Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
I’m a guy who likes weird, novel, and interesting guns. One of my most expansive collections involves tip-ups. My collection is made up of most Berettas, but I recently added a Girsan to the collection. I’ve always enjoyed these guns just for the barrel’s fairly novel feature. Over the years, plenty of claims about tip-up guns have been made, and after owning and shooting more than five different calibers through a dozen different guns, I think it’s time we see if these claims hold water.
Table of contents
What’s Are Tip-Ups
Tip-ups have a barrel that literally tips upward. It hinges near the front of the barrel, and the chamber and barrel break away from the breech block. When the barrel is in the up position, the user can easily access the chamber. The primary function of this design is to allow the user to easily access the chamber without having to rack the slide.
The user can manually load a single round into the chamber or clear the chamber without ever having to work the slide. That’s the main benefit of these guns. There is never a need to cycle the slide manually.
The first company I’m aware of that produced a tip-up pistol is Beretta. The Beretta 950 began production in 1952 and introduced the concept to both Italian and American gun owners. The 950 series comprises a .22 Short model and a .25 ACP model. The two guns were pocket-sized, and to this day, you’d have a hard time finding a gun smaller than the original.22 Short minx.
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Cycling the Slide
What’s the benefit of not having to cycle the slide? Why would that even be a consideration? Well, some people don’t have the hand strength to work a slide. An advertisement for the micro-sized Berettas touted that you didn’t have to be a big, strong man to work the slide. The 950 series were seriously small guns, and they didn’t offer much slide to grip.
Even for the average person, the ultra-small slide was tough to grab and, therefore tough to manipulate. The guns used a straight blowback action which required a stiff spring, so the problems were exemplified. Plus, the slide serrations are so small and shallow that they are practically worthless.
Even for big, strong men, the tip-up barrel was a handy feature. In the modern era, that remains one of the big selling points of the Berettas, Taurus, and Girsan guns. You don’t need to be strong enough to work the slide to use tip-ups.
Tip-Ups In The Modern Era
Beretta has steadily produced various tip-up guns since 1952. They produced the 950, the Model 20, the 21, and the 21A, as well as the 3032, which brought us a .32 ACP-sized gun. The Model 20, 21, 21A, and 3032 are DA/SA guns.
Beretta took the concept of guns beyond pocket pistols. The Beretta 86 was a mid-size compact pistol that chambered the .380 ACP and used a tip-up barrel design. While the 86 is collectible now, it was not a good seller when it was introduced. It’s also a DA/SA gun. The latest from Beretta is the 30X, a redesigned 3032 with a tip-up barrel and numerous ergonomic changes.
Taurus also produces .22LR and .25 ACP tip-up pistols called the PT-22 and PT-25, respectively. These guns are not direct Beretta clones. They are double-action-only guns, and the grip material varies. Taurus has made steel, polymer, and aluminum frames for these guns. They also have longer, wider grips than the Beretta models.
Girsan, a Turkish company, has created a tip-up .380 ACP that’s a bit of a mishmash of Berettas. Like the Model 86, it’s a tip-up .380 ACP, but it uses a double-stacked magazine and has a rail for lights and accessories.
With all these options out there, does a tip-up barrel make sense to the intended audience? The intended audience is those with reduced hand strength.
Does the Idea Make Sense?
Loading and unloading a tip-up gun is very easy. Admittedly, this can be easy for those with poor hand strength. They no longer have to worry about racking the slide. However, when examining these guns in-depth, we start to see additional problems that would affect those with poor hand strength.
First, these guns use a blowback action. Blowback designs have increased recoil compared to short recoil or rotating systems. If you have poor hand strength, then recoil is an issue. In the .22LR and .25 ACP variants, the recoil is still quite light.
However, .25 ACP is expensive and kind of sucks ballistically. It often fails to pass the FBI penetration standards. The .22LR is cheap and can meet those standards, but every .22LR tip-up I’ve ever shot has serious reliability issues.
The Beretta 21A and Taurus PT-22 would be the most common, and both kind of suck. I own more than one Beretta 21A, and I’m always impressed when one fires a complete magazine without malfunction. I use the hottest ammo I can find with minimal results. When it fails to fire or eject, you’re left with a mess that can’t be solved with a tap-rack bang. The lack of an extractor makes it tough to clear problems.
That leaves us with the .32 ACP version. The recoil isn’t bad to me, but it’s also not super soft. The 32 ACP series are serious slide biters. The 30X is a drastic improvement on the 3032, but I don’t think I’d suggest either for someone with poor hand strength. The Girsan MC 14T has the same recoil as a short recoil 9mm handgun with worse ballistics.
