And 2022... and 2021... and 2020... etc.
"The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so."
― Ennius
I have forgotten just when I started telling people that the PX4 was the best handgun they won't even try, but it had to have been before 2015. Nothing has changed.
As a former Berettaphobe, I can understand not wanting to dink with them on the basis of of the company itself being obtuse back in the day. I can even understand not wanting to dink with, say, something like the Nano, which eventually became a decent pistol when it reemerged as the APX A1 Carry... only to have the P365 steal its lunch and urinate in its thermos.
But the PX4 is - thanks in great part to Ernest Langdon - a very competent pistol that deserves a bit of maturing/optimizing by Beretta like the 92 finally received with the 92X.
gn
"On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog... or even a cat."
I think that there were other reasons for the lack of popularity that are not discussed in this video:
1) Prior negative experience with the 8000 series Cougar pistols that had a rotating barrel design carried over to a perception that the gun was not reliable due to this design.
2) Internet chatter about the early PX4 was not favorable. If I remember correctly, Todd Green was one of the early critics. Here is a quote from him circa 2009:
"As for the PX4, I've seen too many struggle on the line to have much faith in them. I was working at Beretta when it was being designed and we (the LE/mil team) warned them against using that rotating barrel. It was a disaster in the Cougar and while the PX4 system is improved, it still doesn't work as well as the proven tilt-barrel system.
When the members of Beretta's IDPA/USPSA pistol team were told they had to start using the PX4, most of them quit instead. They quit their paid, sponsored positions rather than shoot the gun. Clue.
Last year I had a handful of Canadian LEOs in a class who are issued the PX4 in .40 S&W. They literally had to bring a mallet with them to the class. A mallet? Yeah, I was confused, too. Then every 300-500 rounds of shooting, their guns would jam shut and they had to use the mallet to get the things apart.
I'm far from a Beretta basher. I'd carry a 92G (or better yet, a 92G Vertec) without losing a moment's sleep. But the PX4 was another misstep from Italy."
It is certainly possible that the early reliability concerns were issues with non-9mm calibers, and the 9mm versions have been good to go from the start but hampered by their 40SW and 45ACP brothers.
Last edited by Sensei; 06-15-2023 at 06:03 PM.
I like my rifles like my women - short, light, fast, brown, and suppressed.
Px4 compact is one of those guns I wish I would of spent more time with before I decided strikers were a lot easier for me to master and stopped caring as much about my own personal safety while shooting (did I mention I'm stupid).
Ps. I forgot how well spoken Ernest is
I had a chance a few years ago to put a few rounds through one of the compact LTT PX4s. I liked it but I’m too heavily invested in M&Ps. I suppose if I started exclusively carrying AIWB I might switch.
Are there shops besides Langdon that will mill PX4 slides for red dot optics? IMO that seems like far a bigger dealbreaker in 2023.
With Glock/SIG/S&W/etc there are plenty of ways to put a red dot on your gun, often using a factory mounting system. Beretta is still selling 92 model pistols with a flat black iron front sight milled into the slide... May as well come with bayonet
Crap. More publicity will make it harder to pick up a backup PX4CC at a great price.
Ken
BBI: ...”you better not forget the safe word because shit's about to get weird”...
revchuck38: ...”mo' ammo is mo' betta' unless you're swimming or on fire.”
I just don’t want any gun with fire control levers on the slide, just a hard no for me. No matter how good the gun is, I’ll never be able to get over that feature.
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