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

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

I have performed some very informal tests with good-quality ammo and oiled magazines. I spray a bit of CLP on a rag and wipe down the magazine. Then the magazine is loaded and set aside for a month. Then the magazine is used. I have never had an issue with any ammo, neither ignition issues or excessive velocity distributions. I have torn down magazines, looking for where the oil goes and what crud gets mixed with it, and I have seen very little debris unless I use too much lube.

As such, my personal belief is use enough lube to protect the magazine from corrosion caused by use (just a thin film), but not so much as for the guts of the magazine to attract and hold dust and lint. In sandy environments, any lube seems to be a dust magnet and is not suitable for magazines.

On blued magazines or in sandy environments, I have also used Renaissance Wax as it does a good job of protecting without attracting any dust and lint. NP3 metal finish also is awesome here as is the Beretta sand-resistant finish.

Excellent information, thanks!

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

I have performed some very informal tests with good-quality ammo and oiled magazines. I spray a bit of CLP on a rag and wipe down the magazine. Then the magazine is loaded and set aside for a month. Then the magazine is used. I have never had an issue with any ammo, neither ignition issues or excessive velocity distributions. I have torn down magazines, looking for where the oil goes and what crud gets mixed with it, and I have seen very little debris unless I use too much lube.

As such, my personal belief is use enough lube to protect the magazine from corrosion caused by use (just a thin film), but not so much as for the guts of the magazine to attract and hold dust and lint. In sandy environments, any lube seems to be a dust magnet and is not suitable for magazines.

On blued magazines or in sandy environments, I have also used Renaissance Wax as it does a good job of protecting without attracting any dust and lint. NP3 metal finish also is awesome here as is the Beretta sand-resistant finish.

I have been thinking about your information and it is good. Thanks for letting us copy off your homework. It seems that the oil usage is backed by shooting off the defense loads after a month, at least in your testing.

If I were to fire off my defense loads that are in magazines each month, I would have to fire off and then replace about 83 .45 HSTs +P, 85 9mm HSTs +P, 14 SV 9mm HSTs & 28 .40 HSTs. I would go broke! I also do not want to shoot that many +Ps.

Your idea about wax has caught my interest. I will research more on that. We have 51 magazines that would be quite expensive to NP3 (plus I like blue).

So, I will include your information when starting new shooters, as a viable option. But, I’ve gone all these years with no corrosion and no magazine problems, so I am not ready to try it, but you have shown me that it might not be detrimental. It is good knowledge, thanks.

[Storm SD]

Have you tried a more modern solvent? M-Pro Gun Cleaner and Boretech Carbon Remover are two products I've had good success with.

The only other cleaner that I have tried is KG1. It worked well, but as PX4 Storm Tracker pointed out in this thread, the KG1 leaves a white film (like soap residue) on the slide. That limited its use to just cleaning the bore. When I looked into the M-Pro 7 gun cleaner, I noticed that they claimed that it would damage oil based factory finishes. The potential for finish damage caused me to not look further into using it because it would also be limited to only cleaning the bore. My slide is cerakoted, but I did not want to risk any damage to the finish. I’m not opposed to having a separate bore cleaner if it cleans with a greater efficiency to a degree that would offset other factors, such as time cleaning, expense, and availability. I haven’t looked at the Boretech Carbon Remover. If you have used Hoppe’s #9, I’d be interested in your comparison of it to the products you have mentioned with pros and cons of each. Thank you for your feedback on this subject.

[That Guy]

If you have used Hoppe’s #9

Unfortunately Hoppe's is not a commonly available cleaning product over here, so I have no direct experience with it.

I really doubt M-Pro would negatively affect any steel or polymer part. I certainly have never seen that happen with any gun I've used it on. (I ran out a couple of years ago and switched to Boretech, so I don't have direct experience with M-Pro gun cleaner on a PX4. Still though.) I do know from unfortunate experience that you do need to be careful with that product around wood stocks (also, any furniture made of wood, or wood floors for that matter, or...) as M-Pro will easily dissolve any sort of protective lacquer coating. Which is probably what the factory warning meant. There really is nothing to be concerned about when using any sort of commercial cleaning product on the inside of your barrel, they're not going to dissolve steel.

As for M-Pro versus Boretech, the M-Pro comes in a spray bottle (which is something I dislike) and does not have quite the same ability to dissolve carbon deposits. On the other hand it leaves no residue behind. The Boretech product is a slightly better solvent, and it comes in a better bottle. It does leave a somewhat sticky film if you leave it on parts (Boretech says this product can be used to protect metal parts against corrosion, at least during short term storage), so you do need to make sure you wipe it all off. This can also make it a bit more of an effort when pushing that first dry patch down especially a rifle bore. Personally, I just go with the one that comes in a better bottle, ie. Boretech. The differences are not that great. If the Boretech product would happen to be unavailable the next time I have to buy a bottle of solvent, I'd happily go with M-Pro and not give it a second thought.

