Beretta 81BB Holster

[Vinnie]

The 81BB is modern, safe-to-carry pistol, but it can be hard to fit in holsters. I have two commercial holsters designed for the pistol.

But I live in the sticks and usually carry this 32acp gem while doing chores or fooling around on the property.
My gun takes hits sometimes and weather all the time, so I prefer a flap holster to serve in at-home duty. For the Beretta, I wanted a holster that doesn't LOOK much like a holster. Perhaps a holster that looks more like a tool holster.
Sometimes there is no sense screaming GUN with a holster that looks like a holster.

I bought a CZ82 military holster to fill the need. The 81BB and a spare mag fit inside just right. This is no quick draw holster but it isn't bad. I can hook the gun out of the holster with a two finger "proper" hold and have the other two on the grip instantly after having begun the draw.

The holster has the goofy look of a tool holster. If you were to stick a Husky or Fiskars label, or a first aid emblem on it, you could carry the thing in plain sight, and nobody would raise an eyebrow, except maybe a real gun guy, and who cares if THAT person knows? He is your friend you haven't met.

All my life I heard the "mouse gun" malarkey about 32acp pistols. Then, last year, in the sunset of my life, I cleaned up and fired two 1903s for a close friend, re-springed and test fired them. I was amazed. They hit hard, real hard, and shoot as fast as a 22LR. I was sold. Bought two 32s, the 81BB and a Remington 51. Now I carry a 32 everywhere and take along a heavier pistol for trips to predictably dangerous places.

Here is a picture of the holster model I got. Let me know about your 32s and the holsters you use around the farm or forest.

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[esbshaw]

Hey Vinnie - When I first got a curio & relics license in the mid-90s a .32 CZ50 was one of my first purchases. Can't remember what I paid but I'm sure it was well under a hundred bucks. A year or two later the C&R market was flooded with .32 auto Walther PP "police trade ins" - in those days virtually every surplus C&R handgun was referred to as "a police trade in from an un-named European country". I think they were $249, with some beaters going for under $200. So I bought a couple of those as well. I even had an HK4 with a .32 acp barrel, along with a .380 barrel and .22LR barrel. I never did have the .25 acp barrel though, so technically it was just an HK3 I guess. I lived in Idaho at the time and thought I'd just use the PPs as cheap truck guns and camping plinkers. The ammo never was cheap or easy to find locally, you had to mail order it from a Shotgun News ad; usually GECO in the blue box with massive amounts of red sealer on the primer and case mouth. Anyway, as much as I wanted them to be fun plinkers, they just weren't. A K frame .38 Special smith was way more fun to shoot. Not to mention more accurate, better sights, infinitely easier and cheaper to reload for, more versatile, more powerful, and just more satisfying all the way around. So one by one the .32s all got sold or traded away. Glad to hear that you're having fun with yours. The round itself was invented by John Moses Browning, so its got an undeniable "cool factor" right there!

 

[Vinnie]

@esbshaw
Naturally, rather just-my-luckily, I awoke to the 32 late. Just like every other gun I discover, the days of good prices are long gone. In my experience with the Colt 1903s, the Remington 51, and Beretta, the dern things are accurate enough out to 25 yards, which is as far as I'd ever try to aim the old ones with the knife edge sights. I got an adapter for the .303 rifle, and much to my surprise I could hit a playing card out to about 50 yards with the normal sight picture.
I wouldn't head out on a manhunt with a 32. But for the rare critter that needs attention here, and to fight back to a rifle if real trouble came, it suits me fine.