The venerable Beretta 71 has an interesting history as Mossad’s reported favorite tool of assassination, but it works equally well as a tucked-away carry gun, even in the most formal situations.
This article was first published in Gunsmoke in 2019.
By Terry Wieland
There is no more personal gun decision than what you choose for self-defence. It may also be the most important decision you ever make. Yet, ironically, it’s the one where you are least likely to get a real-life chance to see if you were right.
What’s more, if that chance ever comes, it may be unexpected, sudden, and nerve-destroying — a situation where it all comes down to instinct and muscle memory: A confrontation in a parking lot, a bunch of yahoos at a gas station, or a shadowy figure late at night in your bedroom door.
Whenever I write about this, the first question I get is: But what do you use, yourself? Here are the answers. There isn’t space to examine the reasoning in every instance, but trust me, there is reasoning behind them. First, I differentiate among a bedside gun, a carry piece, and a car gun.
Beside the bed, I have a Smith & Wesson 39-2 with a spare magazine. You wake up, you reach for it, you pull the trigger. I like the feel and love the mechanism, which is a copy of my revered Walther PPK, but with a smoother trigger.
In the car, I usually have a WWII-vintage Walther P-38. Same mechanism but more menacing, and menacing can be useful. One time, exploring some backwoods properties in the Ozarks, I took my broomhandle Mauser, complete with stock. To the uninitiated, it looks like an SMG, and makes a wonderful impression when some gap-toothed yob wanders up to the car, sizing you up. His threatening grin disappears right sudden.
Travelling through the west, I favor a Colt SAA in .45 Colt. Call me a romantic but everyone out there knows exactly what it is, and that yawning hole in the muzzle sends its own message.
I have an officially issued carry permit which is good in most states, and once came in handy in the most unexpected circumstance. Crossing into Michigan from Canada, the border officers called my attention to the hunting knife in my driver’s door pocket. Perfectly legal in Canada, highly illegal in Michigan. But, since I had my Missouri concealed-carry permit, that made it all right for some reason. Go figure, as they say in lightly armed New York.
On my person, concealed or otherwise, I take either a S&W Airweight 642 hammerless .38 Special in a Galco shoulder holster, a PPK .380 on the belt, or a Beretta Model 71 in .22LR. Ammunition is, respectively, Hornady Critical Defense .38 Spl. 90-grain FTX Lite, or .380, again with the 90-gr. FTX, and, in the .22, CCI Mini-Mags.
The Beretta 71 has an interesting past. After the Black September terrorist attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Mossad tracked down the killers, one by one, and assassinated them. Their favorite tool in this endeavour was, reportedly, the Beretta 71.
It does not have a PPK-style action — that is, there is no double-action first shot with a pull of the trigger, and the thumb safety is exactly that, not a de-cocking lever. You can carry it cocked and locked, or with the hammer down, or hammer-down, safety-on, if you are worred about ultra-safe storage. I usually just carry it hammer down with a round in the chamber. The eight-round magazine is no paean to fire-power, but have an ancient, unidentified, European military-style leather holster with a flap, with two pouches for extra mags. That gives me 25 shots, all contained in one compact package I can grab in a hurry, tuck under the seat, and be ready for the unexpected. My Beretta 71 has never malfunctioned, never failed to feed or eject, is very accurate to shoot offhand, and has a great trigger pull. It’s light and easily concealed.
I might add that all three “carry” guns work well in the Mexican carry, hurriedly tucked in your waistband. This also works with evening dress. Never underestimate the value of a cummerbund. You want to feel like Sean Connery? That’ll do it.
