounds. It is also 14.7 oz w/10 rounds, and 1/2 the size, so it wins the concealability contest for the time being.) I bought 2 spare Girsan magazines to get their curved pinkie rest, but the Mech-Gar mags for the Beretta 84 are the same, just with a flat bottom plate. I have always yearned for the Cheetah 86, but they are rare and pricey, and only 8-round single stack. The MC14T fits as nicely as any other Beretta I own, and felt comfortable and familiar to me from day one! My only regret is that I do not have one for each hand.................yet, lol!
Hmm 1 failure ran the vcrown hoping to see it w a Beretta or macgar mag and XTPs. The hotter ammo was getting the slide w it's fresh strong recoil spring to go back further and lock open I think
How often do use the tip-up function vs just racking the slide regularly like other pistols? Just curious because i was pretty excited for this one and couldn't get my hands on one. But it does seem more efficient to just rack the pistol and shoot versus hitting the lever and tipping up the barrel feeding in one round and pushing the barrel down. Having said that i really love the idea of it even though i realize it's been done before. I really like thier different color schemes they offer!
You mentioned the malfunctions that Hrfunk experienced so I would like to ask: I’m curious,,did you clean and lube the gun before firing it in the first video? I know that Hrfunk did not. I asked him about it and he did not feel that the lack of cleaning and lubricant was an issue in regard to the malfunctions that he experienced. Respectfully, maybe he is correct, but we will not know because he does not own that gun; he was giving it back to the gun shop from which he borrowed it. I am a firm believer in lubricating metal parts that move back and forth with one another for function. And its manual indicates the necessity of lubricant as well of course.
The Maglula loader. Its awesome and works on any doublestack pistol magazine and about any caliber up to 45ACp that I have tried. It even has an adaptor for single stack 1911s available. Its the best mag loader for pistols I have found, and its usually about $34.95 at most shops or online.
Would not bay the gun as I'm not confortable with the tip up barrel, when I was young one men died when shotting a shotgun the ammo stuck on barrel, the barrel opned up and the shell come back into his head..
I have two of the old Berettas 380 with the pop up barrel. This was the New York police backup pistol of choice when the came out. I love my 380 Beretta so much it goes to church with me every Sunday.
Thanks for doing this review, I am thinking of buying this pistol so have been doing research on it and was happy to find your take. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone show barrel temperature in a gun review before, that is a great idea when you think about it. If I may suggest, I don’t think the failures to lock back, nor the one malfunction, had as much to do with the ammo as it did your grip on the gun. Hear me out, if you play back your own video and look close, you can see that when the slide fails to lock back, your thumb knuckle is riding on the slide lock lever. Before you even completed your third mag I correctly predicted that the slide would lock back that time because I could see your grip had changed and your thumb was lower. Also, the time the gun malfunctioned, your thumb had drifted north and was dragging on the slide. With this in mind, you might want to test those ammos again, just for funzies.
As a female with smaller hands, I figured this out as I have more than once seen guys with bigger hands encounter this same problem on other small (low caliber w/a light slide) automatics. It is surprisingly easy to be completely oblivious to the fact that you are doing it on a 380, whereas on a blastier 9mm you'd either figure it out, or your thumb interference wouldn't be enough to affect the slide and cause a malf. 380 pistols do offer perplexing challenges to shoot well due to the fact the light round usually lends itself to the manufacture of a smaller, lighter gun with less real estate in which to put your hands, but then that very feature makes it harder to grip the gun in a really "correct" way. If you find your thumb interference a hard habit to break, try shooting the gun one-handed, or teacup style, and I betcha the problem goes away. Let us know if that works out. Cheers. 🙂
Bought my MC14T in April 2024. After the 1st 50-100 rounds the slide locked back on empty without fail. I fully suspect less expensive ammo has a tad less powder charge resulting in less force on the new slide spring. Also, extraction is from powder charge only, so varying powder loads from manufacturers will affect lock-back operation. The slide does have an ejector, and throws the shells to the right and rear. I also load my magazines with a yellow Magula loader, just easier on my aging hands. ( A must for my glock-17+ round magazines) Winchester White-Box Flat-Nose .380 ACP seems to be the least agreeable ammo for this pistol, but I had several hundred rounds of it, free, before I even bought this pistol, so I am using it up 1st. I did buy Hornady XTP for self-defense purposes, but this is not my EDC at this point. At 30.5 oz fully loaded and the 4 1/2" barrel it's not bad for CC, just not the most concealable. (EDC duty goes to my 1st generation P3AT, which also does not like WWB, and gets priority on the XTP rounds. It is also 14.7 oz w/10 rounds, and 1/2 the size, so it wins the concealability contest for the time being.)
I bought 2 spare Girsan magazines to get their curved pinkie rest, but the Mech-Gar mags for the Beretta 84 are the same, just with a flat bottom plate. I have always yearned for the Cheetah 86, but they are rare and pricey, and only 8-round single stack. The MC14T fits as nicely as any other Beretta I own, and felt comfortable and familiar to me from day one! My only regret is that I do not have one for each hand.................yet, lol!
I’m hooked on your valuable information on your videos. Thanks, Mark south Louisiana
Hmm 1 failure ran the vcrown hoping to see it w a Beretta or macgar mag and XTPs. The hotter ammo was getting the slide w it's fresh strong recoil spring to go back further and lock open I think
What's with the quick cut from 104.6 degrees to 96.8 degrees the the 5:49 mark? Looks like you didn't want to show a hot barrel. WHY?
How often do use the tip-up function vs just racking the slide regularly like other pistols? Just curious because i was pretty excited for this one and couldn't get my hands on one. But it does seem more efficient to just rack the pistol and shoot versus hitting the lever and tipping up the barrel feeding in one round and pushing the barrel down. Having said that i really love the idea of it even though i realize it's been done before. I really like thier different color schemes they offer!
You may need to try different "weights" of recoil springs. That "might" fix that "lock-open" issue.
EAA Girsan MC14 T pistol takes Beretta 84 or Browning BDA magazines and also Mec Gar makes them.
The new Beretta 80x series mags work as well (probably the same mag).
You mentioned the malfunctions that Hrfunk experienced so I would like to ask: I’m curious,,did you clean and lube the gun before firing it in the first video? I know that Hrfunk did not. I asked him about it and he did not feel that the lack of cleaning and lubricant was an issue in regard to the malfunctions that he experienced. Respectfully, maybe he is correct, but we will not know because he does not own that gun; he was giving it back to the gun shop from which he borrowed it. I am a firm believer in lubricating metal parts that move back and forth with one another for function. And its manual indicates the necessity of lubricant as well of course.
I bought this MC14T at the Laughlin gun show, what is that yellow thing you are using to load shells. I can't get more thatn 3 shells in.
The Maglula loader. Its awesome and works on any doublestack pistol magazine and about any caliber up to 45ACp that I have tried. It even has an adaptor for single stack 1911s available. Its the best mag loader for pistols I have found, and its usually about $34.95 at most shops or online.
Mc14T vs Berreta 80x cheetah. We need to see
Would not bay the gun as I'm not confortable with the tip up barrel, when I was young one men died when shotting a shotgun the ammo stuck on barrel, the barrel opned up and the shell come back into his head..