One of the many new-for-SHOT guns that Beretta announced at their pre-SHOT Show range day is the reincarnation of the much-loved and dearly departed Beretta Cheetah of years past. The old Cheetah was available in a few lighter calibers like .22LR, .32 and .380 and went out of production about five years ago.
This new pistol is Beretta’s 80X Cheetah chambered in .380 ACP.
For the fans of the original, this is a reimagined Cheetah, that takes inspiration from the original, but has a number of significant differences and improvements (and no, it won’t take the Model 84’s magazines).
For those unfamiliar with the original, the Cheetah very much like a scaled-down Beretta 92. Beretta says the new 80X Cheetah is made with female shooters in mind…think: the .380 cartridge’s light recoil, an easy-racking recoil spring, and the security DA/SA with a frame safety and a de-cocker.
Beretta may have had women in mind when they drew it up, but there’s plenty here to like for virtually any gun owner. The 80X holds 13+1 rounds and feels great in the hand. It’s soft shooting, comes right back on target, and is sized right for everyday carry. The Cheetah is downright fun to shoot. It’s an everyday carry gun you’ll love to shoot and train with at the range.
Please disregard my terrible shooting (it was the first magazine I shot with the pistol…that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it) in the following video . . .
The 80X Cheetah’s trigger is excellent and the frame-mounted safety gives you the option of carrying cocked and locked with a light single-action trigger pull right off the bat, or de-cocked with a slightly heavier (but still very manageable) initial pull if you want.
The 80X Cheetah has a short pic rail for accessories and you can buy a Beretta optic plate to mount a red dot if you so choose.
The Italian-made guns will start hitting stores in April. The first models will be black or a very attractive bronze Cerakote finish. More colors will surely follow (the Cheetah I shot had a good-looking green finished frame).
Specifications:
Caliber: .380 ACXP
Action: Double/Single
Capacity: 13+1
Barrel Length: 3.9 inches
Overall Length: 6.8 inches
Height: 4.9 inches
Width: 1.4 inches
Weight: 25 oz.
MSRP: $799 (black) $999 (bronze)
Is it a blowback action or something else?
Blowback action. The barrel is fixed, not a Browning tilt action.
“Blowback action.”
Extractor, or is it like the 21A where you have to dig out a dud round with your fingernail?
Blowback 22s do tend to be weak on the ejection issue. My 21a usually goes about 200 rounds before having “a stove pipe”. But you need to keep any 22 clean. They are very fun to shoot.
But you need to clean them every 100 or 200 rounds or so. Especially the semi-automatic ones.
I like that trigger. There is something vaguely familiar about that slide stop too.
What is .380 ACXP?
Remember, it’s ‘talian. That would be 9mm Kurz +P translated from C.I.P, the European version of SAAMI. SAAMI doesn’t recognize a +P version of 380, so they had to do something.😉
The “easy racking” recoil spring stands out to me. I love my Cheetah, but it can be a little tough for some people to rack, given the small size of the slide and the relatively stiff recoil spring.
One question, though – can you actually carry it cocked and locked like a BB (or earlier) model? Or does it have the safety/decocker combo like the F/FS series?
Decocker/safety combo but no magazine safety.
I never had any problems racking the slides on any of my Cheetahs but give it 20 years.
I have seen some very bad frame peening online on some of the earlier .380 models.
A lighter recoil spring will help with the slide but may accelerate peening,
OR it might not, US ammo is not nearly as hot as European.
I ran my 85 a steady diet of this and never had any peening:
https://www.defensivecarry.com/threads/whats-this-380-acp-ammo.31950/
https://www.waltherforums.com/threads/santa-barbara-spanish-south-american-law-enforcement-ammo.23769/
It was made in 1983 and is all gone, you will never find any.
It was not steel cased, I had 1000 rounds and they were all brass and sealed.
It was 100% reliable and I shot the last of it a couple of years ago.
That was to test the POI on a Taurus TCP w/a Crimson Trace which is loaded with Underwood+P.
38 years old and they all went boom and the TCP didn’t, that’s for all of the Taurus haters.
I shoot hot stuff in my TCP also. That little barrel isn’t much heavier than a soda straw, but it eats everything I put in it without a problem.
I also have the 84F. It’s staying in the family, to be sure.
I have two TCPs for summer pocket carry when I am wearing shorts and a T shirt. They are both E series serial#’s and are the black SS ones. I have had them for 6 and 7 years respectively. The CT laser was in brand new in the box at a pawnshop and was $50. Both are carried in Desantis Nemesis holsters, the one with the CT is whatever was the holster for a LCP with a CT is. The one w/o is in a Desantis Nemesis for a LCP.
