Beretta PX4 Storm .45 High round count, long duration usage.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

Perhaps this is not actually normal wear...

I was looking through my photo journal of all things done to my PX4s. I found a picture of this area @30,000 rounds. It looks like new (though dirty in the picture). This suggests that some of the polymer missing in the previous picture might have been blown off by the ruptured barrel. If so, Beretta did a safety inspection and did not find an issue.

If this was caused by the cracked barrel leaking pressure at the cam block well, then this would not continue to decay. It would be damage from a ruptured barrel and not wear.

This is that area @30,000




Conclusion: If this is correct that the well remained in good shape for 30,000 rounds, it did not all of a sudden give up @31,174. It was the barrel rupture that caused it. If this is correct, it should indicate that the PX4 45 should last as long as any other Storm, unless there is an incident like this.

It did survive this incident and I'm @32,200 rounds currently with good function and tight tolerances as normal. It might be chalked up to a battle scar from a barrel rupture. If that is the case, it is a good report to take thousands of rounds with a ruptured barrel, lose some skin, but keep on working.

[medmo]

As far as I can tell, they should hold up just as well as the Talon's. (aka I don't have 50K rounds test gun/bullets) I first ordered Talon's (first brand/name I was exposed to, heard recommended) and ordered them for my subcompact PX4. They were cut wrong (circle didn't line up with the Beretta logo, looked like they slipped in the cutter while being made) and it bothered me. Several recommended just DIYing it with grip/ladder tape, but I wasn't happy with my attempt, and black was OOS at my local store. I looked over several brands, contrasting and comparing and settled on Grip-on's. They are easier found on Ebay then on Amazon, but are on both and he appears to be a small enough business that his own website doesn't make sense. They seemed comparable to the Talon's and he has some choices (full wrap that goes around the backstrap, or partial/my preference, which leaves the backstrap, removable).
There was at least one other brand I looked at, which left the pins open, however they didn't have as much side coverage as either the Talon's or Grip-on's. I will let others do their own research, as preferences are personal, but did think it smart to say, hey, there are options.
I nagged him for a while so he produced the compact ones, which I have bought the four of.

I had the same experience with the Talon’s on a Sub Compact. I had to trim to fit and fill in the Beretta logo on the right side of the grip’s off center hole with another piece I cut out. Thought my grip was a one off error also but I guess not.

[Antonius]

Ignore

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

Cleaning the trigger bar/frame to avoid drag

In .45 the area around the trigger bar gets very dirty, quickly. If you are not disassembling your frame for cleaning, or only disassembling every 10,000 rounds like I do, build up can cause drag and increase trigger pull weight.

I take a 2 fold piece of paper and clean between the frame and the trigger bar. It usually needs 3 or 4 scrubbings each week (about 600-700 rounds).
If you raise the firing pin block plunger lever (as pictured) the trigger will be released to move freely back and forth without moving the hammer. I insert and then scrub all the way up past the well wall and back to the spring, moving the trigger back and forth as I clean. You can then (if you want) put a little oil on the next paper and oil this area.

New Bruniton is fairly slick against polymer. Older Bruniton gets rougher when down to the parkerizing level. Then it gets slick again when it gets older and polished.


It may sound excessive, but I have measured as much as a 12 oz. difference in DA trigger pull when very dirty there or on the hammer pivot pin.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

Spring cleaning! When Spring is in the air... is a bad thing...


When cleaning inside your slide you have a few small coil springs. To thoroughly clean them inside and out can be delicate and risk dropping or having trouble getting between the coils and in the core.

You could place them on a pipe cleaner, get your favorite cleaning solution and a toothbrush and clean. Next, take an air compressor (or can of computer keyboard air) and dry them on the spot. Slide them along to the next clean spot on the pipe cleaner and air them again. In half a minute, vóilá... Clean and dry, inside and out.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

The effect of your hammer spring on long duration usage of your pistol-


There is a Gunsmithing technique called the Push-off. It should be unnecessary to use on quality Berettas, but I’ve needed to use it on Rugers and new trigger/hammer fittings.
This technique has you cock the hammer (over an empty chamber or snap cap) and push on the back of the hammer (firmly, but not too much) and then pull the trigger under that pressure. It is supposed to remove burrs if done a couple of times. Too much and it is detrimental. I am certainly not recommending anyone try this.

