Consensus on the Beretta PX4

[voodoo_man]

Looking forward to it.

God f*cking dammit people, youre giving me even more decisions to make here, with your helpful input and you experience and whatnot.
Next time just let me stay ignorant so that I dont actually have to decide anything!!

I am not a fan of changing platforms, especially when the point isn't to get a better platform which is the only acceptable reason (think hipoint to Glock), but rather to "try" a different gun to see if you like it better or if you shoot it better, which in my opinion is always the wrong reason to buy a different pistol - especially so for carry.

I can assure you that the majority of people cannot shoot their chosen pistol beyond it's ability. Hell, I can count on one hand the people I know and have seen first hand be able to outshoot the precision (that's accuracy and speed) capability of a Glock. So going from a Glock to something else is usually an emotional decision, one I'd highly recommend not falling for.

Is the px4 attractive? Yeah, I'd love to get one. Maybe one day down the line I will, for testing purposes. Will I carry one? Highly unlikely. Not because its somehow lacking, there isn't, but because I have great experience, results and still a long way to go with the Glock 19 and 17 I carry daily, respectively.

There is always training value in using a different platform, but you have to really consider the reasons behind it. I have several Glocks of various modification levels because I need to know why one of them does and why in certain instances. Diagnosing an issue is as important as simple competence.

 

[SmElly]

I am not a fan of changing platforms, especially when the point isn't to get a better platform which is the only acceptable reason (think hipoint to Glock), but rather to "try" a different gun to see if you like it better or if you shoot it better, which in my opinion is always the wrong reason to buy a different pistol - especially so for carry.

I can assure you that the majority of people cannot shoot their chosen pistol beyond it's ability. Hell, I can count on one hand the people I know and have seen first hand be able to outshoot the precision (that's accuracy and speed) capability of a Glock. So going from a Glock to something else is usually an emotional decision, one I'd highly recommend not falling for.

Is the px4 attractive? Yeah, I'd love to get one. Maybe one day down the line I will, for testing purposes. Will I carry one? Highly unlikely. Not because its somehow lacking, there isn't, but because I have great experience, results and still a long way to go with the Glock 19 and 17 I carry daily, respectively.

There is always training value in using a different platform, but you have to really consider the reasons behind it. I have several Glocks of various modification levels because I need to know why one of them does and why in certain instances. Diagnosing an issue is as important as simple competence.

I agree with your sentiment. Until recently, I haven't had the means to really dedicate myself to a platform.
Whatever carry gun I choose will be my platform, and the only platform I'll train with consistently.

 

[perlslacker]

So I know this thread is almost a year old but I have a PX4 Compact Carry so I thought I could chime in. I have 1 2-day class and a couple thousand rounds of practice on it, and I carry it every day.

Likes:

- The curved profile of the rear of the slide makes it carry AIWB very well
- The recoil impulse is great, better than a Glock 19-ish pistol should have.
- The SA trigger is fantastic, as is the DA after swapping out the mainspring for a 12lb unit.
- Control layout works for me. I can hit the mag release without rotating the gun in my hand. I can hit the slide release with my strong hand thumb.
- The Langdon Tactical website does a great job of keeping holsters & parts in stock which eases the pain of running an uncommon gun.

Dislikes:

- When I first got the pistol, it would fail to enter battery when reloading from slide lock if I used the slide release. After some experimentation I
determined that pressure from my thumb on the slide was interfering. This went away after 1-200 rounds or so.
- It would also FRTB frequently when dirty (after 6-700 rounds or so), when shot by a newer shooter whose grip sucked, or with S&B 115gr ammo.
Some combination of those 3 would make that happen. This has also stopped happening, though I haven't had a newbie shoot it in a while.
- The barrel length is very short. Like M&P Shield short. This means you have to pay attention to ammo selection, especially now that HSTs aren't
as easy to come by as they used to be.
- The sight radius is very short. This means that shooting B-8s at 25y is harder than it might be otherwise, though the Ameriglo sights and baller SA
trigger compensate for this somewhat.

The first two have gone away, and I've had no issues with FRTB since last summer. I attribute this to the fact that I've started lubricating the interface between the barrel hood and breech face (the rotating barrel design seems to have different friction points than regular Browning designs) and not buying S&B ammo anymore. Now that I think of it, it's also possible that the Cerakote on the slide was increasing friction with the slide rails, and needed to burnish a little bit, but tbh I haven't actually looked to see if that part of the slide was Cerakoted or not.

