Beretta chambers its PX4 in .45 ACP, creating a trim, powerful pistol.
By Patrick Sweeney
We can thank the U.S. Army for the interest in, and production of, medium-capacity .45 ACP pistols with all the latest features. We can also thank the U.S. Army for not having enough on the ball to actually get out and buy them. Had it done so, we would find ourselves having to wait for guns instead of being able to go out and get the goodies right now--goodies like the new PX4 Storm in .45 ACP.
Like the previous Storms, which are chambered in 9mm and .40 S&W, Beretta's latest employs a rotating barrel lockup system. It's a design that, while not widely used, has a long history.
The Savage models 1910, 15 and 17 pistols in .32 and .380 used rotating barrels. The later French MAB-15 barrel also rotated. For being chambered only in .32 or .380, the little Savage pistols were kind of sharp in recoil. The MAB-15, despite being perhaps the heaviest 9mm handgun ever made, is downright rude in recoil. The new Beretta PX4 Storm .45 ACP uses a rotating barrel but to better effect and lesser recoil for its caliber than those earlier pistols.
Why a rotating barrel? The attraction of rotation to designers is that it gives them a way to make a pistol not so tall. If you start by selecting the .45 ACP as the cartridge to be used, you then have to make a locking mechanism, slide, frame and magazines to accommodate the portly little pills. The 1911 is the clear winner in this regard, with the lowest bore-line-to-hand relationship of any handgun. However, the very compactness of that relationship precludes a double-action trigger mechanism in the 1911, and double action is the trigger design that modern purchasers (especially police and military) desire.
Another attraction to rotating-barrel designs is the barrel itself. In a production line you can assign ultra-precise CNC lathes to produce barrels very quickly and to tight tolerances. Without protruding locking lugs, cams, barrel feet or hoods, the process goes much faster.
Had Beretta tried to scale up the drop-block locking system of the M92 to accept the .45 ACP cartridge, it probably would have ended up with something bigger than the HK Mk 23, a crew-served handgun. So Beretta's engineers wisely decided not to go that route and selected instead the Storm with its rotating barrel as the starting point for a .45 ACP service pistol.
My first impression of the .45 ACP Storm was that it was light. When I first picked it up off the table, I almost tossed it into the air. I was expecting something along the lines of the aforementioned 1911, which in a steel Government model runs more than two pounds to as heavy as 36 or 38 ounces.
The .45 ACP Storm registers at 28.5 ounces on my postal meter scale with an empty nine-shot magazine. Not a lot different, as you look at the numbers, but enough that it feels light in the hands. Again, using a 1911 as a comparison, a lightweight Commander is hard-pressed to go much under 28 ounces.
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