Ordinarily, we post here on the use of Pepper Sprays, Stun Guns, Telescopic Steel Batons and other self defense products. I think it’s more than fair to post occasionally on handguns, since they are at the top of the heap for a personal self defense weapon.

That said, I’ve owned a Beretta 92FS for many years and love it to death. It’s never burped through several hundred rds. of assorted ammo and is a constant source of pleasure to me.

I was looking for a new pocket gun to replace my old Sterling Arms vintage pistol. I decided to buy the Beretta Bobcat 21A INOX .22LR, based on my experience with the 92FS and their website’s description – it sounded awesome!

I have had very disappointing results with fail to ejects and “mostly” stove-piped rounds. These may occur at any time, but they always seem to occur at some point when firing it. It can be the first rd. or off and on, during the firing of 100 rounds – maybe five or six of a mixed bag, mostly stove-pipes and a couple FTE or FTF (the latter isn’t bad since it has the ability to re-strike again).

Every time I take it apart and clean it, I emery the slide rails lightly on the slide and the frame to loosen things up a bit and this has helped. I also started using a very light lithium gun grease applied with a pipe cleaner, inside the slide channels.

I have ran maybe 500 rds through it and it’s very painstaking and frustrating. So much so, that I bought a new Kahr PM9 which is a wonderful pocket pistol. I just can’t bring myself to sell the little 21A as it’s a beautiful little piece of work but it’s been tossed into the gun safe with the rest of the cheap or large .22’s as a “plinker” since I could never put my life under it’s protection. I love it and it seems to be made to last a lifetime, I feel like I’ve just been separated from a spouse – very bittersweet about it.

I’ve fired every .22 load known to man and none are w/o a problem – some worse than others. Best result have been with CCI Stingers – a freshly cleaned pistol with one in the pipe and a magazine loaded one shy of full. My experience with Mini-Mags has been dismal at best.

Most folks are touting the CCI Mini-Mags but my last box was really a bad batch. I have noticed dirty chamber issues but didn’t isolate it to a particular brand/type. I’ll have to try that next.

BTW, .22LR CCI Stingers are highly rated for this pistol, but if you want to see POWER & 9mm size holes in the paper – check out Aquila Super Maximum’s OMGosh!

Well, back to the range for more firing, filing and hopefully finding that magic bullet!

I wonder why, after posting about self defense products, crime information and self defense techniques for many years, why the big “G” has placed public service ads on my index page, next to my review of my new Kahr PM9.

Is it better to write about Mace pepper spray or telescopic steel batons?  Should I write about how to punch someone out in 5 seconds or what?  I’m at a loss as to the efficacy of this program and how it tracks and matches things up.  Oh well, for them to know and me to find out, I suppose?

Meanwhile use those category links or the search box on this blog to find lots of great posts on self defense products, martial arts, crime stories, product reviews and let’s not forget women’s self defense issues ladies.  I’ve posted plenty of stuff geared toward helping you out of “dicey” situations!

I just took ownership of the Kahr PM9 and it’s my first polymer frame pistol.  I have found it to be a sheer joy to carry and extremely accurate and fun to shoot.

My Kahr PM9 came packed in a heavy coating of “goop” from the factory.  After cleaning it thoroughly it was very challenging to reassemble.  It took several attempts, but I finally got it back together.  After firing the mandatory test rounds and performing the subsequent cleaning and lubrication, the reassembly took only a few minutes.

The sight picture is excellent and the double action only firing system was a pleasure and the trigger slack was taken up easily and then broke crisply without any effort at all.  Much lighter than any revolver I’ve ever owned or fired before and this eliminated the need for safeties which can slow one down in a crisis situation.

Well, I got my 200 break-in shots fired today.  Fired 135 rds and it got brutal towards the end, my hand was sore and my head felt like it had silly putty inside rather than a brain!  I used plugs and should have worn muffs.
 
I went to the gun shop and was unable to obtain the Speer Gold Dots.  He had a bunch of 147grn stuff, some 115 which may have been acceptable, but I opted for his three types of 124grn stuff – Remington Golden Saber (fired high and left, hard recoil), MagTech (soft recoil but high left also) and Federal Hydra-Shok (shot in the 3.5 inch bullseye, 4 of 5 rounds).
 
The first two brands were close enough to kill someone but the Hydra-Shoks were “between the eyes” tight.  All fired from between 30 – 35 feet.  Mostly 35 ft shots since an old brick smokehouse stands at the 30ft mark and by backing up, the muzzle blast was less deafening.
 
The 115 grn ball WWB is very accurate as well, but no expansion.  Home reloading for many years tells me that a 115 grn may lower the point of impact, since the bullet exits a micro-second before any muzzle rise can affect shot placement, so I’ll be trying some of those too.
 
No hitches at all, and I have surpassed my 200 rds and then some change to boot.  Only wear I see is a small smudge of rub on the top of the barrel (when looking directly down – on the barrel through the open top of the ejection port) right in front of the slide.  No peening just a small rub where the square top of the bbl,  narrows down, right at the bbl-meets-slide area.  That was normal, I was told by the gunsmith that owns the gun shop where I bought the bullets and not to worry about it.  Sounds right!
 
I’m going to clean that cannon and try to forget about it for a few days!  I don’t see how guys can rip off a couple of hundred rds with one at a time without getting their hands beat up a little bit.  My right hand was sore for awhile!

Need an edge in a self defense situation?  Are you looking for something a little nastier than a canister of pepper spray or a stun gun?  You might want to consider a telescopic steel baton.  These weapons are standard issue and carried by most police officers and trained private security guards.

What’s excellent about telescopic steel batons are that they collapse into their own handles, but with a flick of your wrist you can snap one open with the use of gravity.

Unlike more innocuous self defense products, these lightweight steel batons can be controlled by the user and be used for anything from simple compliance to a down and out  lethal weapon.  The force used and the target area selected are considerations of how much damage can be inflicted upon an assailant or a criminal perpetrator.

One little trick that I’d like to acquaint new users with, is the closure of these batons.  They lock into place when snapped open but when they need to be closed, you can give yourself a fit trying to drive one back onto the handle.  The key to closing one easily is to give the tip a short, sharp, rap – at a 45 degree angle.

Perform this against a hard surface to unlock the mechanism, then simply hold it upside down and drive it smartly downward in a vertical motion and the baton closes easily.  Try closing one without the angled tap of the baton’s tip and you’ll be in for one heck of a time trying to close one.  Cheers!

Something we see in every “spy” or “burglary” movie that we see the stars do, is immediately disable the surveillance cameras right?  They are the important line of defense that will alert watchful security personnel to their intrusions.

They are used by almost every store, police car and are even installed along roadways that we drive on everyday.  All of the reality “cop chase” and “dumbest burglar shows” that are aired nightly on TV, rely on these devices to capture and identify the perpetrators.

Spinning off of their effectiveness, there are dummy surveillance cameras for those that are on a tighter budget but want to achieve the same effect. They are simply an expensive surveillance camera without the camera installed inside and are impossible to distinguish from the real thing.

If you want to suppress criminal activity in an area, be it around the perimeter or entry-way of your home or the parking lot of your business and don’t want to drop a bundle of cash, then a professional looking dummy surveillance camera can achieve this for you at a very small price. They are definitely worth a look!