So new, apparently, that it isn’t even on the Girsan website yet [EDIT: it’s up on EAA’s website HERE], the MC14T is similar in design to the Beretta 86 Cheetah. Chambered in .380 ACP, the MC14T has a flip-up barrel that’s easily activated by depressing a spring-loaded lever on the right side of the gun.
The ability to load and unload the chamber via the tilt barrel means the user can run the MC14T without ever having to manually rack the slide. This is great for those with diminished grip strength.
The MC14T has another trick up its sleeve, too. Check out the video for more . . .
I like tip-up barrels for all the reasons Jeremy (who may, or may not have, spoken in class today) mentioned, especially after the crush injury I experienced to the knuckles of my dominate hand when my lower leg was also getting crushed by a car’s bumped about 4 years back.
Until someone here recently clued to the (very substantial) downside of such an operating cycle –
No extractor, straight blow-back action. That means, should ‘one in the pipe’ fail to ignite, for any reason, racking back the slide to clear the dead round does *nothing* for you. You have to ask your attacker to wait a minute while you dig out the dud in the chamber with your fingernail and rack the slide again. Not helpful in a DGU situation, to put it mildly. 🙁
The question I now have is – Are there any tip-up blow-back actions with an extractor out there? Anyone? Bueller? Beuller?
Would have to look as I would imagine the extractor would get in the way of the barrel when it is closed back into battery. As to the reliability issues there are always revolvers or high end defensive ammo and taking your chances as it’s already better than nothing
With a DAO revolver, pulling the trigger rotates the cylinder to a fresh round, and away you go. (SAO cocking the hammer does that job.)
Dud ammo is a bit of an inconvenience, but not a show-stopper unless you needed every round in the cylinder.
To me, that’s a *big* difference…
Only failed primers I have had were Federal and Winchester lower end target and range ammo unless CLP was involved in the base of the case then it can be a lot of issues. Either way sounding like 327mag or other higher capacity revolvers (depending on weight) might be the comfort zone if slides are at issue.
Oh duh or the shield ez for 9mm. But yeah not being able to rack easily sucks for limiting options and the various tradeoffs can be almost as frustrating to navigate as NY gun laws……..not that I had to do both for my wife or anything.
An unfired round should easily slip in and out of the chamber. Once it’s fired, the brass expands, so the extractor or ejector rod is needed.
The clearance drill is still a pain. You need to open the barrel, and tip the muzzle up so the unfired round falls out. Now you need to get a new round in the chamber. You could close the barrel and rack the slide, but many people choose these because they can’t rack the slide. The alternative is to carry a loose round somewhere to drop in before closing the barrel.
If the empty case doesn’t come out, and you get a double feed, then you’re kind of screwed. The case is now expanded, so it needs effort to be pulled or pushed out. On the .32 Tomcat I was playing with, if you push the barrel release with a double feed, the slide going forward combined with the upward motion of barrel remove the front of the slide from the rails. After you get the fired cartridge out, you now need to reassemble the gun (again, may be hard if can’t work the slide), and then get a new round. The live round in the double feed will be loose (or another from the magazine when releasing the slide after reassembling if you didn’t drop the mag) so maybe you can scramble around on the ground for it. Probably better to just use it like brass knuckles if there’s a misfeed.
If you put an extractor on it the barrel won’t tip up.
I am sure there is a way the extractor could recess into the frame upon the opening of the barrel to allow it to tip up and reengage after it is closed into battery but I sincerely doubt it would be a simple or particularly durable mechanism. Which would bring into question of whether it is worth bothering with re cost/durability/actual increase in reliability vs introducing new failure points.
I have a similar Taurus PT 22 with a tip-up barrel and occasionally have a dead rimfire shell. I just flip the barrel release latch, the barrel pops up and the dead shell goes flying. Don’t know if that would work with a .380 though. It should work though if the gun was tilted to the side and the muzzle raised just a bit. Just my 2 cents…
So, a good gun for self-defense provided you have absolutely dead-nuts “Yes, it will go *bang*” reliable ammunition, then?
And only then?
“use only Sig Sauer Elite Performance self-defense ammo”
No extractor on this one looks correct, there’s no groove for one in the breech.
That extra round in the bottom of the mag is an interesting idea.
Niche gun. Somebody out there will like it. Maybe.
And somebody will want to take it to the range a second time after trying it out. Maybe.
“This is great for those with diminished grip strength.”