On the balance, I think that if you want a Glock 19-sized

 

[perlslacker]

wow, I didn't finish writing that post and the edit timer has run down.

Pretend I wrote "On the balance, I think that if you want a Glock 19-sized DA/SA gun you could do a lot worse. Anecdotally, I like it a lot more than the P-07 because I find it easier to manipulate the slide & slide release, and the trigger is better," instead of just trailing off.

 

[Revchuck38]

Reviving a semi-necro thread so I can add my two cents as a noob to this forum.

I've been carrying a full-size PX4 most of the time for the last three years. I've got three of them, two decock-only versions and a DAO. The DAO is in my holster as I type. I've got about 10k rounds through them - 2-300 rounds of my carry load (124-grain +P HST), several cases of NATO-spec Winchester hardball, a case each of Magtech 124-grain hardball and 115- and 124-grain S&B hardball, boxes of other various training ammo, and a bunch of my handloads (124-grain hardball at ~1100 fps). I can remember one failure to feed with a round of Magtech hardball where the round stopped halfway up the feedramp. That's the only one I can blame on the gun. When I was trying to see how light I could go on the mainspring with the NATO-spec hardball, I had some rounds that required a second strike; that was on me, not the gun, and was cured by going to the correct mainspring. I've run them in classes, including a full day in the rain, and they have been flawless.

My guess as to why some folks have had problems with them is that most of them came up on Glocks, see that the PX4 is polymer-framed too, and assume they need the same level of maintenance (none). PX4s are one of those guns that like to be run wet, like 92s, 1911s, CZ-75s, and a bunch of others. The minute it takes to field-strip it and apply a drop of oil to the frame nubs and the lug on the locking block every 500 rounds or so is just not that big a deal.

Just wanted to add some input from someone with experience living with one of these guns.

 

[marcusa]

My first pistol was actually a Beretta PX4 (full) in .40. (I know, but at the time it's what they had in the case). For quite a while, that was the only gun I owned so it saw range, class and competition use. I've also got some time behind the 9mm version of the full size. I had a bit of experience with the subcompact PX4 in 9mm as well though that version doesn't use the rotating barrel. I will say the PX4 SC is a tiny brick.

If I'm rating Polymer DA/SA type pistols that I've had some time behind, I was not very impressed with the CZ P07/P09, even with CGW parts. I do however regret getting rid of that H&K P30 with the LEM trigger.

The PX4 is bit of a weird gun to be sure...maybe quirky is the word.

Some things I like - in my experience it's been accurate and reliable, the magazines are high quality, and personally I like the Beretta controls (once you swap to a G/decocker only). It points very naturally for me and I've actually had a couple of people I've introduced to shooting choose it over popular striker-fired guns (to my surprise). The side of the grip is smooth, but the front and back dig in well to give a surprisingly positive grip. The styling seems very Italian, with smooth lines throughout and few sharp edges to speak of. The finish is durable and the barrel is chrome lined. I don't find it to be snappy at all even with defensive loads such as HST, Gold Dot and Gold Dot +P. The DA is long but smooth, and the SA is predictable. I hear that Langdon is coming out with a legitimate red dot solution with backup sights for the PX4 soon as well (not that cobbled together Glock MOS plate BS) so that could be cool. Brownells and MGW also stock a decent selection of replacement parts which is nice since I always like to have a spare set of replacement springs on hand at a minimum.

Some of the negatives...the cocking serrations - even though there are front and rear serrations - are not very grippy at all, and the rotating barrel means you're kind of SOL of you want to run a suppressor. Beretta may have offered a threaded barrel at one point (at least on the .45 SD) but I haven't been able to find one. Holster options are generally pretty limited but there are some out there or you can have a custom one made. Maybe a positive/maybe a negative but the PX4 has some heft to it - overall it's a bit chunky but feels very solid.

I guess that puts me in the "it's weird but I like it" camp. If the PX4 full size 9mm was the only pistol I had, I'd be OK with that with the exception of being able to mount an RMR - I will be interested to see what LTT comes out with for the PX4.