Beretta 21A Bobcat Review: Best Micro Pistol?

Beretta 21A Bobcat Specs & Features

Specs

• Caliber: .22 LR
• Capacity: 7+1
• Width: 1.1″
• Overall Length: 4.9″
• Barrel Length: 2.4″
• Weight: 11.5 oz.

Features

• Tip-up barrel
• Grip-mounted magazine release
• DA/SA trigger
• Manual safety

I’ve recently dived headfirst into the world of micro pistols — .22 LRs, 25 ACP, and 32 ACP pistols…tiny little guns in tiny little calibers that, according to most of the internet, will get me killed in the streets.

My most recent mouse gun is the .22 LR Beretta 21A, a.k.a. the Bobcat. It looks like Rick Moranis pulled a Honey, I Shrunk the Beretta 92.

It’s the only pocket pistol in production that I know of that keeps the classic DA/SA design and features a distinctive tip-up barrel.

Overall, it’s just kind of cool. It’s slick, stylish, and relatively unique in its genre. With that said, is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it concealed carry ready? Or should it be resigned to a range toy?

Let’s find out.

How We Tested the Beretta 21A Bobcat

For this review, I spent hours with the Beretta 21A, testing it and evaluating it for performance, ergonomics, and features. That included quite a bit of time at the range running Federal Automatch, Mini Mags, Federal Punch, Aguila Super Extra, Remington Gold Bullet, and Federal bulk .22 LR through the Beretta Bobcat.

I shot at various distances out to 25 yards and ran through a variety of drills to gauge performance.

Aside from that, I’ve spent a lifetime shooting that started in a family that hunted every season they legally could. From there, I joined the United States Marine Corps and spent five years as an infantryman. I am also an NRA-certified instructor and concealed carry trainer out of Florida, and over the years, I’ve tested various concealed-carry handguns, holsters, and accessories for a myriad of publications, including Pew Pew Tactical.

Beretta 21A Bobcat Background

Colt has the Snake guns, and Beretta has the kitten guns. The kitten guns are all micro-sized Berettas with the familiar open slide design and a tip-up barrel.

They descend from the original Beretta 950, known as the Minx, which was designed in 1952.

Since then, Beretta designed a few different micro-sized pistols. The Tomcat is the .32 ACP variant, and the 21A Bobcat comes in .22 LR or .25 ACP.

Initially designed as a backup for police officers, these micro-sized handguns became favorites for concealed carry quite quickly.

These guns were tiny for their era but admittedly struggle to keep up in 2023. Guns like KelTec P32, Ruger LCP, and S&W Bodyguard are much thinner and lighter and don’t rely on a blowback mechanism.

Tip-up barrels allow you to put a round directly into the chamber and to easily clear the chamber. This makes it easier to operate than grabbing a very small, stiff-moving slide. It’s a neat feature and one of the big reasons why I wanted the 21A.

The all-metal design, tip-up barrels, and the DA/SA trigger system make the Beretta 21A standout, but it still feels awfully dated.

Who Is the Bobcat For?

It’s advertised as a concealed carry and backup weapon, and that’s been the job of these pistols for decades. They can certainly be very easily carried and concealed.

In reality, and after my testing, I wouldn’t suggest the 21A for serious use. I’ll elaborate later, but it does seem prudent to mention you shouldn’t risk your life on this gun.

It is a fun-to-shoot pistol with lots of bark and muzzle flash but little to no recoil or muzzle rise. Like all .22 LRs, it’s just a fun gun.

Ergonomics: Fit & Feel

Beretta makes excellent-looking guns, no question. The Beretta 21A Bobcat is available in numerous finish options, and mine is the stainless “Inox” variant, and it looks fantastic.

The black grips are simple and look and feel great. It’s quite comfy and sports a 1.1-inch wide grip that’s rounded and sits nicely in hand. Even though it’s a short grip, the lack of recoil still makes it easy to shoot.

There are some sights across the top that are miserably small and not exactly fast to use. In a self-defense situation, using these sights efficiently would be a challenge.

Controls

The controls all respond instantly when pressed. The barrel flies upward, and the safety pops up and in place with a satisfying click.