[Storm SD]

Unfortunately Hoppe's is not a commonly available cleaning product over here, so I have no direct experience with it.

I really doubt M-Pro would negatively affect any steel or polymer part. I certainly have never seen that happen with any gun I've used it on. (I ran out a couple of years ago and switched to Boretech, so I don't have direct experience with M-Pro gun cleaner on a PX4. Still though.) I do know from unfortunate experience that you do need to be careful with that product around wood stocks (also, any furniture made of wood, or wood floors for that matter, or...) as M-Pro will easily dissolve any sort of protective lacquer coating. Which is probably what the factory warning meant. There really is nothing to be concerned about when using any sort of commercial cleaning product on the inside of your barrel, they're not going to dissolve steel.

As for M-Pro versus Boretech, the M-Pro comes in a spray bottle (which is something I dislike) and does not have quite the same ability to dissolve carbon deposits. On the other hand it leaves no residue behind. The Boretech product is a slightly better solvent, and it comes in a better bottle. It does leave a somewhat sticky film if you leave it on parts (Boretech says this product can be used to protect metal parts against corrosion, at least during short term storage), so you do need to make sure you wipe it all off. This can also make it a bit more of an effort when pushing that first dry patch down especially a rifle bore. Personally, I just go with the one that comes in a better bottle, ie. Boretech. The differences are not that great. If the Boretech product would happen to be unavailable the next time I have to buy a bottle of solvent, I'd happily go with M-Pro and not give it a second thought.

That is good information to consider. Thanks.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

@Storm SD , I know that you practice emergency reloads (slide lock reloads) when you practice. But, do you actually carry a back-up mag with you all the time?
If so, how many?

[Storm SD]

@Storm SD , I know that you practice emergency reloads (slide lock reloads) when you practice. But, do you actually carry a back-up mag with you all the time?
If so, how many?

Currently, I do not carry a backup mag on me. At work, I do keep a loaded spare magazine at my desk. I did recently order a horizontal magazine pouch. It is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. I plan to carry one back up magazine in it (it is a single mag pouch). I practice with a vertical magazine pouch. I will begin taking my horizontal magazine pouch to the range to get used to quickly accessing the spare magazine in the same position that I will actually carry it.

[Storm SD]

This thread is about high rounds on the PX 4 Storm .45. Putting that many rounds down range, with most of that on my outdoor range, means a lot of spent brass. Each session will leave between 500 and 800 rounds of brass on the ground. We used to pick it all up by hand and this would take quite a bit of time. Since the range is outdoors, I can’t just sweep up the brass. I borrowed a nut gatherer to try and see if we could use it to pick up brass more quickly. The wires were too far apart and I would lose brass out of it as fast as I gained it. However, it seemed to be a good idea, so I bought the small size of nut gatherer called the “weasel nut gatherer”. This has worked very well and saves us a lot of time. I would estimate that it takes ¼ of the amount of time to pick up brass with this piece of equipment.





This is the culprit for putting most of that brass on the ground. This PX 4 Storm .45 belongs to PX4 Storm Tracker. It has 36,500 rounds on it in this picture and still looks very nice.

[PX4 Storm Tracker]

This thread is about high rounds on the PX 4 Storm .45. Putting that many rounds down range, with most of that on my outdoor range, means a lot of spent brass. Each session will leave between 500 and 800 rounds of brass on the ground. We used to pick it all up by hand and this would take quite a bit of time. Since the range is outdoors, I can’t just sweep up the brass. I borrowed a nut gatherer to try and see if we could use it to pick up brass more quickly. The wires were too far apart and I would lose brass out of it as fast as I gained it. However, it seemed to be a good idea, so I bought the small size of nut gatherer called the “weasel nut gatherer”. This has worked very well and saves us a lot of time. I would estimate that it takes ¼ of the amount of time to pick up brass with this piece of equipment.

One can't easily tell from the picture, but the "brass broom" picked up 300 9mms today with the 500 .45s. So, this idea is good for those that use the more popular 9mm, as well.



Pistol round count 36,800

[Storm SD]

My current round count for my SD is 22,643. Most of those rounds have been Winchester white box, but I have been trying the Sellier & Bellot 230 grain FMJ target loads. I’ve put 2,200 rounds of this ammo through the SD and have had 0 issues. When cleaning, I don’t notice any additional carbon build up when compared to the Winchester white box. I can get these for a very reasonable price and, so far, I have been quite pleased with their performance.