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Evolution not revolution eh? And when it comes to handguns, little things make a big difference. If you’re left-handed, a slide stop lever on the left side of your pistol is a major PITA. The new PX4 Storm Compact is the first version of their popular pistol with an ambidextrous slide stop lever. If you operate on the principle that right makes might, the new Beretta PX4 Storm Compact has other advantages . . .

For one thing, it’s the ideal size and capacity for concealed carry. As you’d expect, the PX4 Compact (3.2″ barrel, 6.8″ total length) slots perfectly between the Full-Size (4″ barrel, 7.6″ length) and the Sub-Compact (3″ barrel, 6.2″ length).

Although the PX4 Storm Compact weighs the same as the Italian gunmaker’s Full Size gun, you lose a bit of heft by dropping (not literally) a couple of 9mm or .40 caliber bullets. That’s 15/12 for the compact vs. 17/14 for the Full-Size. Which is still a lot of bullets, and couple more than the compact (13/10).

Better yet, the Compact adopts the larger pistol’s rotary barrel design with a shorter and proportioned slide and grip. Now how much would you pay? MSRP $550.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. I like the new Beretta, and I welcome truly ambidextrous gun designs, but aren't we supposed to NOT use the slide stop/release lever when reloading? Whether I'm watching the Rabbi here, or Tom Gresham on Guns & Ammo TV, this (relatively) new doctrine keeps being drilled into me from every angle.

    Using the non-firing hand to rack and release the slide during reloading works great when you've got a snag-free Novak rear sight, but not every gun is built for that. Many older autoloaders have sharper-edged (but still visually usable) rear sights that tear into your weak-hand index finger like a cheese grater.

  2. AR did a story on the .45 storm and carbine. I was shocked to read that they do not share mags. They also said that the rotating barrel on the pistol tended to torque the shooting wrist, which seems to me would be bad for accuracy. For some reason the carbine fires from an open bolt, baffling unless they are planning on trying to sell a full-auto version to LE.

    • If you are referring to the cx4 the mags can be swapped from pistol to carbine. As for the torque…there is none noticable to me. Definitely the smoothest shooting gun I’ve shot thus far.

  3. How about making sure Beretta is shipping these guns to dealers before posting an article? It would spare a lot of dealer and customer heartburn. I just spent 20 minutes with a guy on the phone trying to find a Beretta that doesn't exist with any distributors or Beretta's website. Thanks for spreading the truth!

  4. Sorry to post to a 5 month old thread, but going off of that last post regarding availability, any news on when the .40 s&w version of the PX4 Storm Compact will be released?

    • It’s been released (as of Feb 2011), just most dealers don’t have it yet. Have talked to a few dealers that “had” one but its gone. Last i heard budsgunshop.com had one, but not on their website so you need to call them.

  5. What kind of groups can I expect from this rotating barrel pistol at 15 feet? Anyone shot this at the range yet?

  6. Ross, I own one, this pistol does not group, it just shoots out the center of targets. Last time out, I knocked out the bullseye with the first two or three shots and just chewed up the center of the backing. It locks up like a bolt action rifle, and we all know that a bolt action is inherently more accurate. As a matter of fact it’s more accurate than a couple of scoped rifles I own, especially my MINI-14.

  7. I just got one a couple of weeks ago. Love it. It feels about like my XD-9 in terms of recoil. Extremely accurate at 15 yards and beyond. It has a very secure safety mechanism, which is either a bug or a feature depending on your point of view. It has a couple of extra backstraps a la the new gen Glocks, but I haven’t changed the current one out yet. A friend’s Beretta PX9 subcompact had a pretty rocky break-in time (was bad about jamming/stovepiping early on), but I’ve had no reliability problems so far.

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