Fatih’s B380 is a more or less faithful reproduction of the old-school Beretta 84, an aluminum-framed 13-shot .380 ACP. Big for a modern .380, but very fun to shoot. (Photo Provided by Author.)
January 28, 2025
By James Tarr
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The TISAS Fatih B380 is a very interesting pistol to me . Not just because I’m a huge fan of the Beretta 84, upon which this 13-shot .380 is based, but because I also recently in these pages reviewed the new Beretta 80X Cheetah, a modernized version of the 84. And I have to say…I actually like the Turkish-made bargain-priced Fatih better than I do the modernized tricked-out Beretta 80X. Which is definitely not what I expected.
First off, it’s not Faith, it’s Fatih, which means Conqueror in Turkish. These guns are made in Turkey by TISAS, and imported by TISAS USA . Naming a .380 “Conqueror” seems a bit like calling a big guy “Tiny,” but I’ll leave that alone. I will say that this is not a tiny gun which will fit easily into a pocket—this is an all-metal .380 ACP the size and weight of modern sub-compact and/or compact 9mms…but that means you can actually get all your fingers on it and shoot it fast and accurately. More on that in a bit.
The Fatih isn’t quite a one-for-one copy of the Beretta 84, but it’s close, and you’ll appreciate the excellent trigger pull. (Photo Provided by Author.) The TISAS Fatih is an aluminum-framed DA/SA .380 ACP semi-auto with 13+1 capacity. It is not an exact copy of the Beretta 84, but it is darn close—most importantly, it uses Beretta 84-pattern magazines and grips.
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The Fatih has a 3.98-inch barrel that has been button rifled. A barrel that length will maximize the performance of the .380 ACP. Overall, the pistol is 6.9-inches long, 4.9-inches tall with a magazine inserted, and 1.35-inches wide at the rather fat grips. The slide itself is only 1.05-inches wide. With an empty magazine in place, this pistol weighed 23.5-ounces according to my digital scale.
TISAS’ Fatih has a matte black Cerakote finish and Turkish walnut grips. It has timeless, classic looks. (Photo Provided by Author.) This is a double-action/single-action (DA/SA) pistol, where the first shot can be fired double action (pulling the trigger brings the hammer back and then lets it fall) and subsequent shots are fired single action (the cycling slide cocks the hammer). But you’ll note the bilateral safety at the rear of the frame. Up for safe, and down for fire which reveals a red dot on the slide. This safety allows you, if you so desire, to carry this pistol cocked-and-locked (the hammer cocked and the safety engaged), so every shot is fired single action. The safety has very positive clicks up and down—perfect.
Because there is no decocker, if you want to fire that first shot DA, you’ll have to lower the hammer by hand, firmly holding onto the hammer (preferably between thumb and forefinger) and pointing it in a safe direction before pulling the trigger and easing the hammer forward.
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One thing Tarr really loved about the Fatih is being able to run it cocked-and-locked, the thumb safety engaged while the hammer is cocked for single-action-only operation. (Photo Provided by Author.) I am the proud and happy owner of a Beretta 84F, which you’ll see in some of these photos for comparison. I bought it in the early-mid ‘90s. Even though the safety on the Beretta looks the same, it isn’t—when the hammer is cocked on the Beretta, pushing up on the safety decocks the hammer, so you can’t carry the older Beretta cocked-and-locked. You can carry the new Beretta 80X Cheetah cocked-and-locked. I am generally a big fan of cocked-and-locked carry, and wish my older Beretta gave me that option, but a DA first shot for a gun this size/type isn’t a deal breaker, as they generally have good trigger pulls. Then again, my old Beretta has a magazine disconnect safety, which I hate. The Fatih does not.
The Fatih, as I wrote, is a near-clone of the Beretta 84. In design, this pistol looks like a shrunken version of the 9mm Beretta 92, but while that pistol is big, too big for many people, this pistol is quite handy. It shares the same open-top slide design, and is eminently reliable.
Compared to the sights on my older Beretta, the sights on the Fatih are objectively better. The front sight is a post with a white dot, and has been dovetailed into the slide. On my old Beretta, the front sight is machined all of one piece with the slide, and the dot is smaller, almost tiny. The rear sight on the Fatih is plain black, and serrated, with a generous notch, bigger and better than the old-school small notch on my veteran Beretta.
