Beretta .22

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sailor723

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One of our members had one of these at the club last week. I had a chance to handle it and thought it felt pretty good. I saw one for what I thought was a decent price online last night from a private seller so I grabbed it. There are a fair number of these right now being sold by dealers as Israeli surplus.

It (and others offered around here) are referred to as Beretta 71's. I did a bit of internet research and what i found suggested that the 71 was a 3.5" barrel and the 6" were either model 72 73 or74 (depending partly on whether they had fixed sights or adjustable and some frame size differences). Can anyone shed some light on this? The AL stamp indicates it is a 1983 from what I've found. Given the sight location I wonder if these are actually Model 72's shipped without the original 3.5" barrel? (The 72 was a Model 71 shipped with both a 3.5" and a 6" barrel)

 
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I think that the 71's are having a new longer barrel made for them. Switching them from prohib to restricted. $399 gets you a decent quality .22
Was thinking my wife might like one.
 
Riven said:
I think that the 71's are having a new longer barrel made for them. Switching them from prohib to restricted. $399 gets you a decent quality .22
Was thinking my wife might like one.
Click to expand...

I've seen them at $399 as well so I was surprised to see Wanstall's recently announce they had a bunch in at $499:confused:
 
I've seen them for $349.00
I love mine and enjoy shooting it the most.
Also just picked up 2 more for it from a site sponsor.
 
Great guns with a reputation of being reliable shooters.

Good reminder PC9...... I've got some spare mags coming as well.
 
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I've got a M71 w/ 3.5" barrel, lots of fun. I've got 6 mags for it so if the local club attaches a couple of "Back up" gun stages to the next pistol match, I'm hoping to give it a try.
 
Riven said:
I think that the 71's are having a new longer barrel made for them. Switching them from prohib to restricted. $399 gets you a decent quality .22
Was thinking my wife might like one.
Click to expand...

So, are you saying you think they were re-barrelled specifically for import to Canada or sometime in the past for use as target guns in Israel after being taken out of front line service?
 
Had Model 70(think the only difference between a 70 and a 71 was adjustable sights). Bought it brand new 1983 in Kamloops in a 31/2 inch barrel. Originally went to buy a PPK .22. But when I saw the Beretta, it was so much nicer. My pal bought a PPK and had nothing but feeding problems with it. Mine shot anything flawlessly even Stingers at 1200fps(on the Chrono). Great little 22. But lost my prohib when I gave up shooting 10 years ago, when I sold it. They are so fugly now with a 6 inch barrel.
 
I got mine from Reliable Gun it came with a box that is marked Series 70 but there is a tag put on by the dealer which says Model 71 in any case the pistol does not fit in the box because of the long barrel. The frame is obviously used but the barrel looks new and is a very tight fit to the frame, took a couple of months to get it off for cleaning.
This gun is a very good shooter and I can't recall any kind of malfunction, I traded off my Buckmark some time ago (and regretted it) so when I saw this one for $349.00 I couldn't resist.
It came with two mags., one has a metal base and the other is plastic both seem to work well.

 
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SUPER TENERE said:
Had Model 70(think the only difference between a 70 and a 71 was adjustable sights). Bought it brand new 1983 in Kamloops in a 31/2 inch barrel. Originally went to buy a PPK .22. But when I saw the Beretta, it was so much nicer. My pal bought a PPK and had nothing but feeding problems with it. Mine shot anything flawlessly even Stingers at 1200fps(on the Chrono). Great little 22. But lost my prohib when I gave up shooting 10 years ago, when I sold it. They are so fugly now with a 6 inch barrel.
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I think the 70 was steel and the 71 alloy. (70 was available in .32 and .380....the 71 was .22LR). I think the the 74 had adjustable sights

http://www.berettaweb.com/mod_70/mod_70_p5.htm
 
There was an attempt made at having some 4.25" barrels made but it sort of fizzled out.
At least it's a factory made barrel and not some custom monstrosity for our Canadian laws.

Like I said, first response was fugly but after fondling and shooting her she's a real sleeper and a definite keeper! I was thinking of shortening the barrel which would be easier then getting a new barrel made but honestly that thought has come and gone.
 
Can-down said:
There was an attempt made at having some 4.25" barrels made but it sort of fizzled out.
At least it's a factory made barrel and not some custom monstrosity for our Canadian laws.

Like I said, first response was fugly but after fondling and shooting her she's a real sleeper and a definite keeper! I was thinking of shortening the barrel which would be easier then getting a new barrel made but honestly that thought has come and gone.
Click to expand...

I don't really see what the point would be of a 4.25" barrel. It would still stick out well past the slide and give the Pinocchio look. As far as I'm concerned you might as well have the 6" barrel and benefit from the longer sight radius.
 
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