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FNS-40 Contest Entry: Beretta 9mm PX4 Storm Type F Review

Dan Zimmerman - comments No comments

by Bryce Adam Prescott

The Beretta PX4 Storm is probably the most neglected polymer pistol when it comes to reviews. This is in stark contrast to reviews on Glock pistols which seem to be pouring out endlessly into the Internet and various magazines. This a review on the full size Beretta PX4 Storm 9mm Type F (safety/decocker) . . .

At first look, the PX4 Storm seems to be a combination of a Glock 17 and a Beretta 92FS. In truth, the Beretta PX4 Storm is really more or less a polymer version of the Beretta 8000 (the closest current incarnation is the Stoeger Cougar). The look of the pistol is really striking. It is one of those designs that people either love or hate. For my eyes the Beretta PX4 Storm is the most beautiful polymer pistol ever produced. The finish on the slide is very nice and seems to be resistant to wear.

Ergonomics are almost as subjective as aesthetics. Gripping the pistol feels great even with my smallish hands. The grip comes far back enough to prevent hammer bite (although I wouldn’t exactly call it “beavertail”). The pistol comes with 3 interchangeable backstraps for fitting the gun to various hand sizes. The front and back of the pistol are checkered while the sides of the pistol are smooth. The trigger guard is semi-rounded with enough squareness to accommodate shooters who wish to place a finger on the front of the trigger guard. For a polymer pistol, the Beretta PX4 Storm feels quite heavy. Between the thickness and the heft of the gun, I’d say this pistol is not a concealed carry piece for the average person. The safety location is an ergonomic miss in my book. Deactivating the safety requires a rather awkward movement of the thumb and hand, but this won’t be much of a challenge for any Beretta 92FS users transitioning to the Beretta PX4 Storm. The slide release lever is awesome on this pistol. It is very oversized thus giving the user a lot of leverage. Releasing the slide with the slide release lever is amazingly easy. Using the overhand technique (sometimes called “crab claw”) is painful due to the flared safety and should be avoided on this pistol.

The sights are of a large 3 dot variety. The sights are made of metal and can take abuse. The rear sight is squared off so racking the slide on the edge of a table while injured should be possible. The dots are large and intensely white. As far as stock pistol sights on polymer pistols go, these are excellent.

Two 17 round magazines come with the Beretta PX4 Storm. These magazines are very slick and very hard to load. Luckily, Beretta is nice enough to include a loading tool with the pistol. If 17 rounds isn’t enough, Beretta sells a +3 extension kit to convert these magazines from 17 rounds to 20 rounds. The downside is that these magazines are among the most expensive. They are priced at $45-$50 in local gunshops in my area. I’m disappointed that Beretta didn’t stick with the inexpensive 92/M9 magazines. Considering that Beretta’s target audience includes police (and possibly military) switching from the Beretta 92, for which they probably already have acquired many magazines, this is definitely a miss. It’s worth mentioning that some versions of the Beretta CX4 9mm carbine are compatible with the PX4 magazines.

The biggest problem with the Beretta PX4 Storm is the guide rod assembly. It is a bizarre single spring captive guide rod with a large washer and plastic end cap. My guide rod assembly completely fell apart only a few months after owning the pistol. To be fair, it didn’t fall apart while I was shooting the gun; the guide rod assembly fell apart while I was cleaning the gun. Beretta was kind enough to replace it for free, but my confidence in this gun has been shaken a little. Beretta does not offer a steel version of the guide rod assembly; however, DPM Systems and Steve Bedair make metal replacements. These replacements aren’t cheap and sometimes they are back ordered.

Shooting the Beretta PX4 Storm is very pleasant. The curved trigger provides a nice double action pull when the pistol is decocked. I have been able to get bullseyes with this pistol in double action because of the trigger design and reasonable pull weight. That is how good the double action pull is on this gun. Once the gun transitions to single action, the trigger pull is short and crisp with a very well defined reset.

Recoil is mitigated by the pistol’s unique rotating barrel system. When recoiling, the barrel of the pistol twists backward in a straight line. Beretta claims that this counter motion helps reduce felt recoil. My PX4 Storm is a 9mm so recoil isn’t particularly noticeable in the first place. The recoil does seem less to me but I am not sure if this is the placebo effect or a real decrease in recoil. The 40S&W and 45ACP versions of the pistol would be a better test for this. This pistol probably isn’t the best option for legal suppressor owners since the twisting motion of the barrel can (reportedly) loosen the suppressor from the barrel especially if the suppressor is eccentric.

The pistol has been very reliable (even with steel case ammo). The only problem I had with the pistol is when I accidentally loaded a 17 round magazine to 18 rounds. This caused the magazine to bind up which resulted in a few FTLs (failure to load). This is what can happen when impatiently using a loading tool on a stiff magazine. The magazine seems to have recovered after being left empty for a while. The magazine spring seems much more robust than the guide rod assembly.

Takedown is toolless and very simple. To remove the slide, press down the two tabs on both sides of the pistol and pull the slide forward and off of the pistol. The pistol breaks down into the following main components: pistol frame, slide, barrel, guide rod assembly, and central block. The biggest difference between this pistol and most other pistols is the central block. The central block is what interfaces the guide rod assembly to the barrel. The quality of the pistol is evident when looking at the inside parts (with the exception of the guide rod assembly).

