Spaghetti and waffles...............

[jtcarm]

My sister has one of those.

Not only does it hold a lot more rounds than a PPK, it’s a whole lot easier to shoot them accurately.

My James Bond phase did not last long.

[TheNewbie]

I wish Beretta would make the cheetah with controls like this.

[Trooper224]

Today, I tried 99 grain Federal HSTs. Accuracy was good, but not as impressive as the V Crown load and with increased recoil. Reliability was 100%, as with everything else I've tried thus far. For the moment I'm leaning towards the V Crown load. The medallion on the right grip panel came loose again, so I'll be swapping the grips with these.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223610958203

Pachs were an option, but they're significantly more expensive and I have no faith in the QC of their current manufacturing. Besides, there's that whole tacky, rubber grip on a concealment piece thing I don't go for. Original BDA grips seem scarce and are often pretty bashed up. Best to put the medallion back on and stow them away.

I've also had to bob the hammer slightly.



The hammer spur was tearing the hell out of my hand during rapid fire, as I knew it would. (too bad the Beretta 84's round hammer isn't compatible) I took material off in two increments until it was short enough to do the job. This is fortunate, since I wanted enough of a spur left to manipulate the hammer if needed.

[Hemiram]

A Browning BDA 380 was my first "successful" new semiauto. By successful I mean it wasn't a pile of junk that shouldn't have ever left the factory, like my Colt Combat Commander and my AMT Hardballer Longslide, A Walther PPK, and a bunch of semiauto .22lr pistols were. Bulletin, the AMT was MUCH better than the Colt was, which was just a mess. The AMT was pretty decent if you kept it soaking wet with oil, the Colt was hopeless. The Walther was just bad in every way except it looked great. Jammed a lot, and it's the only gun I ever owned which gave me slide bite.

I had the BDA for many years and sold it to a friend who escaped who knows what when two low lifes attempted to rob him when his car broke down near Cleveland. The BDA came in very handy that day for him. It had one single failure for me out of a couple of thousand rounds when it failed to load a totally messed up cartridge and didn't go into battery. I'm glad it didn't as the case would have probably burst.
He had the BDA until shortly before he died and I would have bought it back from him, but I didn't know about it until someone else grabbed it up. IMHO, the BDA and it's "brother", the Beretta 84/85. are the greatest .380 guns ever made. I have a not so pretty BDA, a nice 85, and a really nice 84 now. All shoot great, as expected.

[Trooper224]

This evening the new grips arrived. After gluing the originals medallions back on twice, I decided a change was necessary. Original grips aren't hard to find, but ones in good condition seem to be. When found, they're usually beaten up with one or both of the medallions missing. The originals are also slicker than greased snot on glass. I chose these new ones out of perceived necessity, but I have to admit, they look better than I thought they would. The new grips are cast solid, from high impact resin and molded from the originals. Consequently, form and shape mimic the factory grips. They aren't nearly as slick as the originals which is a plus. The blued grip screws will rust in a heartbeat during carry, so I added NP3 plated examples. This is a functional consideration but I like the look as well.




Found here: TILLANDERGUNGRIPS.com

I know this seemingly antiquated popper runs contrary to much of the established logic hee at PF, but I like it.

[Trooper224]

I'm now leaning back towards the Federal HST loads for carry. Today, accuracy with the Sig ammo wasn't nearly as spectacular, good but not as inspiring. I also received a lot of debris blowback to the face this time. Enough that it would be a concern without glasses. I fired both loads over the chrono and the muzzle velocity with the Sig load was highly erratic, whereas the Federal was pretty consistent. The Sig cases also show a lot of carbon bleed by on the case mouth, a classic sign of underpowered ammo. So far, this is with 100 rounds of each load fired. Not a large sample, but enough to know that I'm not as impressed with the Sig ammo as I initially was.

[Jeff22]

I have been intrigued by these guns for 35 years, since I was carrying a Beretta 92F as a duty gun.

A month ago I found one for a decent price on the net.

I bought a holster from DeSantis, spare magazines from Mec Gar and rubber grips from Pachmayr, and then it was off to the range.

The double action is very smooth, the single action is crisp, and the sights are tiny. A 6 o’clock hold is necessary for me to be able to do headshots.

The hammer spur bites the web of my hand so in the morning it’s off to my gunsmith to get it bobbed.

I didn’t have an identifiable use for that gun, but I kind of wanted one for years just because, and now I have one.