To mark 10 years of the Beretta/WA licensing agreement, Western Arms launched the Beretta 1934.

I had thought the M84 a compact little gun, but the 1934 is smaller still, by a considerable margin.

This gun is especially interesting as it has a number of unusual features.

In the Box

The typical (but tiny) beige WA box contained the gun, the manual and a few pieces of paperwork and a few BBs. There's no hop adjustment allen key or loading tool.

First Impressions

The 1934 is a tiny, tiny gun. Almost (but not quite) as small as the Colt .25, but is a proper GBB, with a fully functioning slide.

The markings are well engraved as you come to expect of WA and the hammer, trigger and safety are made of metal.

The sights are very simple, to the point of rudimentary, but suffice for a gun of this type and are, obviously, based on the real thing.

The magazine has an extended curved finger grip at the front, which gives it a comfortable feel in the hand.

Despite the diminutive dimensions, the gun is quite heavy and feels extremely solid and well made.

Closer Look

The 1934 is a single action gun and lacks a decocker, but with this gun WA introduced a mechanism, a "Transfer hammer system", that allows you to pull the trigger, and let the hammer down gently, without releasing the gas from the magazine.

This a neat feature and works well, although WA don't recommend you do it often.

The tiny magazine is held in place with a simple magazine latch on the base of the grip, which holds the magazine very securely and it looks and works much like that on the P38. Amazingly, it holds two rows of BBs giving an impressive capacity of 20 rounds, plenty for a backup weapon and saving the plinker from having to constantly reload.

For anyone used to the modern Berettas (M9s, Cougars, M84s) the 1934 is quite unfamiliar. The safety is on the frame and doubles as a slide lock (although it does not engage when the magazine is emptied).

Part of the reason the 1934 feels so solid and well made is that the grips are (in a bizarre reversal of most real steel) made of zinc alloy, whilst the frame of the gun is heavyweight material ABS. The grips are nicely engraved and feel good (and cold to the touch) in the hand.

There are quite a few markings on the gun. The left side of the slide is marked "P.BERETTA - CAL .9 SCURT - Md 1934 - BREVET" with "GARDONE V.T - 1941" below that.

On the right is a serial number "11403", which is repeated on the frame. The right side of the slide also bears the standard WA Beretta licence agreement, which (to me) detracts from the overall appearance of the smaller Berettas (the M84 and this 1934).

The grips bear a PB script and there's a lanyard ring on the rear of the left side of the grip.

Shooting Impressions

The gun has a fixed Hop-Up and a 6.03mm tightbore barrel to improve accuracy and save some of the gas pressure escaping from around the BB.

Carrying out my standard 5m/6 round, off hand test produced extremely impressive results. With little kick, the gun put all 6 rounds into the central area, within a 1.5 inch (3.5 CM) diameter, pretty much where aimed.

The recoil is snappy and sharp, but there's little felt recoil with the gun staying pretty much level and steady in the hand. To be fair, however, you wouldn't expect the gun to throw you arm back, so this quite in keeping with the style of the gun.

Take Down

Remove the magazine and push the slide back to the lock position.

Push the barrel back into the slide and it will angle upwards (see photo below) and lift backwards out of the slide.

Once the barrel is out, the slide and recoil rod and spring will slide forward off of the frame.

Conclusions

The Beretta 1934 is a neat little gun. It's a fully functional GBB with a reasonable amount of power, good accuracy and loads of interesting features.

I doubt the gun will attract huge amounts of interest, but as it's reasonably priced, it would be a great introduction to the WA range of guns for anyone looking for an interesting collector's piece or a concealable backup gun

Weight : 600g

Realism : ****
Quality : ****
Power : ***
Accuracy : ****