A Pair Of Fiesty Felines: The 80X Cheetah And 30X Tomcat Get Home Bag

Beretta has offered several lines of iconic pistol models throughout the decades, and two that were staples as I came into my concealed-carry years were the 80 Series in .380 ACP and the little tip-barreled double-action pocket autoloaders in, among other chamberings, .32 ACP. Well, during the past year or so, the company has revamped both lines with the introduction of the 80X Cheetah and the 30X Tomcat Get Home Bag. And despite countless concealed-carry options available today, the choices within each of these pistols’ chamberings and size classes are still extremely limited, so both new Berettas are noteworthy additions to the market.

Big Cat
When Beretta introduced the 80-Series Cheetahs in 1976 they were one of very few available options to combine capacity and shootability in a compact, concealable format. The Cheetah line was well-regarded for concealment but also quite well thought of for its feel, overall quality and ease of shooting in the world before the Glock 19. But the era launched by the G19 and subsequent competitors pushed the deluxe Italian Cheetahs aside until Beretta made the decision to pause the series in 2017.

Shooters are famous for not appreciating models until they are dropped from the catalog, and the grumbling soon began. Recent years have shown there is a market for compact, easy-to-handle .380 ACPs, so Beretta responded with an updated cat capable of mounting optics, the 80X.   

The new Cheetah looks, in many ways, like a 60 percent scale model of the latest 92X Series of the legendary Model 92FS; the family lineage is obvious and the resemblance undeniable. I suspect that this contributes, at least subconsciously, to the undeniable appeal as one picks up the familiar-seeming “miniature” Beretta. More than simply mimicking the look of the larger 9 mm Luger-chambered Model 92-family pistols, however, the size of the 80X is nearly ideal for a compact .380 ACP. The pistol’s dimensions are in that hard-to-define sweet spot where the segments of the market overlap. It is a conveniently small pistol for some, but just large enough and with enough heft to confidently handle and manipulate for others. The pistol looks like a full-size service piece in petite hands, scaled almost perfectly, while still allowing large-handed shooters to get a full firing grasp on the frame. The weight is similarly friendly; the 80X’s 25 ozs. steady the pistol nicely and help dampen recoil while in no way feeling heavy.

The overall build and feel of the Beretta is high-quality and refined. The market often trends toward low-cost options in .380, so a quality, Italian-made, metal-frame compact stands out next to the competition.

Attached to the frame of the 80X is a combination safety/decocker. When the shooter pushes up on one of the bilateral levers, the hammer is safely dropped to a rest position. Leaving the levers up places the pistol on safe and disengages the trigger from the hammer, giving the shooter a tactile cue, since the trigger compresses with almost no resistance when the safety is engaged. The pistol can safely be carried with the hammer down and manual safety either engaged or lowered. The safety lever falls nicely under the thumb in much the same way that an extended M1911 safety would. A shooter wanting the additional safety could easily swipe the safety off as he or she brings the pistol onto target. Those who prefer a decocker can use the lever in that fashion and simply return it to the down position to rely on the weight and travel of the double-action trigger for safety until the first shot.

The Vertec/92X-style grip frame has serrations and deep checkering to anchor the pistol in the hand. The stock panels are quite thin, and the overall effect is a small grip that works well for most. I was surprised at just how well the frame felt in hand for both me and my wife, as we occupy both ends of the hand-size spectrum. Aftermarket G10 panels are available from LOK Grips, and I tried a set of the Veloce wraparound models. These create an “arch” on the rear of the frame and give it a feel much more similar to the legacy 80-Series pistols, although with reduced width to accommodate more hands. I liked the factory panels but really enjoyed the LOK wraparound.

I found the double-action stroke on the 80X to be somewhat unusual. The decocker drops the hammer into a “half-cock” position accessible only by using the lever. The shooter then has a lightweight take-up until nearly the midpoint in the trigger arc, after which the trigger stacks quickly and releases over a short travel. This pull weighed just 6 lbs., 8 ozs., and was quite shootable. Even those with diminished hand strength or minimal DA experience should be able to shoot the double-action mode acceptably well. Single-action dropped the hammer right at 5 lbs. with some movement and creep over the break.

The sights on the 80X consist of a dovetailed front and a rear notch integral to the optics-ready cover plate; two Torx screws secure the plate. The iron sights have three white dots for rapid acquisition in low light. Legacy 80-Series pistols had somewhat small sights typical of the era, so it was nice to have very usable sights on the new-generation pistol. I shot about half of the test rounds through the 80X using the iron sights and was happy with their visibility and regulation. The rear sight did begin to loosen at about 100 rounds, which required a simple tightening with a driver bit. If the pistol were mine, I would liberally apply threadlocker to the cover plate screws for serious use.  

