beretta storm vs. glock 19

[GodsOfOlympus]

Zeus

After several years of experience and having gone through all of the initial hoopla about the Glocks, I can categorically state that the Full size 9 mm Beretta PX 4 storm is a slightly better overall gun than the Glock 19.
From its low recoil, to its flawless function and its beauty, it surpasses all the Glocks I own.

 

[Lohman446]

I resisted Glocks for a long time. Keep the G19 and buy the Storm or you will buying another G19 again later on. Yes the _____________ is just as good as the Glock and perhaps better at some things. The Glock is the benchmark for a reason and years from now you will be thinking "should I get a Glock or ___________" Just keep a Glock and it makes the answer easier. The other blank will change but the Glock is and has been the benchmark for a long time and I don't see that going away.

 

[Fishbed77]

You guys realize this thread is almost 6 years old right?

We can only hope the OP made the right decision to keep his proven Glock 19 and not trade it for a pistol he's never shot.

 

[Lohman446]

You guys realize this thread is almost 6 years old right?

I do now.

 

[kymasabe]

I don't like glocks, they don't point naturally for me or feel right in my hand. Storm wasn't much better. Surprisingly, the Beretta Nano fits great, and has been 100% reliable with everything I've fed it.

 

[Cosmodragoon]

The obvious difference is that the PX4 is hammer-fired and usually comes in DA/SA. If you like that system, I think it's a solid contender for best in category for modern polymer sidearms. It's definitely a contender for softest-shooting polymer sidearm in both 9mm and .40 S&W. It has a good trigger in both modes without modification. It eats whatever I feed it without complaint. People have criticized the aesthetics, even calling it "space age", but I think it is rather attractive. (What isn't when compared to a Glock?)

I don't like manual safeties on carry guns and I especially don't like those big sharp batwing safeties on the PX4. Luckily, there is a fix for that. There is a low-profile kit available from Beretta that replaces them with flush-fitting levers. It makes a surprisingly big difference in profile. It also converts the gun to DA/SA with decocker only instead of a manual safety, which I strongly prefer in a carry gun. That shores up what are already excellent ergonomics. It comes with different backstraps and the large one moves your hand back a tiny bit, which is good if you have big hands or long fingers. It's a little tricky to change them but well worth it.

The Glock... well, it's a Glock. It's at least as reliable as the PX4. I don't know what else I can say as far as positives, beyond the fact that it probably has more accessories and aftermarket doodads than any other handgun on the market. On the negative side, I think they are ugly, boring, and have a weird grip angle. If that's not a big deal for you, the Glock won't let you down.

 

[OhioGuy]

I spent a lot of range time with numerous rentals before answering this very question.

I'm in that rare minority of shooters who started with strikers and migrated toward DA/SA.

My opinion of the Storm:
- The compact is a good size for carry -- subcompact is not that much smaller but I found it hard to hold and control well
- The trigger in both modes is quite good, not as heavy as others
- The decocker/safety wings on the side (yeah, not levers...wings!) are sharp and obtrusive and bite into my hands when working the slide
- The grip is slippery and hard to keep a tight grip on

Beretta sells their "Compact Carry" model which is an $800 version that addresses all of the above issues through aftermarket add-ons and mods. Not nearly worth that price in my opinion.

I was very close to picking an HK P30 variant for DA/SA, but the DA trigger is really heavy and the gun is very thick. But it was awesome to shoot.

I settled on the CZ P-07 and got it for a hair over $400. It's dimensionally almost identical to the G19, but the trigger (after smoothed out over a few hundred rounds I'd say) is much nicer to me than either Beretta or HK. DA feels noticeably lighter than HK and somewhat lighter than Beretta. It fits my hand beautifully, has been reliable for 3K rounds so far and is very pleasant to shoot. It's a fantastic value. It's not hard to take down, but more involved than Glock and others who've made it so simple -- on the other hand, you don't have to pull the trigger to disassemble -- just decock with the lever.

DA/SA takes time to get used to. The downside is the heavy first shot (downside until you're used to it!). The upside is a light, crisp SA follow-up trigger that no striker will ever quite reach.

I also believe there's a real safety advantage to being able to keep your thumb on the hammer when putting it into the holster. Tons of NDs happen at this stage. Yeah, booger hooks and bang switches, the safety is between your ears...I agree completely...but humans fail. A hammer is no guarantee, but when I'm putting it into my holster AIWB, that hammer is held down and the heavy DA trigger isn't going anywhere.

(If you do go with Glock, look into the "Glock Gadget", a small mod that basically allows you to do the same as what I just described above -- you can keep your thumb against the striker so it can't retract if the trigger is accidentally pressed).

I'm just not a Glock guy. They're reliable, accurate, affordable, etc. and so forth. There's no reason not to have or trust a Glock. They're just not my thing.

 

[Onward Allusion]

The Storm's upper half is bulky.

 

[tallball]

I have three Glocks and a full-sized PX4. They're all good pistols. I can't really say that any of them is the best.

My Storm is a 40 caliber DAO police turn-in with holster wear. No one wanted it, so I won it for a bid for just a little over $200.

MY full-sized Glock 22 is a police turn-in with less holster wear that came with the box and a spare magazine. I think I paid $280ish for it.