The rear sight on the Fatih is plain black and serrated, with a very generous notch. The thumb safety is bilateral, making it a bit more user-friendly to left-handers. (Photo Provided by Author.) The Beretta 92 has a high bore, but because the Fatih uses a straight blowback recoil system the barrel sits lower, and the bore on this pistol is very low, helping to keep muzzle rise down. At the rear of the slide you’ll see angled, narrow, flat-bottomed serrations. They work, but I find I almost never use mine, I work the slide from the front. No forward serrations? No problem. I pinch the front of the slide just behind the muzzle, where it narrows and forms a natural pinch-point, and cycle the slide that way, and it seems to work great.
Because this pistol uses a straight blowback operating system, the recoil and hammer springs are what control the recoil forces. As a result, the slide can be a bit difficult to cycle if the hammer is down, but it’s not bad at all if the hammer is cocked.
The stainless-steel barrel has an integral ramp, and it has been nicely polished. The barrel, frame, and slide have been given a matte black Cerakote finish which is very businesslike. The full-length recoil spring guide rod is stainless steel.
At the rear of the frame, you’ll see a modest beavertail which will help prevent slide bite. The front of the trigger guard is squared, and the front of it is horizontally serrated. The front and rear of the frame sport vertical serrations which help keep your hand in place. I can’t help but wish they were checkered, but the old Beretta frames were serrated, not checkered.
The magazine release does not protrude further than the grip, so you won’t be accidentally dislodging any magazines. The front strap is vertically serrated, as the original Berettas were. (Photo Provided by Author.) The magazine release is steel, a serrated button that doesn’t protrude as far as the grip panels, so there’s no danger of accidentally dislodging a magazine. And now we need to talk about the grips.
Originally, TISAS USA was offering two versions of the Fatih, one with slightly smaller sights and black plastic grips, and this one. They now only offer this one with Turkish walnut grips. The grips look good, and feel great in the hand, with fine texturing. But they’re not thin, and they give the gun almost a rounded feel in the hand. It feels quite fat, especially for a .380.
Depending on you/your hand size, you may like this. For most of the last thirty years that I owned my Beretta 84, it had the factory plastic grips on it which were roughly the same width as these. Last year, I became aware of LOK Grips (LokGrips.com). They make thin checkered G10 grip panels for the Beretta 84 in seven different colors, and as I mentioned, the Fatih accepts Beretta 84 grips (I checked that fit myself).
I put a set of the dark red/black panels on my Beretta and never looked back, so if the Fatih feels just a tad too thick to you, keep those in mind. They have a much more aggressive texture, and make the gun significantly thinner in the hand. The grip panels are so thin in the middle of the gun that they actually have to swell out to meet the grip screws. It makes the gun feel more concealable. I don’t know whether or not it is, but aren’t feelings more important than facts in our modern society?
The Fatih takes down for cleaning quickly and easily. Barrel fit to frame was somewhat tight, providing good accuracy. (Photo Provided by Author.) The magazine supplied with the pistol is made by Mec-Gar. Mec-Gar is the king of OEM pistol magazines, and know their business. There are three unmarked index holes in the side of the magazine for 5, 10, and 13 rounds.
DA/SA Beretta and Beretta-pattern pistols historically have very smooth trigger pulls, whether heavy or light. The double action trigger pull of the Fatih was smooth as well, with a total pull weight of 8¾ pounds. For the single action pull, there was a bit of take-up, then a smooth rolling break—total pull weight four pounds. All of this is more than acceptable in a compact/sub-compact pistol meant for concealed carry. The trigger itself is curved steel with a serrated face.
At the bottom of the aluminum frame, you’ll find the opening for the magazine well is just barely large enough. Empty magazines drop free, but that tight mag well opening will slow your reload just a bit. On my personal Beretta 84F, I used a hand file to bevel the mag well opening, as competitive shooters have never met a gun they didn’t feel they could improve. The chance you’ll need to reload your carry gun during an altercation is low, but never zero. This is why I wish they supplied a second magazine with the gun, but luckily spare magazines are easy to come by (they’ll run you about $35 apiece at Mec-Gar.com).
While the magazines dropped free, there is no extra room in the magazine well. Tarr beveled the frame of his Beretta 84 just to smooth out reloads.(Photo Provided by Author.) I keep comparing the Fatih to my old Beretta, but how does it compare to the new Beretta 80X Cheetah? The new Beretta has much thinner grips and a flat backstrap, significantly shrinking the size of the grip. I like the thinner grips on the 80X but I do not like the flat backstrap; it seems too small for my hand. Your experience may differ. The new Beretta has better sights and a significantly lighter trigger pull. The new Beretta 80X also has a frame rail for mounting a light and a slide that is optics ready. I feel both a weapon light and a red dot are stupid for any concealed carry pistol but especially dumb on a compact .380, but the customer wants what the customer wants.
