Guns and Tacos

Beretta PX4 Storm

August 9th, 2009 in Guns! by Jay | 11 responses

The Beretta PX4 Storm is a derivative of the Beretta 92, which won the US military contract over the Colt 45 in 1984.

Without getting too far into this aspect, I must note that on June 11, 1979, the day that the US government chose the Italian 9mm Beretta 92 contract versus the American-made Colt 45, every US war veteran turned into Meryl Streep for at least one day.

Our statement to the world was, “The people of America have spoken, and their choice is for our soldiers to use smaller bullets that cost less. Also I forgot to mention that if we’re going to buy all of our guns from Italy, we politicians will get a great deal on leather furniture if we pull this off.”

This was also the day of John Wayne’s death, but this isn’t about the Beretta 92.

Sorry, I made that part up. Moving on.

Beretta came out with the PX4 just a few years ago. In my opinion, it’s a cool-looking gun. And come on, you’ve got to admit that’s definitely a good buying point.

The PX4 Storm, available in 9mm, 40 and 45 calibers, has been featured on Live Free and Die Hard, as well as a few episodes of 24. That’s right, Jack Bauer carried it. And that’s important.

One sleek looking piece.

What attracted me to the Beretta PX4 Storm was the grip on it. Once you wrap your hands around this sucker, you’re sold.  If not, you’ll notice that the backstrap, or the back of the grip of the pistol, can be changed out with one of two other supplied backstraps.

I’m sure this is a great selling point, because the buyer is thinking, “This grip may not fit perfectly, but if it doesn’t, I can just change it out later.”

It takes a minute or two to replace this backstrap, and it’s not something that a lot of gun shops would let you mess around with before purchasing it. So as a prospective PX4  buyer, you may not get a chance to try out the different grips before buying it. What’s interesting is, I’ve tried all three backstraps, and they all feel about the same to me.  All three of these grip options fit my hand well.

The PX4 comes with a Picatinny rail, standard, along with night sights. If you’re considering the purchase of a PX4, know that most modern semiautos have the Picatinny rail, but very few come with factory night sights (The HK P30 is another one that does).

The PX4 retails for $600 or so, and surprisingly, I haven’t seen them for more than $100 below that.

Since the most common version comes with a manual thumb safety, I would definitely recommend carrying this gun chambered. Not just because of the awkward thumb safety that must be flipped up (instead of down like most other traditional slide-mounted safeties), but due to the fact that the slide must be dramatically snapped into cycle in order to load the round effectively. By the way, the manual safety has a second function as a decocker.

If you were in a dark room trying to be stealthy with this thing, you can’t just pull back the slide and ease the first round into the chamber because the round will tumble around and get stuck.

When you choose to chamber a round, don’t do it slowly. Rack that sucker like you’re John McLane. Sharks patrol these waters, amigo.

If you would like to buy the optimum weapon for home defense, purchase an inexpensive shotgun and several rounds of OO buckshot.

If you’d like to purchase a handgun for home protection, and you feel more comfortable with a manual safety, the Beretta PX Storm may be the perfect weapon for you.

The PX4 is very easy to disassemble and reassemble, perhaps even easier than a Glock.

There’s a flaw I’d like to point out with the PX4 Storm. If you would like to learn how to perform double-taps or master the art of accurate kill-zone rapidfire accuracy, don’t get the PX4 for these reasons:

1) Although you can pull the hammer back if you’d like, the single/double action may work against you on your first shot. There is a long, hard trigger pull, similar to a revolver on the first shot. Even though you’ve got a 17 round magazine (for the 9mm version), the most important shot (the first one) may be off if you’re not an experienced handgunner.

2) After your first shot, the trigger reset is abnormally long on this pistol. Without going into the details of trigger reset mechanics,  if you happen to be a  tactical guru who knows what a trigger reset is, then know that this particular peacemaker may not be an optimum choice for you. But you probably already knew that.

Shown with leather holster, handcrafted by Utah's Eric Larsen. Click on the image to view Eric's holster website, if you're into holster porn.