Anyway I would fathom that each has 1000 rounds through them. A lot of that was WWB, I figured the Santa Barbara was too hot. Then I bought Underwood XTPs+P because of the guy on Shooting the Bull. If XTPs were good enough for him then I figured the +P versions from Underwood would be better. I shot 25 rounds of the Santa Barbara through each and then 20 Underwood +Ps. The only thing that I changed was I went to Mec-Gar magazines. I made a slight adjustment to the CT so the rounds were hitting very close to the dot at about 30 feet, the TCP was never meant to be a bullseye shooter.
The beauty is you never even have to present. You reach in your pocket, the laser goes on the second you are pulling the TCP from your pocket and where the dot is the round goes. It’s literally just a wrist action, very much like the sneaky Doc Holiday scene in Tombstone when he already has his gun drawn and hidden behind his back. You can literally get off a few shots on target when the other person is still drawing. The pistols and spare magazines are loaded Xtreme Defender+P, XTP+P.
I cannot get rid my Berettas, the 84FS is really just art and the 85 is still artsy but beat up a bit. The thing is that the little Tauruses are 100% reliable, I figure 1000 rounds is a good enough test for concealed carry. I cannot fathom why Taurus came out with the Spectrum and Curve but because of the Spectrum, the second TCP was $160 new in the box.
Wish they’d reincarnate the Cheetah Model 86 “tip up” barrel of old in .380 ACP . . .
You beat me to it. I held one in my hands. And made the mistake of telling myself I would buy it tomorrow.
Tomorrow came and another guy bought it!!!
sad(face)
Looks like they were trying hard for that govt. contract.
In .380? Some eurowussie place perhaps.
I have a .32 Cheetah Italian police turn-in, great fun to shoot but .32.
Solid as a rock, though.
I’m jealous. When they hit the market a few years ago.They were only $240. Plus $35 for the transfer fee.
I’m still kicking myself for not going to get one. So Last year, I checked the then current price. They were almost $500!!!
The video shows the exact problem with the .380 and non European ammo. American ammo in .380 just isn’t hot enough so you have to buy +P ammo in .380 which isn’t cheap.
The first shot on the first plate was a hit and yet the .380 did not knock it down.
The Glock 19 loaded with Gold Dots or HSTs in 124 or 124+P would be making some noise and knocking plates down. The guns are roughly the same size, weight and the G19 holds 2 more rounds.
Bad shooting aside, How many .380’s would you put into someone coming at you who after a few hits would be very angry until you stopped shooting and ran?
BTW I am not a Glock guy, I don’t even own one. With the new laws in Illinois and some very confused locals my EDC is now a S&W M&P 2.0.40C 4″ loaded with 180 grain Ranger T’s in the black box. They were $26/50 when I bought the M&P 2.0 and now are $40/50. The M&P 2.0 was $350 new before Biden and I changed the back strap from the very abrasive 2.0 to the much smoother 1.0. It’s a little heavy compared to the grey SD9 I carried but roughly the same size as the SD9 or or the 80X.
BTW the .380+P ammo is $30/20 and does not have half the oomph that the flaying ashtray .40 or the 124+p GDs in 9mm have. Either would easily knock the plates down assuming you hit them.
.380 only makes sense if for someone that has little tiny midget hands that can’t hold a real gun. Beretta apparently at least got the easy to run part correct as that really goes with “tiny midget hands”.
“.380 only makes sense if for someone that has little tiny midget hands that can’t hold a real gun.”
Or, the customer lives in a European country where ‘military’ ammunition calibers is not legal for civilian usage.
(The fact that some Europeans are smaller in physical stature may also be an issue…)
European ammo in .380 is much hotter then American. These were the precursor to the modern polymer 9mm and were not much smaller in the 84 double stack versions. The Italian and Israeli Police carried these in .380 through the ’90’s. The older double stack .380s were definitely not for “little tiny midget hands”. Tattoo from Fantasy Island killed himself with a .357 magnum to the chest and he had “little tiny midget hands”. You two are a hoot.
Or the person has 70 year old meathooks with arthritis
Keep it scaled down and release it in 9mm.
Re. Video:
On target, on trigger; off target, OFF trigger.
The decococker makes it a no go for me. Otherwise awesome. People will practice with a gun that’s this shootable.
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