Both of them are accurate, reliable, and go bang every time. The Storm has a slightly stiffer trigger, but it's DAO, so that's to be expected. Their accuracy is about the same and they both fit my hand well.

I couldn't really recommend one over the other. Whichever fits your hand better is the best one for you.

 

[Carl the Floor Walker]

For you maybe. There are other folks out there that like DA/SA. Different strokes for different folks. I can understand if it's not your cup of tea, but that doesn't make it a bad gun.

Ditto that!
I am not a Glock Fan. Great Guns, for sure, but personally just do not like how they fit my hand. And as far as triggers go, for CCW I do not want, nor need a glass break light crisp trigger which seems so popular in the last few years. Yes, if I shoot just for target bulls eye. No I do not need one in a combat carry gun for fast action shooting.
As far as the Px4, well I do not have one. But for six months searched for another gun to replace my LC9S which I have owned two of them for years. And as a range rat have shot thousands of rounds out of. I wanted to move away from the 4lb light trigger of the Ruger. The Nano has a striker fired/double action that is perfect for what I was looking for and the shooting characteristics greatly out performed my LC9S.
In my search I shot just about everything out there. I have a lot of regular range buddies in my club so it was not hard to do this. I finally settled n the Nano and have quickly become a huge fan.
I do have a Ruger SR9C which IMO is one of the best semi's Ruger has made. It would be interesting to compare the PX4 and the SR9C . I think it would be a great contest. The SR9C is a lovely shooter but if the PX4 shoots as well as the smaller Nano, then it would be a great contest.
But just like any gun, fit will be like a great pair of shoes. One size does not fit all. You really have to shoot all the guns to fully find what makes that perfect fit.
All of these mentioned are fine firearms. Quality, reliability, recoil management, triggers etc go into the equation.

 

[TunnelRat]

Ditto that!
I am not a Glock Fan. Great Guns, for sure, but personally just do not like how they fit my hand. And as far as triggers go, for CCW I do not want, nor need a glass break light crisp trigger which seems so popular in the last few years. Yes, if I shoot just for target bulls eye. No I do not need one in a combat carry gun for fast action shooting.
As far as the Px4, well I do not have one. But for six months searched for another gun to replace my LC9S which I have owned two of them for years. And as a range rat have shot thousands of rounds out of. I wanted to move away from the 4lb light trigger of the Ruger. The Nano has a striker fired/double action that is perfect for what I was looking for and the shooting characteristics greatly out performed my LC9S.
In my search I shot just about everything out there. I have a lot of regular range buddies in my club so it was not hard to do this. I finally settled n the Nano and have quickly become a huge fan.
I do have a Ruger SR9C which IMO is one of the best semi's Ruger has made. It would be interesting to compare the PX4 and the SR9C . I think it would be a great contest. The SR9C is a lovely shooter but if the PX4 shoots as well as the smaller Nano, then it would be a great contest.
But just like any gun, fit will be like a great pair of shoes. One size does not fit all. You really have to shoot all the guns to fully find what makes that perfect fit.
All of these mentioned are fine firearms. Quality, reliability, recoil management, triggers etc go into the equation.

The irony here is that in the six years since I wrote that comment I now carry a Glock much of the time. That said my view of different pistols working for different people still holds. I also believe you can't find out what does work for you until you try it.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Cosmodragoon]

Beretta sells their "Compact Carry" model which is an $800 version that addresses all of the above issues through aftermarket add-ons and mods. Not nearly worth that price in my opinion.

I agree. The only upgrade I'd call crucial in that package is the low-profile levers and mag release. The kit to convert the basic model is just under $75. That and a new gun can probably be had for under $600. I really wish Beretta would just make the flush-fitting controls stock.

The enormous stock levers are a big part of perceptions like the following...

The Storm's upper half is bulky.

 

[TailGator]

I really wish Beretta would just make the flush-fitting controls stock.

Hear, hear. Baffling to me that they obviously recognize the problem, but charge an additional premium for its correction.

 

[Screwball]

I really wish Beretta would just make the flush-fitting controls stock.

Problem with that is that those controls are only available as a G setup (having them on my old .45, I wouldn’t want them in a F model).

While you’ll get a majority of people on here that love the G models, a gun forum isn’t necessarily the best place to gauge what the civilian market wants. Beretta likely did research and found that offering Stealth controls on a specific carry model is likely the best bet (on the S/C, they use the slide release from that package). A lot of people, who aren’t into firearms the same as some of us, prefer a manual safety on a gun. Try explaining to a non-gun guy that a Glock doesn’t have a safety...

For the Stealth controls, I actually liked them on that .45... which was supposed to be a carry gun. Gun was too large, with crappy magazine options (9 or 10 rounds), so I got rid of it when I picked up my Glock 30S. Gun was completely done in CPII, similar to NP3. No issues decocking, but as I mentioned, no way could they be done in F. The little amount of profile is angled so you can get downward leverage to decock the gun. You’d have to increase the profile, probably noticeably, to allow the same angle for taking it off safe.

They do have the 92 style, so people now have three options (standard being the third). 50% more than when I first started getting into the PX4... and I believe there is another one coming out (check Pistol-Forum for that). I run the standard ones on my full-size 9mm... just converted to G. No issues with them, but I don’t carry it (more of a range gun, which might be moving into my girlfriend’s hands... being she is a lefty, and converts easier than other guns I own).