"This is THE Most Underrated Pistol in 2023" ( The PX4)

[Noah]

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.

Is it really a problem for G style decock only system?

[camel]

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.

I had the same experiences as him with the px4 line. And I’m a nobody. Not bashing. But it is what it was.

[Jason M]

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.

I “grew up” on a S&W 669 and 4566. The slide mounted safety decocker is like coming home. If I could rewind, I would reacquire one and carry it at work.

[gc70]

Eight years later Reeves discovers what Langdon discovered in 2015.

I bet Reeves did not read all 427 pages and 4,269 posts in Langdon's thread about the PX4.

[JCN]

[camel]

Come on man the px4 ain’t that.

[HeavyDuty]

JCN walks into the clubhouse, farts, turns around and leaves.

[JCN]

JCN walks into the clubhouse, farts, turns around and leaves.

A local hipster was excited about his. He asked me to hold it. He then asked me if I wanted to shoot it...

I politely declined. The huge hunk of plastic just made me feel yuck.

There are so many nice shooting and feeling pistols out there... I just never found a itch that this gun needed to scratch.

[HCM]

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

No. Adapting the 92 series and PX4 series for RDS involves more than just milling the slide. The internals have to be modified as well.

[HCM]

A local hipster was excited about his. He asked me to hold it. He then asked me if I wanted to shoot it...

I politely declined. The huge hunk of plastic just made me feel yuck.

There are so many nice shooting and feeling pistols out there... I just never found a itch that this gun needed to scratch.

As noted Early PX4s were problematic. Beretta quietly fixed them but it was a real thing at the time.

The stock PX4 (particularly the compact) sucks but grip and trigger work help. The compact needs the slim controls as well.

The PX4 was, at least in part, Berettas attempt to produce a gun that could stand up to .40 cal after the failures of the Beretta 96 and 96A1. Being polymer framed and cheaper to make the 92 series probably didn’t hurt in a market dominated by Glock.