>or people who understand that repetitive administratively chambering and unchambering the same round over and over again by racking the slide can eventually be problematic
I’m interested.
please, the Beretta covert a21 and the Jetfire. Both I hate. Now I can add this one to the list. BTW, the EZ380 from M&P is a two-finger rack. Even my wife can rack it. Bad marketing.
Looks interesting but a 4.5″ barrel doesn’t sound especially ez to lift with less that optimal grip strength🙄.
“a 4.5″ barrel doesn’t sound especially ez to lift with less that optimal grip strength🙄.”
You push the lever with one finger, and the barrel pops up (spring-loaded).
One finger can push the barrel back down and lock it into place…
“Lift” not load.
In spring lingo, a spring under tension (bent from its relaxed position) is known as ‘loaded’.
The terminology I used was correct…
I thought being a .380 the pistul would have had to have been made much larger.
My goodness the gunm companies have gone a long way with modern technology
for about 400 bucks its not optics ready
but at least it has an accessory rail
so a light/laser can be mounted to it
unlike the 1500 dollar “KDS9c Double Stack Aluminum Frame 9mm Carry Gun”
About 12 years ago or so, this was how everyone used to mount an optic onto their handgun. Assuming you had an accessory rail underneath the barrel. I have one of these accessories for my High Point. And a side mounting one for my Ruger P89. So I can mount an optic on both of them.
The only drawback is you’ll probably have to get a new holster for your handgun.
Search for “universal pistol scope mount”
https://www.google.com/search?q=universal+pisop+scope+mount&oq=universal+pisop+scope+mount&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i13i512j0i5i13i30l2j0i390i650l3.10665j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
I own the Beretta 21A in 22 lr. It was the wife’s gun. She loved shooting it. She had so much fun with it. I took it to a “pocket gun” class in Nashville back in November last year. That gun was very popular there. Most of my classmates had only heard about it but never seen one.
Our class instructor Mr. Chuck Haggard asked if he could shoot my gun, into the gel block for the class to see. One of my classmates had given me the new Hornady “punch” ammunition. And I have to say it performed incredibly well. The rounds almost passing completely through the 16-in gel block. They fell short by less than 2 inches.
My wife had weak hands. So having a 21A tip up Barrel suited her just fine. I’ll be definitely looking into this new 380 tip up Barrel version.
It’ll be interesting to compare it to other similar 380s. In weight, capacity, and dimensions. And even 9 mm guns in similar size. Perhaps some very serious competition in the women’s gun market.
That ‘Punch’ ammo is in my 21A ‘Covert’… 🙂
There’s a certain “cool factor” for me with the tip-up barrel designs. But with light-racking pistols like the Shield EZ line and the PK .380 on the market, I don’t know that they are necessarily the best option for most folks with hand strength issues anymore.
Do you have to manually extract and load a round each time?
Just watched the video at EAA and the answer to my ? is no.
Easy to load, soon to be banned by the FTA. We can’t have things that make it easier for the firearm to go out on its spree dragging along some innocent victim. Because they keep telling us it’s the guns not the people using them, which suggests that the guns are using the people.
I have been thinking all this time that the gun is just the tool, but I guess we are the tool of the gun instead.
TRUE ON TILL BARREL , WAIT I HAVE TO DIG IT OUT . THEN CAN CONTINUE SHOOTING .
I have an honest question and I’m not trying to troll anyone. If you don’t have the strength to rack a slide how do you have the strength to hold and shoot a pistol?
Likely why they chamber it in a near useless/very weak round.
.380 FMJ will go right through a human head. OOF
Neiowa is on the right track its a combination of weight of pistol and power of round. While grip strength to rack may be lacking there may be more than enough to hold even for moderate recoil (varies by person) so finding a good balance of light enough to hold, powerful enough to be useful (depending on weight and design of pistol can be anywhere from 9mm-32acp with outliers on either end) and recoil that is controllable (determined by both of the previous issues). This of course does not account for grip size/shape/comfort that can improve or make worse the firearm in question for that person.
I’d rather have the Tomcat CarryMAX10 in 10mm that Beretta just announced on April 1st.
I knew a woman who couldn’t slide a rack so she glued a frog on it.
You guys that have to have red dots on your pistols are wusses. Gimme a set of irons and lemme go to work
* AQ donning fire retardant suit now
LOL there are maybe 3 posters that would generally disagree with you maybe but if you need a light it better be tritium night sights you are using for irons.
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