The magazine release is on the bottom rear of the grip. It’s awkward to reach, and the magazine doesn’t fall free. This isn’t likely a weapon you’d carry a spare mag for anyway. You get a magazine capacity of seven rounds, but you can fit eight into it. If you put eight, it will malfunction, so pay attention to how many you’re loading.

The gun also has a manual safety on the frame. However, it’s not exactly a drop-safe design when cocked to single-action. The proper way to carry the gun is with the hammer down to ensure it drop safe.

Hammer

The hammer is textured and moves back easily into single-action mode. There is no decocker, but you can lower the hammer with the barrel in the tipped-up position, so you aren’t lowering on a live chamber. You can also load the gun without operating the slide via the tip-up barrel, so it easily stays in double action.

Overall, the gun feels solid and well-made. It certainly lives up to Beretta’s often high standards in that department.

How Does the Beretta 21A Bobcat Shoot?

Firing the Beretta Bobcat is an interesting experience. While the recoil is nearly nothing, it’s the loudest .22 LR handgun I’ve ever fired — likely due to the short barrel.

You get a nice fireball at the end of the barrel with high-velocity loads.

Despite the blast and flash, the sights barely move after the hammer drops. It’s effortless to shoot, and even an amateur could handle the gun with ease.

Could they shoot it accurately with ease? That’s a tougher one to affirm. The double-action trigger pull is incredibly long and quite heavy, heavier than most others.

The single action is much lighter and much shorter, but still quite long and heavy for a single action trigger.

I’m no pro or expert, but I can shoot pretty decently. I could hit a 10-inch gong consistently out to 25 yards with single-action slow fire. Mechanically, the gun’s accuracy is fine, but the sights and trigger do not help reduce human error.

At close range, it’s easy to dump every round on target due to the light recoil, which is nice. Handling the gun one-handed was also enjoyable.

The Beretta 21A is capable of being reliable, but it’s very finicky about getting there.

First, you need hot ammo; subsonic ammo ain’t gonna fly here. Federal Automatch, Mini Mags, Federal Punch, and Aguila Super Extra work great.

Standard bulk .22 LR, like the Remington Gold Bullet and standard Federal bulk pack, doesn’t yield promising results. They tend to fail to cycle and leave your gun going click.

Once you have the right ammo, ensure the gun is clean and lubricated. It doesn’t like running dry and dirty.

The gun lacks an extractor, so it relies on blowback gas to free the empty case. When the chamber gets dirty, the cartridges tend to stick and fail to extract.

You also need to be careful how you hold the gun. It’s sensitive to limp writing, which isn’t all that surprising, but it’s also sensitive to holding it too tight. Holding it too high can cause slide interference as well.

When shooting with my less grip-intensive, non-dominant hand, the gun ran much better. I loosened my grip with my two-handed shooting, and what do you know…the gun became mostly reliable.

The slide is very hard to rack, but the tip-up barrel makes loading easy. The slide only becomes an issue when addressing malfunctions. That same slide will take a bite out of your hand if you hold it too high.

Even with a clean gun, high-velocity ammo, and the just-right grip, the gun wasn’t always reliable. Every couple of magazines, I would get some form of failure. Because the gun lacks an extractor, it’s difficult to fix malfunctions, and it takes time and a pinky nail in most cases.

What Sets It Apart

The Bobcat’s tip-up barrel and micro DA/SA design make it a unique firearm. You rarely see a pocket-sized pistol with a DA/SA action, and the tip-up barrel is also uncommon.

It’s just kind of neat. It’s not necessarily the most useful firearm, but its unique features appeal to me. I feel I’ve given it a fair review, and while it’s a bit harsh, I still like the gun.

While it’s cool and interesting, it’s not necessarily effective or appealing for defensive use.

Final Verdict

This is a gun for gun nerds — people like me who find it neat and interesting.

It’s not a practical carry choice, and It costs nearly double what the LCP II in .22 LR costs while being worse in most ways. But at the end of the day, it’s fun to shoot when it works, but it doesn’t work well enough.

Do you have any experience with the Beretta Bobcat? Let us know in the comments below! Like .22 LR, but aren’t big on the Beretta? Check our article on the Best .22 LR Pistols & Revolvers for Pocket Carry!

Latest Updates

April 08, 2024: Added more information to how we tested the Beretta 21A Bobcat, and added section headers for Ergonomics.