In truth, I liked the Beretta 80X far less than I was expecting, and like the Fatih far more than I thought I would. Actually, if I hadn’t just spent an obscene amount of money on an HK SP5K PDW (including the $200 tax stamp to SBR it), I would be buying this Fatih as a backup to my 84F, which I carry when I go to the gym. As for holsters, a lot of companies make them for the Beretta 84, and you’ll want a holster, this pistol is too big for a pocket. I tried out the Beretta Civilian polymer OWB holster for the 80X, and it worked very well, with just a tiny bit of wiggle due to having no frame rail.
The only writing on this pistol is the small “Fatih 13” on the left side of the frame and the “TISAS KNOXVILLE TN” on the right side of the frame, but they are in fact made in Turkey by TISAS. TISAS is an acronym and thus properly capitalized, and stands for Trabzon Silah Sanayi AŞ, and was founded in 1993 in Trabzon, Turkey. Trabzon is on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, and this area is home to a lot of small and medium manufacturing.
Tarr brought a variety of ammunition to the range the first time he headed out with the Fatih. It never liked the big hollowpoints in the Hornady American Gunner load, but other than that it worked great after 50 or so rounds during the break-in period. (Photo Provided by Author.) The guns from SDS Imports (which also includes TISAS USA, Tokarev USA, Inglis, and Spandau Arms) have been getting rave reviews. I think the MAC JSOC 1911, made by TISAS in Turkey and distributed by SDS Imports, may be the finest 1911 available for less than $1,500. This hasn’t happened by accident. SDS Imports has people on the ground in Turkey, and for a while veteran 3-gun shooter Gaines Davis, SDS’ Director of Product Development, practically lived at the factory. Quality control is everything, whether you’re talking electronics made in China or guns made in Turkey.
At the range, you’ll soon see the value in a .380 that actually has a bit of weight to it and fills your hand. The straight blowback operating system gives you a recoil impulse with a bit of a snap, but the Fatih is fun to shoot, and won’t have you hating life after a box of ammunition. Between the size, weight, low bore, and good trigger, you can actually run the gun hard and fast. I shot paper, cardboard, and steel while testing the gun, FMJ and JHPs, indoors and outdoors.
The most accurate group fired out of the Fatih, a 2.1-inch group with Hornady’s well-respected Critical Defense load. It is designed to expand even when fired out of short barrels. ( Photo Provided by Author.) The pistol had a few failures to feed in the first fifty rounds, but then settled down and fed everything…everything except the Hornady American Gunner 124-grain XTPs. The square front profile of these hollowpoints apparently didn’t mix well with the Fatih’s feed ramp, and once a magazine or so I’d get a jam. The most accurate ammo I tested was the Hornady Critical Duty, which features a hollowpoint with a narrower cavity.
There is a big difference in recoil between various .380 ACP loads, and you have to decide what you want/are comfortable with in your carry loads. There are dozens of .380 ACP loads on the market which offer amazing performance. My two favorite .380 ACP loads are polar opposites—Federal’s 99-grain HST Micro is a heavy-for-caliber traditional JHP, and built to expand at .380 velocities. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Black Hills Ammunition’s 60-grain Honey Badger. This copper solid bullet is not designed to expand, rather the flutes shove the tissue out of the way as it penetrates. It will do every bit of the 1,150-fps advertised claim while having noticeably less recoil than a standard .380 load.
(Data Provided by Author.) Back in the day, Beretta .380s were considered the standard in concealable pistols. While they weren’t the smallest, or the cheapest, you could count on them to work in an era where most small pistols were jam-o-matics. The Fatih gives you a classic, reliable, controllable carry gun that is easily concealable. And while the Beretta 80X Cheetah starts at $649 (down from $799 at its launch last year), the Fatih has an MSRP of just $399 .
TISAS FATIH B380 PISTOL Action : DA/SA semi-autoCaliber : .380 ACPMagazine Capacity : 13+1Barrel Length : 3.98 in.Overall Length : 6.9 in.Overall Height : 4.9 in. (with magazine inserted)Width : 1.35 in.Frame : AluminumGrips : WalnutSlide : SteelBarrel : Stainless steelSights : White dot front, serrated notch rearTrigger Pull : 8.75 lbs. DA, 4.0 lbs. SA (as tested)Safeties : Manual safety, firing pin blockWeight : 23.5 oz. with empty magazine insertedAccessories : One 13-round magazine, lockable caseMSRP : $399.00Contact : TisasUSA.com , (865) 604-6894