Beretta offers optics-mounting plates as an accessory, and it is a simple swap to remove the rear sight plate and install the correct footprint-specific mount. As of now, Beretta offers mounts for the Holosun K, Docter and Shield footprints, covering most of the small dots on the market. I mounted a Bushnell RXC 200, the new Holosun Solar Charging Sight (SCS) and a Holosun EPS Carry to the 80X with no issues; most of the dot shooting was done with the EPS Carry on board. I had thought the compact was an easy-shooting little gun with the irons—but the carry-size red-dot made the Beretta into a “hitting gun.” The hits just came with no undue effort. The small, enclosed-emitter Holosun was almost a competition-size optic in relation to the small pistol, but the two worked well in tandem. The new Cheetah could reliably ring steel plates out to 50 yards as long as I did my part, and the EPS/80X combo cleaned up on standard skill drills like the 5 Yard Roundup.

The 80X is blowback-operated, meaning the action is held closed only by the force of the recoil spring and slide mass. Upon firing, the recoil cycles the action against their combined resistance then compresses both the mainspring and recoil spring as the slide reciprocates. Blowback operation is common in compact .380 ACP pistols and has been traditional since the cartridge’s launch more than 100 years ago. And even though blowback pistols can sometimes have somewhat heavy recoil springs, resulting in difficult-to-rack actions, the 80X’s slide was surprisingly easy to cycle, and the deep serrations at its front and rear assisted further.

Fixed-barrel blowback operation typically produces a different recoil impulse than the Browning-style, tilting-barrel arrangement. The impulse feels “faster,” but often with less perceived muzzle rise. How pleasant the impulse feels is a highly subjective question—the 80X recoils quickly but remains within confident control. “Highly controllable” is perhaps the best way to describe it. The speed of return and the limited muzzle rise let me run the plate rack with the little .380 at heavy, full-size 9 mm pistol speeds. The recoil is by no means “sharp” and should be tolerable to all but the highly sensitive.

With the lighter-weight copper projectiles, such as the Black Hills HoneyBadgers or the DoubleTap 60-grain solid copper hollow points, the recoil dips down a level or two more. An 80X filled with either becomes a formidable pistol for even the most recoil-shy shooter.  

Small Cat
With the launch of the 30X Get Home Bag, Beretta has updated the 3032 Tomcat into a new-generation .32 ACP. The Tomcat sits nearly alone in a unique size bracket for a pocketable semi-automatic, being smaller than the typical snub-nose .38 Spl. revolver but larger than the tiny autoloaders typified by the Ruger LCP. The extended eight-shot magazine and hand-filling checkered wood stocks make for a mini pistol that can be confidently manipulated. The length, width and girth of the grip, however, may also preclude true pocket carry in many of today’s pants. I suspect the new .32 ACP will be attractive for many in a purse/off-body role.

The new model’s frame has been made more durable by strengthening key areas. The magazine allows for a full grip and releases in the American style with a thumb-actuated button at the lower rear of the trigger guard rather than at the previous location on the bottom of the left stock panel. The new magazines are reverse-compatible with the 3032, but the previous-gen magazines will not fit the 30X. For now, 30X magazines are only available in the extended, eight-round format.

The trigger is a reshaped straight lever, and the high-visibility sights are now dovetailed in. The nicely checkered wooden stocks have more shape on the 30X than on its older brothers, and the barrel latch is now a simple push button. The barrel pin is also new to more easily allow swapping to accessory barrels like the threaded unit on the Get Home Bag. The blowback-operated Tomcat’s tip-up barrel allows shooters with diminished hand strength to bypass having to rack the slide and, instead, directly insert a round into the chamber. The slide can be racked if the shooter wishes, and I found the suppressor-height rear sight on the Get Home Bag model convenient to use as a “racking hook” to easily cycle the action.  

The 30X Get Home Bag will appeal equally to two groups of shooters. The first will be those interested in using the threaded barrel to make the Beretta an ultra-compact suppressor host with centerfire energy and reliability. The 30X may be the most compact centerfire available to suppress, and its fixed barrel allows a can to directly thread onto the pistol with no booster. The second group of natural 30X shooters will be those interested in the low-recoil, easy-handling features in a small form factor. Truthfully, the largest share of the 30X market may simply be those who find the little Beretta interesting, and dare I say, even cute.  

For the suppressor-interested crowd, the 30X makes a compelling package. Most .32 ACP loads are subsonic by nature and therefore ideal for suppressed use. The 1/2×28 TPI threaded barrel is ready to accept any common 9 mm Luger silencer—the 0.312″ bullets just allowing some extra gas, and therefore noise, to exit the accessory as they race down the cans intended for 0.355″ projectiles.

I fired the test gun with a Ballistic Research & Machine unit intended specifically for .32 ACP built on the company’s titanium M.S.C. model. The M.S.C. was originally designed around full-automatic 5.7×28 mm FN fire in the P90 and is a flow-through, user-serviceable design with no discernible back pressure. The suppressor worked excellently on the Beretta, giving the pistol enough “barrel” to point and hang nicely.

The suppressor-height sights were easily visible over the small-diameter tube, and the combined weight of the pistol and silencer came in at only 23 ozs. The overall length and weight of the combo was less than many popular rimfire trail and plinking handguns such as the Ruger Wrangler. The practically minded will find that the suppressed 30X provides real utility for low-noise varmint control—but most shooters are likely to find it is simply great fun. Beretta plans to offer an accessory dovetail optic mount before long to add to the appeal.

