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I’m a bit of a tip-up fanboy. Something about these cool little pistols charms me, and I’m a sucker for micro-sized rimfire guns. Beretta has long ruled the tip-up world, producing a variety of .22LR, .25 ACP, and .32 ACP tip-ups. While these guns have fallen out of favor for carry, Beretta has revived their tip-up lineup with the X series. For suppressor enthusiasts, the Beretta 30X Get Home Bag is a natural draw.
I like tip-ups, and I like suppressors, so when Beretta unleashed a variety of 30X models, I already knew which one I was taking home. The Get Home Bag version of the 30X features a threaded barrel and suppressor height sights. That little Tomcat quickly became one of my favorite suppressor hosts.
The Beretta 30X – A New Take on the Tomcat
The Beretta 30X is a revamp of the Beretta 3032, a recently discontinued .32 ACP tip-up pistol. The 3032 had a lot of flaws, and while I enjoyed the gun, I never suggested it as a concealed carry gun. It had too many quirks for carry. The 30X series was created to fix those quirks and provide a capable concealed carry pistol.
The biggest problem with the 3032 was that the frame wasn’t tough enough. These are straight blowback guns, and that creates excessive pressure. When you shove a .32 ACP into a micro-sized blowback pistol, you get problems. The 3032’s frames were cracking when ammo exceeded about 129 foot-pounds of energy — and that’s often where the best .32 self-defense rounds live.
The 30X fixes that and claims to be 100% more durable than the original Tomcat. I can shoot all my 71- and 73-grain European loads without a problem. Beretta revamped the frame: it’s larger, wider, and heavier. The grips are now wider, are made of G10, and are highly textured — no slick, cheap plastic.
The magazine release moved from the bottom of the grip to behind the trigger. The tip-up release is now a button instead of a lever. The 30X features a flat-faced trigger, and Beretta cut the double-action pull by a reported 35%.
The sights are now removable instead of being part of the slide. The 30X ships with an eight-round magazine with a pinky extension. This Get Home Bag model features a 1/2×28 threaded barrel and suppressor-height sights.
Beretta 30X at the Range: Shooting Impressions
Taking the 30X to the range was the real test. I’ve always had a soft spot for the .32 ACP, and this pistol gave me the chance to see how Beretta’s redesign handled the cartridge in practice.
From the first magazine on, the gun showed off its character — especially when it came to recoil and overall handling.
Recoil and Handling
I love the .32 ACP cartridge. It’s the smallest capable centerfire cartridge for self-defense. People call it a mouse-gun caliber, but if that’s the case, this mouse can bite. The .32 ACP can reach deep enough to hit vitals and stop a threat, and it has virtually no recoil.
The 30X Tomcat has very light recoil. For a blowback-operated pistol, the 30X handles nicely. The recoil is minimal, and the gun can be fired exceptionally fast. The wider frame and thick grips disperse recoil well, and the grips keep you from getting slide bite.
You can dump the entire eight-round mag, plus one in the chamber, without straying off target. Unlike larger-caliber micro pistols, the 30X and the .32 ACP don’t beat your hand up.
Trigger
The DA/SA design means the first trigger pull is heavy and prolonged, but on the 30X it’s surprisingly refined. The flat-faced trigger and the reduced-weight pull do a great job. Subsequent shots are single-action and are exceptionally light and crisp.
Hitting Targets
Light triggers make it easy to shoot the gun fast and help accuracy. A gun this small isn’t for precision work, but I can consistently and quickly land shots in an IPSC target’s A and C zones. The sight radius is short, so there’s little room for error.
The Get Home Bag’s suppressor-height sights are larger and easier to see, but the sight height combined with the short sight radius leads to height-over-bore issues — my shots landed low. It’s a mild hassle; I’d likely swap the sights for standard-height ones and deal with the suppressor being in the way when I want to use it.
For concealed carry, I’m not running a suppressor, so suppressor-height sights aren’t needed. While the gun is capable of reasonable precision, expect the point of impact to sit low unless you adjust sights or aim accordingly.
Beretta 30X Reliability With Different Ammo
In the reliability department I saw no issues across a wide variety of ammo: 60-grain JHPs, 71-grain FMJs, and Magtech lead round-nose all fed and ejected fine. That said, the design has quirks.
The gun lacks a traditional extractor/ejector and relies in part on blowback. When failures occur you may experience a double feed that gets complicated. If you have a failure to fire, try the DA trigger — it can clear some issues — but if that fails you must tip the barrel up and pry the round out.
How Is It Suppressed?
Can I describe a gun as charming? That’s the word that comes to mind when I shoot the 30X suppressed. The Spectre 9 is lightweight and short, so it didn’t make the pistol front-heavy. The combination of the two makes a quiet, low-recoiling, fun-to-shoot setup.
The .32 ACP cartridge is already a slow round, and from the 30X, it’s all subsonic. The .32 ACP isn’t popular enough to warrant many caliber-specific suppressors, but I attached a Spectre 9 to the 30X, and it was just perfect. The 9mm is a .355 round, so it’s not too far from a .3125-inch projectile.
Due to the blowback nature of the gun, you do get a little gas thrown in your face every so often. The fixed tip-up barrel means we don’t have the reliability headaches that require a Nielsen device — just thread on the can and go. If all you had was a 30X for home defense, you’d preserve your hearing well with the addition of a Spectre 9.
Where the Beretta 30X Excels (and Falls Short)
The Beretta 30X is a much better shooting gun than the original 3032. It’s easier to shoot accurately, has less recoil, and better ergonomics.
The 30X works well in an IWB or OWB holster and is comfy to carry that way, but it has moved out of the pocket realm. I’d trust this gun for concealed carry in a holster, but for me it’s primarily a suppressed plinker.
As for drawbacks, it’s worse than the 3032 when it comes to carry. The 3032 is a great pocket pistol, but the added weight and size of the 30X take it out of the pocket. Slimmer grips and a flush-fitting magazine would go a long way to make it more pocket-friendly.
Bottom Line
If you love tip-ups and enjoy suppressed micro pistols, the Beretta 30X Get Home Bag is a charming, capable option. It fixes the 3032’s durability problems, shoots cleanly, and pairs wonderfully with a short can like the Spectre 9. If you need a true pocket pistol, look elsewhere — but if you want a fun, low-recoiling suppressed plinker, the 30X is a winner.
The .32 ACP and the Spectre 9 are a well-mated pair. If you buy a 30X, please suppress it — that’s how you’ll get the most out of this kitty cat.
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