My daughter is looking for a pocket pistol and we need the pros & cons
on the Baretta Tomcat and a Keltec as far as reliablity goes.
Thanks for any help and advice.
I own a Berretta Tomcat in .32 auto and I carry it every now and again for pocket carry. The Tomcat is a good gun but requires a bit of practice to aim correctly. Also the slide is a bit stiff if you do not have the hammer back, I say this because my wife hates to pull back the slide. In my opinion the smaller the gun, the harder to aim effectively, but if you put in the practice a Tomcat is a great gun. I have not had a single problem with FTF or FTE...
The Seecamp in the best pocket pistol in .32 or .380 (if you can afford the .380 at about $800-1000 ) IMO. Once I got my Seecamp .32 the Tomcat went into the safe and the only time it came out was when I gave it to my sister to carry. The Tomcat does have a little bigger grip than the Seecamp (which some prefer) but I think the Tomcat was just to heavy and bulky over the Seecamp to keep it.
Can't talk on the Kel-Tec's as the only one I've owned was teh PF9 and I sold it because it was too big for me to pocket. I do however have the Ruger LCP which gets more carry tiime than anything due to it's light weight, size and .380 (compared to my .32 Seecamp).
I've got a KelTec P3AT and carry it almost every day. I have a generation 1 model and have had no malfunctions of any kind. Some of the gen 1 models had some ftf or fte problems which I understand are mostly non existant in the gen 2 model.
I recommend this for anyone, but I would seriously look at Ruger's new .380. It is almost identical to the Kel Tec in appearance and size, but it does have a slide hold open lever which the KelTec does not have. This feature may or may not be a good idea. I have found that the less stuff on a gun, the better it is for pocket carry. If you carry in a holster, it may not matter. But a snag is the last thing you need to have if you have to draw quickly in an emergency situation.