Perfect. Love the “Lake Effect” analogy.
As a committed PX4 owner (my safe has more PX4’s than I probably should admit in public), I’ve realized I need to fill the 45 caliber hole with another PX4.
P. E. Kelley’s match video cemented my choice. I had been looking at the Sig P227 but the splits between those two guns in his hand it was clear the PX4 was faster. I may never achieve the speed demonstrated by P. E. Kelley but I know it’s there.
Excellent, I have found the .45 Storms to be a lot of fun!Originally Posted by Palmetto
I passed the 30,000 round mark with my SD yesterday. It is still functioning well. It has definitely been worth the money. I've spent many enjoyable range hours with this pistol and it still looks good. I plan to disassemble the slide and frame next week and do a complete cleaning and maintenance on it. I'll update everyone after I've completed that maintenance and reassembled it. It currently has 30,102 rounds on it.
Last edited by Storm SD; 10-11-2018 at 08:08 PM.
I believe in consistent practice for improvement or to be able to maintain a skill. The high round count on PX4 Storm Tracker's pistol and my SD are due to consistent practice. However, our range is outdoors and the weather does not always cooperate. A couple of years ago, I was able to take down a couple of old buildings on my property and reuse the lumber to build an 8' x 20' range house. It has two large wooden windows in the front that fold down and allow us to shoot from inside while an electric generator runs and provides heat from electric heaters. It also provides a place for storage for targets, metal silhouettes, tape, etc. The range house limits shooting to only standing in one spot, but it does allow us to shoot in inclement weather like rain, cold, and snow in order to still have some consistent range time. Since it was raining last week, we shot from inside the range house. The picture is of our pistols on the window ledge of the building. I didn't have a picture of the building today, but I'd rather look at the pistols anyway.
I completed my 30,000 round cleaning and maintenance on the SD this week, but not without an issue. During the reassembly, I was putting the decocker levers back onto the slide. As usual, I drove the decocker lever pin in with a punch and it seemed to go in without an abnormal amount of force. Once the pin was in, I noticed that the levers did not spring back up when pressed down. This was an indication that the decocker lever spring had slipped out of place during the assembly, so I was going to just drive the pin through, put the spring back into place, and start over. But when I attempted to drive the pin through, I could not get it to move. I even tried to drive it back out from the bottom, but it would not move. Finally, I took it to PX4 Storm Tracker to have him look at it. He was able to get the pin out, but not without ruining the pin and levers. I think this incident occurred because I did not keep consistent pressure on the levers pressing them against the slide while driving in the pin. If enough slack was allowed for the spring to pop out of place then it may have allowed some slight misalignment with the pin as well. In the end, I replaced the levers with the new PX4 Carry levers that I had been considering. I hope this information can keep someone from making the same mistake.
Driving pins in and out can be simple or complicated. Maintaining alignment is important. Here is more on that:
One of the biggest mistakes I notice with people new to working on guns is a lack of pin/punch/hammer alignment. The pin needs to be aligned with the hole as closely as possible, but the punch needs to be centered and aligned in tilt and angle or “azimuth”, as there are 360° of variation possible. The hammer must align its striking surface flush to the punch and direct force in a straight line with the punch and pin to function best. If there is sufficient mechanical pressure holding parts in place the error might not affect it much. You can actually use punch/hammer angle to keep alignment, as well. Amount of force used should be based on pin size.
While this seems excessive for an extractor pin or strong surface penetration, it is enough to cause a small part, like a right side lever, to drift during pin penetration. Good alignment will avoid surface marring and tool marks, as well.
In this case that is what happened and it damaged the left shaft hub. I tried moving the pin, but it was lodged as the fit between the right lever and left shaft was damaged. Continuing to hit it would risk slide damage. That would be unacceptable.
I used a 1/16” drill bit (the same size as the punch) to hollow out the pin and make its walls thin enough to not exert pressure. That did not work since the shaft hub was damaged. I then tried to wash out the hole with the bit... no help. Next I used a 5/64” bit to remove the whole pin. That freed up the levers to come off. No tool marks or damage to the slide were incurred. This process did not necessarily ruin the levers, but it could make future pin retention inconsistent. I checked first with @Storm SD to see if he wanted a spare set of stealth levers or stock G levers. We decided he would use one of the two Carry lever sets we ordered for my wife’s 9mms. Good timing on their arrival.
When I install a lever I use a slave pin or punch to hold the alignment from the bottom. Knowing the “feel” of pin movement as opposed to hitting harder, but not moving the pin, comes with experience or training.
Pistol round count 52,100
Last edited by PX4 Storm Tracker; 10-26-2018 at 01:57 PM.
I found the following two pictures interesting and I wanted to post them. They provide a good comparison of the amount of wear on the inside of the slide on a PX4 Storm. The pictures are of the inside of the slide of PX4 Storm Tracker's .45 when it was brand new and after 52,400 rounds.
New
After 52,400 rounds
I recently passed the 30,000 round mark on my PX4 Storm SD. At that point, I disassembled the slide and frame and did a thorough cleaning on all parts. I replaced a few parts and I will list here what I replaced. First of all, on the slide, I replaced the extractor pin, decocker levers and pin (refer to entry #265 for more information on that), decocker lever spring, rebound spring, and the firing pin block plunger spring. On the frame, I replaced the trigger bar spring, disassembly latch spring, slide catch spring, hammer pin spring, and housing pin o-ring. I considered replacing the trigger spring and the hammer spring (which is a D-spring in this case) but decided to wait on those. I also intended to replace a few other parts, such as the firing pin spring, sear spring, hammer strut pin, but some of my list of parts was on backorder and I didn't get them in time for this maintenance round. I decided to make note of what didn't get replaced so that it does on the next disassembly.
My PX4 .45 G range pistol is @53,900 rounds and running as well as ever. I changed the slide rebound spring @53,600. My D spring has 24,200 rounds on it, no light strikes experienced. Trigger pulls are 6.2 lbs DA & 3.5 lbs SA.
@Storm SD ‘s SD has 31,100 rounds on it and is running perfectly.
Our Compact has 19,314 rounds on it and continues to serve without complaint. We installed Carry levers on it.
Our SubCompact has 9,000 rounds of perfect, reliable service. We installed Carry levers on it.
Our Storms in .40 continue on undaunted, mine with 2,954 rounds, still with low profile levers and Storm SD’s EDC with 9,883 and new Carry levers.
Pleasant and reliable service from all PX4 Storms helps to concentrate on shooting skills and enjoyment without concern of pistol reliability.
Last edited by PX4 Storm Tracker; 11-15-2018 at 01:41 PM.
55,100 rounds
All is running perfectly well with my PX4 .45 G range pistol. I reached 55,100 rounds today and have no plan to slow down.
@54,800 I totally disassembled the slide and cleaned the firing pin channel and all slide parts. There was no difference in amount of dirtiness and no pins, springs or parts needed replacing.
Slide fit, tolerances and frame solidity are not discernibly different than when first broken in.
Reliability and familiarity combine to make shooting more effective and enjoyable.
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