 

 

There are so many great things about this pistol, but, alas, there are many bad things about it too. The guide rod assembly is a disastrous piece of engineering and is almost unforgivable in and of itself. To all pistol designers, please use steel in your (preferably non-captive) guide rods; we will gladly pay the extra $5 this costs. A further insult is how expensive the magazines for the pistol. For those who can overlook those shortcomings, get a Type G (decocker only) and replace the plastic guide rod assembly with a steel aftermarket guide rod. Most people would be better off sticking with a Beretta 92FS for which a factory steel guide rod and inexpensive magazines can be purchased.

Summary

Aesthetics: Simply put, there is no polymer pistol that looks better than this.

Durability: The pistol is very durable excluding the guide rod assembly. The guide rod assembly is garbage. I don’t have the funds to put 10,000 rounds through the pistol or risk breaking it by running it over with a truck. Therefore, I can’t say how this pistol would stand up to torture tests. My guess is the first thing to break would be the factory guide rod assembly assuming it hadn’t been replaced.

Reliability: Assuming the guide rod assembly isn’t broken, the pistol is very reliable. Anyone wishing to seriously involve themselves with this pistol should invest in an aftermarket guide rod assembly.

Accuracy: All shots were done standing without a rest. In those conditions, it is possible to put one ragged hole at about 25 feet.

Value: The cost of the pistol is on par with many other polymer pistols, but the magazines are costly and only two are included. Considering this, along with the likelihood of needing/wanting to replace the factory guide rod assembly, the value is actually lower than average.

Miscellaneous: The unique rotating barrel helps mitigate recoil. The magazine compatibility with the Beretta CX4 Storm carbine is a neat feature. The factory +3 magazine kit can turn 17 round magazines into 20 round magazines of reasonable length.

Conclusion: There are many great things about this pistol, but there are too many drawbacks to recommend this to the average pistol shooter. I would love to see a striker fired version of this pistol that uses 92/M9 magazines.

0 thoughts on “FNS-40 Contest Entry: Beretta 9mm PX4 Storm Type F Review”

  1. No way grebner did not know he was behind in his payments. No way did he not know they had a right to repo his junk. He was a dumb ass and got the dumb ass award. Next case.

    Reply
  2. Good write-up. The PX4 Storm will forever hold a fond place in heart as my first firearm purchase. It is still has one of the best feeling grips that I have ever laid hands on.

    I agree with you about that safety lever. That’s one of the reasons I ended up selling it to finance a different carry gun – but I still wouldn’t mind getting one again. Seems like it would make a good truck gun.

    That rotating barrel is a beautiful piece of engineering! I never thought about its effects on a suppressor – that’s a good point. That didn’t seem to bother Cobb in the movie “Inception,” though!

    Reply
  3. I’ll say it again: The terrorists won. The media and the Feds have everyone under 15 scared to death of anything and everything. Nice…

    Reply
  4. Damn fine-looking piece, if I do say so. Style-wise, it beats a Glock 17 hands down, and it looks like it would be comfortable to shoot.

    But $45-$50 per magazine? What a hoot. Nothing says, “we don’t need your business” like a $50 pistol magazine.

    What’s the MSRP? If it was in the article, I missed it.

    Reply
  5. Features:
    Plastic reinforced plastic!
    Guides you in!!
    Touch it with your finger?!
    Did we mention it guides you in? We did? Crap, uh…
    The finger… damnit let’s see
    No substance to it whatsoever! !!

    Reply
  6. Oh and not to mention the trigger on this thing is horrific. And when a gun has a bad trigger that is about 80% of the importance on how the gun shoots, aims and how accurate it is. This gun is a D gun. NOt failing, but barely above passing

    Reply
  7. So, what he’s saying is that the NRA isn’t a villain, but they should decide what firearms we’re allowed to own and lock up the rest? That’s exactly what our “villains” want to do!

    Dick, I loved you in Jaws, but this pundit thing just isn’t your bag.

    Reply
  8. Caligula you forgot to its not a Ruger LCP, or a Ruger LC9 or a Springfield XDs or a Sig p290 either. Or an M&P Shield for that matter, which i am personally not a fan of. Look its simply not a good gun. Maybe if youve shot nothing else it may be a good gun. But when you shoot and have experiance all the other subcompact semi autos out there and start comparing then you see its not even close to its peers on almost every single level, in fact it usually is one of the first ones that gets taken out of the conversation. Yes not close at all. Shit trigger, shit feel in hands, to light, yes i said TOO LIGHT, a gun can absolutely be too light, being too light affects the performance. I get that the people who have this gun are going to be upset, which makes no sense to me cause i had one at one time and got rid of it before I read a single review on it, I shot it and knew it was not that good of a quality of a gun. And i love when people try to use this reason on that a gun is good “when i shoot it goes bang”. Well no shit! 99.9% of guns do, doesnt mean they are good. Just because a gun doesnt jam on every other shot doesnt mean it quailifies as a grea or even good gun.

    Reply
  9. Actually not the first time this has happened,but ya’ll know some folks ain’t quite bright!Probably someone who just got his jihad issue AK,and hasn’t been trained on who to shoot.Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.

    Reply
  10. Why hasnt any of the TTAG people taken a survey at a local gun show and asked the people coming in “Would they answer yes or no to an anonymous Gallup poll question whether they had guns in the house”.

    Who here wants to bet the ratio would be (8 to 2) or (9 to 1) would lie and say no?

    Do a series of such polls and use their own tactics against the anti gun nuts!

    Reply
  11. What does God say about it? For this cause gave them up unto VILE affections: for even their women did change the NATURAL use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman , BURNED in their lust one toward another; men with men working that wich is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge GOD gave them over to a REPROBATE mind, to do those things which are not convenient. And knowing the judgment of GOD, that they which commit such things are worthy of DEATH, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. NOW GOD says REPENT or be dammed forever!

    Reply

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