![]() In the early 2000s, the pistol market was changing. After that experience, I’ve only used oil in the rotating action of my PX4 Compact 2,000+ rounds later, I’ve never had an issue. But I’m fairly certain all that viscous white sludge was making the action sluggish and causing it limp into battery. Because, like most budding gun hipsters, I thought grease was the avowed lubricant of the tactical intelligentsia and oil was for losers. īut I later realized I was putting waaay too much moly grease in the rotating action. Unfortunately, I had some failures to feed with that Cougar. But the gun shot so incredibly well, those nitpicky details just didn’t matter. 45 Cougar’s grip was gigantically fat and the trigger reach was long for my teensy-weensy hands. Compared to the HK45c I also owned at the time, the Cougar was just… dreamy. It shot just as softly as my Smith & Wesson 4506-1, with breathtakingly effortless accuracy. But up against the 92’s classically graceful lines, it probably was a bit of an “acquired” taste-which, I guess, not too many were willing to acquire 25 years ago.īut, regardless of aesthetics, the Beretta Cougar can _uckin’ shoot. Compared to a 92, it was short, fat and… ahem… “proportionally distinctive.” Personally, I think the Cougar looks freakin’ cool. Internet lore seems to suggest that the Cougar was not particularly successful or well-loved when it was in production. But… having trigger time with both platforms, there is some truth to it: the defining characteristics of the shooting experience are common to both guns. Any Beretta engineer reading this is surely face-palming now. In a sense, the Cougar is a PX4 with a metal frame. Upon returning to battery, the barrel gets cammed back around and the lugs re-lock into their respective nooks and crannies in the slide. This is what turns the barrel as it retracts, under recoil. ![]() The barrel has a slanted cam track machined into its rear lug assembly which mates with an angular “nub” on a special “camming block” that slots-in under the barrel. So, instead of tilting down and back to unlock from the slide, the barrel turns on its axis as it retracts (about a third of a turn) which disengages a series of asymmetrical locking lugs and allows the slide to complete its rearward cycle. In case you’ve been living under a tactical rock for the past 15 years, the Beretta PX4 series uses a distinctive rotating breech-lock system. It’s a pistol that must be experienced to be understood… even believed.īut let’s get into what makes this thing tick… er, spin… A Different Spin on Breech Locking This is a modern, polymer-framed pistol that costs what other modern polymer-framed pistols cost.Īnd if you don’t want to read the rest of the review, I think you’d be thrilled to own one. And while there are some aspects of the PX4 Compact that, for me, ultimately make it less than ideal for its intended purpose (but don’t worry-it’s 100% reliable), its incredible shootability is more than enough to justify owning one.Īnd we’re not talking about some $1,000+, bougie/boutique-y pistol, here. It’s the way in which you experience, perceive and implement the accuracy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |