Beretta PX4 Full Size Range Time

[doddg]

I wanted something different for my home defense gun.
In the Classifieds I saw this full sized Beretta PX4 with 4 mags: 17 & 20 rd.
I like a DA/SA & a hammer.
I was advised not to use my CZ Shadow 2 SAO with its light trigger for home defense.
Reviews were all over the place, but I didn't care about "ugly," or long trigger pull.
The PX4 shootability with its accuracy & especially its alleged dependability were well documented.

At the range today, I was pleased.
Love the 20 rd mag option!
I loaded up all 4 mags today for a function check.
I used Spire Point 125 grain reloads today.

My first 15 rounds on 5.75" circles on a rest with 5 rds each circle.
1st rd POI was 5" low on the top left circle, which happens with certain guns with my eyes/hands.
I had to learn to elevate my front sight to where half of it was above the line of the rear sights.
If I would keep this for 2 yrs & not replace it with a different gun, I'd replace the front sight with a shorter fiber optic. I read about one available for it, but don't know it it's shorter.


I learned to keep my POA high, covering the anticipated POI on the top two circles on a rest.
Free hand in the middle & bottom had its own issues b/c of me.
I was pleased with bottom left circle; I can do no better free hand, haha!


The PX4 could have hit the 1.75 x 2.75 oblong circles every time, but I wouldn't let it, haha!
If I would have had another target like this with me, I would have tried again!

 

[doddg]

This am, I loaded up the 20 round mag with some sweet hollow points & have the Beretta PX4 Storm ready for the role of home defense.
Nice to have a full-sized Beretta with a hammer & large capacity back in the house.

 

[Amishman44]

This am, I loaded up the 20 round mag with some sweet hollow points & have the Beretta PX4 Storm ready for the role of home defense.
Nice to have a full-sized Beretta with a hammer & large capacity back in the house.

Looks like you got those sights figured out...
Hopefully it serves you well in the role you intend for it
There is something to be said for a pair of 20-round magazines for the PX-4!
Next step...tritium sights for low / no light shooting...

 

[92FSTech]

Nice shooting! I'm curious if you noticed a difference in the recoil impulse with this gun compared to a traditional Browning tilt-barrel design. I've never shot a PX4, but have always been kind of intrigued by the rotating barrel concept. I have shot a Beretta Cougar which uses a similar system and didn't notice any perceivable difference compared to my P229 (both in .40), but the slide in the cougar is huge and results in a lot of reciprocating mass. I'm curious if the PX4 is any different. I like DA/SA guns and a lightweight polymer-framed hammer-fired Beretta has some appeal as a carry gun, especially if the recoil system gives it an advantage over the competition.

Also, how's the trigger compared to a Beretta 92? I know it's long...that's just a Beretta thing. But is it consistent and smooth through the entire pull?

 

[Dean C.]

This might be helpful, also don't forget to put a light on your HD gun

 

[doddg]

Nice shooting! I'm curious if you noticed a difference in the recoil impulse with this gun compared to a traditional Browning tilt-barrel design. I've never shot a PX4, but have always been kind of intrigued by the rotating barrel concept. I have shot a Beretta Cougar which uses a similar system and didn't notice any perceivable difference compared to my P229 (both in .40), but the slide in the cougar is huge and results in a lot of reciprocating mass. I'm curious if the PX4 is any different. I like DA/SA guns and a lightweight polymer-framed hammer-fired Beretta has some appeal as a carry gun, especially if the recoil system gives it an advantage over the competition.

Also, how's the trigger compared to a Beretta 92? I know it's long...that's just a Beretta thing. But is it consistent and smooth through the entire pull?

I read about the reduced recoil myself, but didn't notice anything particular.
If I would have shot a 92 before or after, I could have commented,
or
have taken my CZ Rami or Shadow 2 to shoot for comparison.
I also wasn't shooting fast checking to see how quickly I could get back on target after recoil.
Short version: no helpful input on recoil.

The trigger just seemed normal for stock.
I never shot it D/A once.
I was just focused seeing if it was as accurate in my hands as it was with the seller, Amishman44, or others testifying online.
Next time out, I'll give DAO a target circle or two.
I'd gone through 62 rounds & just didn't want to use up anymore rounds.

The SA had some take up, then was crisp, as indicated on vids.
Since the PX4 is for HD only, it's not necessary if it is target-range worthy up to my CZ standards.
It's never going to beat my "liquored up" CZ Rami or Shadow 2, at least not with my eyes/hands.
In the future sometime for fun, I'll do a comparison with the PX4 & the Rami & Shadow 2.

I truly am delighted to have a full sized Beretta with their hammer back in the fold.
I would have liked to have had another 92 when I bought this.
I used to pick up 92s from $300 -$400 years ago, but they are double that now.
I was glad to get this one for the $475, which was a little on the higher side, but it came with those 2 extra 20 round mags I really wanted.
Amishman44 drove to me, saving me $60 in gas (or $30 driving halfway), so I thought it was worth the price.
I was looking at adjustable rear sights last night online, but I'd have to pay to get a gunsmith to put them in, so I probably won't go that direction unless I know I'll never replace it, which would be unlike me.
There is always another gun.
I love my hobby!

 

[92FSTech]

Thanks, that's helpful! If you get the chance, please report back when you shoot it DA as well.

I'm a fan of the Beretta 92, and I'm PX4 "curious" lol. I saw that one in the classifieds and considered messaging amishman44 about it, but if I we're going to get one it would be for carry, so I'd rather have the compact. That and I just recently picked up a 92X compact, which I like, so there would have to be some clear benefits offered by the PX4 to justify the purchase. I really appreciate your range report, though, as someday I may just suck it up and shell out the cash to buy one, just to see what the fuss is all about!

 

[Basher]

I, too, am PX4 curious. And a big 92 fan, LOL.

I don’t know that the rotating barrel necessarily reduces recoil enough for the vast majority of people to notice. What it may do is reduce muzzle rise/flip a little bit, or smooth out the recoil impulse. But having never fired one, I’m obviously not a good source on the matter, haha. I DO want to try one, and perhaps get an LTT variant (I dog my LTT 92G!), but we’ll see. Getting into the PX4 means new mags, new holsters, etc. I’m already so invested in the 92 series that I’m just not sure it’s worth adding another platform unless the economy improves and prices come down.

 

[doddg]

Thanks, that's helpful! If you get the chance, please report back when you shoot it DA as well.

I'm a fan of the Beretta 92, and I'm PX4 "curious" lol. I saw that one in the classifieds and considered messaging amishman44 about it, but if I we're going to get one it would be for carry, so I'd rather have the compact. That and I just recently picked up a 92X compact, which I like, so there would have to be some clear benefits offered by the PX4 to justify the purchase. I really appreciate your range report, though, as someday I may just suck it up and shell out the cash to buy one, just to see what the fuss is all about!

Curiosity is one of the reasons I was attracted to the PX4.
It's never been on my radar & since I only needed an HD, it gave me a chance to do so.

 

[two70]

Thanks, that's helpful! If you get the chance, please report back when you shoot it DA as well.

I'm a fan of the Beretta 92, and I'm PX4 "curious" lol. I saw that one in the classifieds and considered messaging amishman44 about it, but if I we're going to get one it would be for carry, so I'd rather have the compact. That and I just recently picked up a 92X compact, which I like, so there would have to be some clear benefits offered by the PX4 to justify the purchase. I really appreciate your range report, though, as someday I may just suck it up and shell out the cash to buy one, just to see what the fuss is all about!

I don't particularly care for the 92 at all but love the PX4. Liking the 92 may not preclude you from liking the PX4 but they definitely feel much different to me. One of the biggest differences is that the grip of the 92 feels thicker to me. The PX4 may look thick in photos but the grip is surprisingly thin which fits my hands better. I can't say I've ever noticed mine to have softer recoil or to shoot flatter but I've also never shot it next to my other full size 9mms to compare either.

 

[Basher]

I don't particularly care for the 92 at all but love the PX4. Liking the 92 may not preclude you from liking the PX4 but they definitely feel much different to me. One of the biggest differences is that the grip of the 92 feels thicker to me. The PX4 may look thick in photos but the grip is surprisingly thin which fits my hands better. I can't say I've ever noticed mine to have softer recoil or to shoot flatter but I've also never shot it next to my other full size 9mms to compare either.

Apologies for the tangent, but if you’ve not tried a 92 with modern thin G10 grips, you should. My first handgun was a 96FS, and it felt HUGE with the factory plastic grips. My 92s now wear VZ thin grips and they feel like an entirely different gun, much smaller in the hand.

 

[92FSTech]

^ Or try a gun with the vertec grip. The new 92x gives you the best of both worlds with interchangeable grip panels that either keep the 1911-ish vertec design or alternately provide the backstrap swell for a more traditional 92fs feel. I originally didn't care for the feel of the vertec grip on my 92x compact so I installed the larger grips, but noticed that I was having some trigger reach issues that were manifesting themselves on my targets (I was missing, lol), so I switched back to the smaller vertec grip and I'll be darned if it hasn't brought my groups back to center.

/Thread drift off, sorry doddg

 

[92FSTech]

I don’t know that the rotating barrel necessarily reduces recoil enough for the vast majority of people to notice. What it may do is reduce muzzle rise/flip a little bit, or smooth out the recoil impulse.

This is what I've heard as well, but lack any first-hand experience to back it up, just online gun reviews. I'm more interested in the experience of a "real person", and from what I've seen doddg seems to have quite a bit of shooting experience across a wide variety of handgun platforms, so he would be well suited to evaluate the recoil characteristics of the gun in relation to other stuff.

I rarely see them around here. The closest I've ever gotten to shooting one was handling one that I saw at a Bass Pro, and when I asked the counter guy if he knew anything about it (big mistake, I know!), his response was, "nope, I never wanted to try one...they're really ugly." Salesman of the year right there!

 

[doddg]

This might be helpful, also don't forget to put a light on your HD gun

Sight image #2 is close to what I have to do to get my POI up.
The front white dot is so big though, when I bring the front sight up past the rear sight line,
that I can't see where my POI is w/o moving my head or the pistol.
I would rather do sight #1,
so I can at least see my POI w/o moving anything.

 

[92FSTech]

It sounds like your partial to the 6 o'clock hold, which is a great setup for target shooting, provided you know the size of the target and the distance that it's posted at. It's definitely nice to be able to see your target when the goal is consistent precision! The downside is it doesn't translate well to unpredictable targets at unpredictable distances like a combat hold (POA=POI) does.

The PX4, being a defensive pistol, is almost certainly set up with sights for a combat hold out of the box (both of my 92s are), so it sounds like the gun is shooting as designed. There's no reason you couldn't swap out the front sight for a shorter one to achieve your 6 o'clock hold, though, if that's what you prefer.

As to the dots, I never use them for sight alignment. I always align the top of the front blade with the top of the rear sight, in line with the center of my target. So even if I have sights that look like sight picture #3 above, I still shoot them like sight picture #2. I use the dot to help rapidly acquire the front sight and to aid in front sight focus (especially helpful in adverse lighting or contrast settings), but all of the alignment is done with the outline of the sight posts. The only exception would be night sights in the dark, but even then if I have enough light to pick up the outline (pretty much necessary for proper target identification!), I'm using the outline for alignment rather than the dots.

Lately, I've been gravitating towards sights that have a dot or fiber optic on the front with a blacked out rear. If I do have rear dots or night sights, I prefer them to be a different color from the front dot.

 

[doddg]

It sounds like your partial to the 6 o'clock hold, which is a great setup for target shooting, provided you know the size of the target and the distance that it's posted at. It's definitely nice to be able to see your target when the goal is consistent precision! The downside is it doesn't translate well to unpredictable targets at unpredictable distances like a combat hold (POA=POI) does.

The PX4, being a defensive pistol, is almost certainly set up with sights for a combat hold out of the box (both of my 92s are), so it sounds like the gun is shooting as designed. There's no reason you couldn't swap out the front sight for a shorter one to achieve your 6 o'clock hold, though, if that's what you prefer.

As to the dots, I never use them for sight alignment. I always align the top of the front blade with the top of the rear sight, in line with the center of my target. So even if I have sights that look like sight picture #3 above, I still shoot them like sight picture #2. I use the dot to help rapidly acquire the front sight and to aid in front sight focus (especially helpful in adverse lighting or contrast settings), but all of the alignment is done with the outline of the sight posts. The only exception would be night sights in the dark, but even then if I have enough light to pick up the outline (pretty much necessary for proper target identification!), I'm using the outline for alignment rather than the dots.

Lately, I've been gravitating towards sights that have a dot or fiber optic on the front with a blacked out rear. If I do have rear dots or night sights, I prefer them to be a different color from the front dot.

If I'm following you correctly, I want the same as you stated here:
"I always align the top of the front blade with the top of the rear sight, in line with the center of my target."
I understand that is called the Center Hold.

I only prefer the 6 O'clock Hold over the Combat Sight Picture so I can see the POI.
Since I am shooting 5" low when I use the preferred Center Hold,
I have to bring up the front sight beyond the Combat 6 O'clock Hold,
bringing half the whole front sight above the rear sight line,
which blocks out seeing the POI even more than with the Combat Sight Picture.

Since other guns (especially all the SW 2nd & 3rd generation) do this, I had learned previously that I needed a shorter front sight, or an adjustable rear sight (like I had on a SW 4006 40 caliber).

If I keep the PX4 long term, I would get the rear adjustable or the shorter front sights.
Or, I could just stumble across a different gun from the PX4 with a hammer & 20 round mags that have an adjustable rear sight or the front sight is low enough to allow the Center Hold with my eyes.
Both the Rami & Shadow 2 shoot to POA & my SW MP Shield Plus PC is dead on, so there is hope, haha!

 

[Amishman44]

Interestingly...I've shot both the 92 and the PX-4 pistols...and I think I actually preferred shooting the PX-4 just a little bit more...but mainly because the grip was a better fit in my somewhat smaller hand so there was a slight edge in comfort over the 92!
That being said, I kinda thought the PX-4 also had slightly less muzzle-flip (higher recoil response) than the 92 does...at least in SA mode! When shooting in SA mode, my 2nd shot (follow up shot) was always more accurate with the PX-4 than it was with the longer barreled 92...and probably because with the heavier slide, there's a more mass out front, which probably aids in reducing the amount of muzzle-flip experienced?
I have a Beretta 92 Centurion DAO pistol with which I outshoot both the standard 92 (5") and the PX-4 (both of the later have DA/SA triggers, which I've never been a fan of the transition style) but then I may tend to slow down and focus better with the longer DAO trigger pull.
As a straight shooter, the PX-4 is AWESOME! But I would have never carried it and, as I'm not a fan of the DA/SA trigger style, is the only reason I ended up letting it go! If Beretta had made it in a DAO model, I would never have let it go!

 

[doddg]

Interestingly...I've shot both the 92 and the PX-4 pistols...and I think I actually preferred shooting the PX-4 just a little bit more...but mainly because the grip was a better fit in my somewhat smaller hand so there was a slight edge in comfort over the 92!
That being said, I kinda thought the PX-4 also had slightly less muzzle-flip (higher recoil response) than the 92 does...at least in SA mode! When shooting in SA mode, my 2nd shot (follow up shot) was always more accurate with the PX-4 than it was with the longer barreled 92...and probably because with the heavier slide, there's a more mass out front, which probably aids in reducing the amount of muzzle-flip experienced?
I have a Beretta 92 Centurion DAO pistol with which I outshoot both the standard 92 (5") and the PX-4 (both of the later have DA/SA triggers, which I've never been a fan of the transition style) but then I may tend to slow down and focus better with the longer DAO trigger pull.
As a straight shooter, the PX-4 is AWESOME! But I would have never carried it and, as I'm not a fan of the DA/SA trigger style, is the only reason I ended up letting it go! If Beretta had made it in a DAO model, I would never have let it go!