There are many competitive shooters with 1911s that put in lighter hammer springs to save from equipment wear, firing pin, firing pin channel wear and keep their sear engagement from decaying.

The PX4 Storm is designed with an international demographic in mind. In some countries ammo is of less quality than others, some primers are harder to ignite, etc.. The PX4 is designed to fire under water and full of mud. So, the hammer spring is way overpowered for 99% of the average person’s use where good ammo is available.

The pressure of the hammer spring will increase wear on internal parts that it shares that energy with. Leaving the stock spring in can effect longevity of the parts, increase shock and vibration, especially if you dry fire.

Lighter spring options that are reliable are available. The Beretta D spring and some very good options from @LangdonTactical are some that have good reputations. Though, I would recommend changing the D spring around 20,000 rounds.

A lighter spring will actually add to the longevity of the pistol... and it’s quite inexpensive.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

PX4 .45 SD hits 20,000 rounds

Odometers clicking along...


In two days my PX4 .45 will hit 33,000 rounds, my wife’s PX4 Compact 9 will hit 11,000. We just did a slide disassembly and detail cleaning on the Compact. It was dirty.


The real news that makes this worthy to add to this thread about the PX4 .45 long term usage is that my shooting partner’s PX4 .45 SD will hit 20,000 on that day also. We will do a 100% disassembly of slide and frame after shooting and he will take the parts home to detail clean before the weekend. If he cannot get it all clean enough and back over here for assembly, he’ll have to shoot his PX4 full size .40 over the weekend, or worse, his Ruger P345 (this should motivate him).


The PX4 SD has performed flawlessly (after an extractor adjustment, previously mentioned in this thread).
While I use blue magazines for almost all of my doings (I have 2 PVD mags I use for other functions) he has used 4 PVD 9 round magazines as range mags. We have assigned “gravity” mags that we label for dropping, stepping on or whatever range abuse occurs. The PVD mags look a whole lot better than my blue ones.


At 20,000 rounds he has chosen to also change the:

hammer pin spring,
housing pin o-ring (not for wear, but he lost it when cleaning at 10,726- ran fine without it),
lever assembly pin,
extractor pin and both extractor springs,
decocker lever pin and spring,
disassembly latch spring,
hammer assembly pin,
trigger bar spring,
hammer frame pin,
hammer strut pin,
firing pin catch spring,
slide catch spring.

Some of these parts I changed @30,000 and some I have still not changed (all details have been listed in this thread). I am running mine to see what parts can take. He is doing differently (justifiably). He has a nice, more expensive Special Duty PX4 and he keeps it nice and always gets PVD coated parts when possible, even though he does not plan to be in sea water for 10 days, he is actually rough on stuff. He does understand the value of his pistol and keeps it up.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

PX4 Storm .45 SD type G @20,028 rounds (sans barrel)

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

Observations of differences between the PX4 Storm .45 and the PX4 Storm .45 SD (Special Duty)


Having put almost 34,000 rounds on my range .45 Storm and watched 20,228 rounds put on the Storm SD, having put nearly 100 rounds through the SD (a few here and there), frequently inspecting it and having been in on all disassembly, reassembly and maintenance of both... I have observed some differences worth noting.


The dimensions are identical, with the exception of the 1/2” longer barrel on the SD. All parts and magazines are interchangeable if one wanted to. I find the longer barrel to give more perception of front end heaviness, that some may like or dislike.
The front 1 1/2” of the regular .45 slide gets coated with carbon after a few magazines, as does the front sight. The extra barrel length on the SD seems to move muzzle flash away enough to prevent most of this. Since getting that baked on carbon off is a major chore after 600 rounds, that is an advantage. The extended barrel tends to push through the holster first and minimizes holster wear on that same area. There is a small velocity advantage of a slightly longer barrel. It also gives an option as a suppressor host, if one wanted.


The FDE (Flat Dark Earth) grip frame shows dirt more readily, but cleans up well. The SD slide had a more polished, thinner Bruniton that was wearing quickly, but my shooting partner had his slide Cerakoted to match the frame, anyway. Cerakote has proven very tough and wears more slowly. See post #43 on page 5.