The Triggers
Outside of the 30X and the 950 series, all of these guns have very long and very heavy trigger pulls. You shouldn’t carry the Beretta’s locked and cocked because, in single action, they are not drop-safe. I’m not sure about the Girsan yet, but let’s assume it’s built to Beretta specs. If you have poor hand strength, an uber-long, and heavy trigger isn’t going to be your best friend.
The Beretta 30X is better with a flat-faced trigger with a shorter, lighter trigger pull than the competition. However, it’s still a double-action trigger, and depending on your hand strength and shooting skill, it will most certainly make it tough to land a first-shot hit.
Tip-Up or Tip-Out
Ultimately, I think the varied tip-up guns aren’t a great option for those with reduced hand strength. The tip-up barrel systems are neat and novel but are a product of a different era where they made a bit more sense. I still love the 30X, and I’ve been nothing but impressed with the Girsan series. I love all the tip-up pistols, but not from a practical perspective.
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I like the novelty, small size, and micro-sized DA/SA system that Beretta incorporated into these guns. For practical purposes, I think guns like the Shield Ez, the LCP 2 in .22LR Literack, and even the KelTec P32 are better overall options for low-recoil defensive pistols. The tip-ups are still pretty cool, but they aren’t always the most practical option.
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Travis Pike is a dedicated firearms writer, a Second Amendment Advocate, and a subject matter enthusiast for all things firearms. He is an amateur competitor with dreams of one day not coming in 4th place at a local defensive match. If he’s not putting text to word processor, he’s likely spending time with family, enjoying Florida’s Nature Coast, or drinking hipster beer. As the resident Florida man he has a preference for obscure guns and calibers.
Experience
- Hunter – Long time deer and hog hunter in the swamps of Florida
- Instructor – Volunteers to teach basic firearm safety classes to kids, adults, and cats
- Wannabe Competitor – Has recently dipped his toes into competitive shooting and has happily discovered an expensive hobby.
- Marine – Served five years with the infantry before transferring to the First Civ Div.
One plus of the tip up gun which was not mentioned is that when you cycle the slide on a conventional gun (non-tip up) when chambering a round if you do it often enough to the same round when you load and unload the bullet becomes loose in the case which can let in contaminates like gun oil which will render the round inert or the constant cycling will eventually loosen the bullet which can result in the bullet being shoved down into the case when you cycle the slide resulting in a catastrophic detonation when you fire the round which can and probably will blow up the pistol.
The down side of using a tip is that when you get a jam it often takes a long time to unjam the gun which can and will get you killed in a gunfight.
I enjoy plinking with small handguns. In the late 80s I purchased new a Beretta 950 and a model 21. Both have been 100% reliable and remarkably accurate for my purposes of rolling tin cans. After firing more than a couple boxes of 22lr through the model 21without cleaning, it still was totally reliable. I’m not sure why the author is having problems with his model 21 or maybe I just got lucky. After reading this article, I may have to pull both out of the back of my safe and see if they still shot as well as I remember. Unfortunately, with my old eyes, I may not shoot them as well as I remember.
All this discussion about reduced hand strength, but nary a mention of loading convenience. With a conventional semi-auto, you load a full magazine, insert the magazine into the pistol, rack the slide and chamber a round, drop the magazine, top it back off, and reinsert. With a tip up gun, you load a full magazine, insert it, and then simply unlock the barrel, pop the chamber-round in, and relatch the barrel.
Back in the 70’s, I had one of the early model Beretta Minx .22 short’s with what I was told at the time was the factory shoot-thru wallet holster. That was the coolest little mouse guns I ever owned! And surprisingly for a .22short it was pretty reliable WITH the right ammo, but lets face it, there hasn’t been a great demand for self defense .22short ammo, especially 45 years ago.
I traded that little jewel for something with a little more bark, a model 36 S&W. I sure wish I still had it! I’ve never seen another one of those unique shoot-thru wallet holsters.
I, too, remember the shoot-thru wallet holsters for the 950s and such. The reason you haven’t seen one in quite a while is because ATF misguidedly–and unlawfully–ruled them to be zip-gun AOWs in the late 90s. And thus owning one today requires NFA tax and registration, as well as all the limitations that come with NFA devices.
To Matt
You have not seen another one of those shoot through wallet holsters because the ATF outlawed them. You can only legally get one if it is registered with the ATF because it’s on the NFA list and to my knowledge no one makes the wallet holster anymore.
I have 3 Beretta “Tip up” Pistols, .32, .25, and .22 short. I love them all, and they work effortlessly.
I wish they made a 9mm tip-up.
These guns are not only reliable and easy to load and shoot, but there is never a question about
if a round is left in the chamber. You can easily check it, and certainly unload it quickly with the flick of the tip-up switch.
I carry all three, mostly the .32 Tomcat and the .25 for my ankle holster. They all work great.
All of the tip up berettas can be cycled via the slide very easily if you cock the hammer first. It’s a shame you don’t know that