Glad you chimed in with all that experience & insight.
Having all 3 guns & comparing is what I like to do & did before prices since the election & Covid have mostly shut that down.

On a side note, I truly enjoyed every minute of the 90 that we spent together in the
Lowe's parking lot.
It is rare to meet someone & connect so well with on so many levels that I'd never met before:
pure pleasure!
If you are at your leisure & near Indy, give me a heads up & I'll buy lunch & spend another
90 minutes!
I did look at your Walther 5" .22LR you're selling & gave it a thought.
I ran that at the range before Zachcz sold it, with posted range pics, but was in trim mode at the time, plus I was focused on buying the Sig 322 when price settles down to Sig's suggested $400.

I literally found some 9mm in a .357 ammo box yesterday (like early X-mas!), so I'm justifying another function check with all my 9mm, haha!
As I'm running the Beretta PX4 today, I'll run some 124 & 148 grain through to see if it affects the POI.

 

[92FSTech]

Well, I had to go to Ft. Wayne today and stopped in at Tomlinson's on the way. Lo and behold, there's a px4 compact in the case for $475. The only downside was it's a .40 (I do load for .40, but I prefer 9mm or .45, and with small pistol primers being what they are right now, other stuff is taking priority over the .40). I played with it a bit and they let me dry fire it. The trigger isn't bad (although I don't love the plastic) and the reset is about on-par with an older 92FS...quite a bit of travel there. My 92x has a much shorter reset.

Aside from the .40, the thing that kept me from taking it home was the sharp edges on the safety lever. I carry IWB and the way those things protrude just seemed gnarly. I could see them drawing blood. I know you can get lower profile ones for that gun, and I would be swapping them out for a "G" decocker-only setup anyway, but I forsee issues getting a positive purchase on the low profile levers. IMO Beretta went for styling over function on that part...the lever on the 92 series may look boring, but it's a much more functional design.

It wasn't a wasted trip, though. They had a used Sig P250 9mm in the case, and it left with me. I have a bunch of P320s, and there is a bit of cross-compatibility between the two (grip modules, mags, and holster fit), so I figured I'd give the hammer-fired ancestor of the P320 a try. Talk about long reset, but the trigger pull is smooth and relatively light. We'll see how it compares when I get it to the range.

 

[doddg]

I found some 9mm in an ammo box I forgot about.
I celerated & took the PX4 back to the range this week to run 115, 124 & 147 grain through to see if it affected the POI.
147 grain at 30' was spot on using a center-hold sight alignment.

This entire target used CCI Blazer 115 gr @ 21' on a rest.
Started off on 1st row, 1st circle, with a center-hold, but moved up to a combat-sighting (& above) quickly.
By the 3rd circle on the 2nd row, I had it figured out with a sloppy cloverleaf.
3rd row was DAO & it went well since I knew how much to elevate my POA.
I did notice that with these Blazer 115 grains, I did not have to bring my front sites up as much as with the Spire Point reloads used earlier in the week.


1st row 21' with 115 grain with the 3rd circle being DAO.
2nd row 21' with 124 grain (it was labelled wrong) with 3rd circle DAO.
3rd row I upped to 30' & with 147 grain with 3rd circle DAO.
Again, with the Federal 147 grain, did I have to elevate my front sight as much to get POI centered.


I thought I'd go 30' with some freehand. (Shoot me now, haha!)
1st column, 1st circle was Beretta PX4. Shooting low. Points incorrect, 42%, not 77%.
Also, I thought I was short 1 round but now see the round on left corner. haha!
1st column middle was freehand (92%) & bottom was on a rest (also 92%) with the CZ Rami.
2nd column 1st circle (80%) & middle circle (72%) was free hand with a CZ Shadow.
Bottom right was the CZ Shadow on a rest (97%).