As you can see from the picture of the SD parts in the post before this (#128), not all internal parts are coated with PVD (Physical Vapor Disposition). The PVD is supposed to prevent rust if left in sea water for up to 10 days. I don’t think enough parts are coated to accomplish that. The parts that are coated with PVD do resist wear longer and may last longer because of that. Critical wear parts, like the hammer, sear and firing pin block plunger are not PVD coated, though. You cannot always reliably get PVD coated parts and pins to replace old ones, if you plan to do a high round count.

The PVD coating is not on the sear nor hammer. So, the action is not advantaged by it. The trigger bar is coated and that could affect DA, but we cannot perceive a difference. It is certainly not a replacement for a Competition Hammer group (FCG) and certainly not like an LTT trigger job or trigger job in a bag.


If you are considering a PX4 Storm .45 you might want to weight the differences between advertised perception and applicability to your own experience or intended usage. One must also calculate in the “cool factor”, waterproof Pelican case, extra mag (3 PVD mags) and accessories that it comes with. When it comes down to drawing and shooting the differences are not perceptible, except the longer barrel, if you like that. My shooting partner is quite thrilled with his SD and has no regret about the initial price difference.

It seems that most people do not shoot a PX4 .45 much. I’ve heard of some putting a couple of thousand rounds throughout the years. Chances are, if you are thinking about a Storm .45 it is for fun, cool factor, defense or to add to the collection and broaden the shooting experience. The SD has the novelty, cool factor and interestingly different quality and value to suit that bill. If you want to shoot your .45 a lot, you can go either way, depending upon taste.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

Performance Update PX4 .45 G


Hit 34,000 rounds today with my Storm .45. I had a few ammo induced stoppages to report.


In the last two shooting sessions I had a few issues. Last time I had a stove-pipe stoppage caused by a weak report from the cartridge. I also had three rounds fail to go to battery.

We have a pattern for when we suspect bad ammo, but want to be sure it is not the pistol. I extracted the rounds that failed to go to battery and gave them to my shooting partner to try in his PX4 .45 SD. The rounds failed to go to battery and stuck at the same depth as in mine. We examined the rounds and found what we expected.

We were using Winchester white box 230 grn FMJ (price consideration). When Winchester makes their target loads they don’t fabricate their own brass. Their headstamp is on them, but they out-source the brass. Sometimes the brass is a tiny bit too long. This will cause the case mouth to pinch in or out in the presses. That is what we found. 1 case mouth slightly belled out and 1 slightly belled in & 1 with the bullet seated too deeply. All ammo that failed to feed had a detectable issue.
Competitors with .45s will often use a Case Gauge Micrometer to check brass length and crimp before using. As much as 20% get discarded from Winchesters on average.

The stove-pipes were attached to weak charges in the cartridges. An interesting phenomenon has been occurring that I had not seen before... more than a few times I could see my brass ejecting as I shot. Normally it is too fast. Slow ejection is indicative of weak charges. My Shooting partner also reported observing a few of my brasses land a foot behind me, instead of the usual 10’ or so.

I am not past considering limp-wristing, but I was aware of consciously holding well and timing recoil reaction post lock-time. On one of our exercises we simulate a damaged strong hand (right, in my case). You must draw from normal holster position with the left hand and shoot. Some of our exercises require doing that on one foot or tipping over. What I’m getting at is- occasionally one of those DA shots is so awkward of a grip that I am amazed I did not get a limp wrist jam! We have even tested limp-wrist shooting, it does not seem to affect this pistol.


Today’s ammo all fed perfectly, though I had 2 stove-pipes. I decided that while I’m getting through this batch of ammo (always watching for squibs), that rather than return it, I’ll use it to practice stoppage speed recovery drills. Having a PX4 Storm in good condition deprives one of the experience of dealing with stoppages and malfunctions . Since I do 600+ rounds per week, I should be through this batch soon, if not already.


I do not see this as a fault in the pistol. It performed smoothly and quickly and recovered well. Spent brass looked normal and firing pin dents healthy.

Now... if they could only install a self-cleaning button like on a stove...