Like the 80X, the 30X Get Home Bag is a DA/SA autoloader, however, the .32’s single-sided thumb safety allows the pistol to be carried single-action “cocked and locked,” with the hammer back and the safety engaged. The safety can also be engaged with the hammer down in double-action mode for the first shot, and the lever is well-placed and large enough to disengage confidently when used in either way. The 30X does not have a decocker; the shooter must carefully manually lower the hammer. However, the tip-up barrel design allows the pistol to be decocked with an empty chamber and then the barrel tipped up to add the live round.

Two somewhat unusual features on the 30X are its lack of an extractor and unique recoil springs. The pistol relies on pure blowback to propel the fired case into the ejector; the resulting ejection pattern is more random than many shooters are accustomed to but still quite positive. The recoil springs are housed in tiny tubes attached to the grip frame and inlet into the wood stocks. Small struts, much like a M1911 hammer strut, engage the slide to return it after its short travel. The arrangement cycles smoothly and works positively.  

The double-action trigger pull on the test pistol measured 9 lbs., with the weight building throughout the arc and releasing smoothly. The effect works well with the new, straight Trident trigger sitting forward in the guard; the shooter can confidently get the trigger moving rearward and, as the trigger is nearing a vertical orientation, the shooter has 4 or 5 lbs. of resistance remaining. I found the DA pull to be easy to hit with both at max speed up close and more slowly on longer-range shots.

The single-action break was measured at 4 lbs., 8 ozs., with considerable creep and movement through the release. There is about a 1/4″ of take-up and then the shooter feels sear engagement and has to press through another 1/4″ of creep. The single-action pull is appropriate to the role for the pistol and no detriment to accuracy at close range, but I found myself preferring to use double-action for tougher shots at distance. And the little 30X was capable of hits at distance; I could reliably keep a payload of .32 ACPs on an 8″ plate at 20 yards and could keep seven out of eight on a steel silhouette at 50 yards.

The Beretta is a very small pistol, and shooters accustomed to “choking-up” high on pistol frames may have to adjust to prevent the 30X’s reciprocating slide from leaving “railroad tracks” on their hands. I have extra-large gloved hands and tend to choke-up very high, so I had to continually remind myself—the reminder coming by way of getting “bit.” This is an issue for me on a number of even larger pistols, so it’s not a knock on the 30X as much as a note for those with large or meaty hands. Even when my “overgripping” the .32 caused a bite to occur, the pistol still cycled reliably and the slide tracks never fully broke the skin.

The 30X is most appropriately an alternative for the tiny-but-rowdy .380 pocket pistol or the snubby .38 Spl. revolver, so I shot it using drills and tests aligned to those handguns. The .32’s light recoil and high-visibility sights allowed it to shine inside of 7 yards. I fired the “Super Snub Test” by trainers Darryl Bolke and Wayne Dobbs with five-shot strings in aggressive times at three, five and 10 yards and was able to keep 13 of 15 hits inside the 10 ring of the bullseye. During some of my own drills, the Beretta was able to easily hit a little tighter and faster than my typical scores with snubbie .38s or micro nines.

In one contextual exercise, I started with the 30X gripped in my pants pocket and, on the shot timer’s signal, drew and fired three shots into a 5″ circle three paces away. The best time to draw and fire three good hits was just 1.47 seconds. I own very few pants that could practically conceal the 30X, but I suspect others may carry similarly in coat pockets or in purses/commuter bags. My sense is that many shooters who struggle to shoot a pocket-size .38 Spl. or .380 confidently will find the 30X at a threshold where they are able to use it quite well.

The 30X was reliable throughout testing with one large asterisk. My pistol had a tendency for the final shot in the magazine to occasionally be ejected rather than chambered. This happened a total of seven times with both provided magazines. It seemed to be correlated to a few makes of FMJ loads rather than the premium defensive ammunition, but that may simply be because I shot much more of the FMJs. I would consider the 30X an 8.9-shot pistol—with a likelihood, but no guarantee, of the ninth round. Even as an eight-shot semi-automatic, there is still much utility for the little .32.

Choices
Both .32 and .380 ACP are useful cartridges inside of their limitations. Each was designed many years before jacketed hollow points became the norm, and neither can compete with purpose-designed 9 mm Luger defensive loads. With both cartridges the shooter can choose a load that penetrates deeply or one that expands well, but it is difficult to find one that will do both reliably. It is a trade-off that a shooter must consider in these chamberings—although loads continue to improve, with selections such as the Federal Hydra-Shok Deep pushing the boundaries of pocket-gun performance.

Beretta has a swath of options in ultra-small carry guns in service chamberings. I have family on both sides of the age spectrum who are perhaps better served with a compact pistol of significantly reduced recoil, overall friendly features and centerfire reliability. Each of the new Berettas would serve these loved ones better than a 9 mm they are unlikely to control with confidence. It is good to see both of the company’s updated felines on the market as viable options.