My first trip to the range left me pleased, with the nifty little shooter providing better-than-expected accuracy, even with some very old ammo that Dad gave me. For several years after that, this little pistol didn't do much shooting, but then I pulled it out of the safe and decided to burn some ammo with it.
All was well, until the slide began failing to return to battery. Upon inspection, I found that the barrel's hinge pin (upon which it pivots when it's tipped up) had "walked" off to one side, and was causing the slide to bind. A correction with a brass drift and small hammer put it back into place, but that doesn't mean it won't happen again. I may have to Loctite the little sucker in place.
The photo above shows the left side of the Beretta Tomcat 3032. The trigger bar is visible along the bottom of the slide forward of the grip panel, along with some wear marks on the frame that show how far forward it travels. The slot in the frame which I mentioned on the previous page is cut long enough to allow that much travel, and there's not much "meat" above the slot, which is why Tomcat frames sometimes crack.
As you can clearly see in the photo above (click it to see a larger image, if you like), the right side of the slide is marked, "BERETTA USA CORP., ACKK., MD" and "READ MANUAL BEFORE USE," in two lines. Speaking of the manual, it really isn't bad. Disassembly of this gun is easy, and is well-described in the owner's manual.
