Glock vs PX4 size--manufacturer's dimensions vs reality.

[JohnKSa]

I read somewhere that the PX4 was larger than the Glock 17--I thought that was a bit odd because the PX4 seemed smaller to me. I checked the numbers and the numbers said that the PX4 was a good bit larger than the G17

Beretta's website lists the total length of the 9mm PX4 as 7.59" while the Glock manual says that the length of the Glock 17 is 7.28".

The height of the G17 according to the G17 manual is 5.35" and the Beretta PX4 manual says that the PX4 is 5.51" tall.

Overall width of the PX4 (from the manual) is 1.42" while the Glock 17's width from the G17 manual is 1.18".

Pretty straight forward, right? The PX4 is a good bit larger than a G17 in every dimension. Over a quarter of an inch longer, over a tenth of an inch taller and about a quarter of an inch thicker.

Let's look at a picture.

Hmmm, right off the bat, the Glock 17 looks a good bit longer than the PX4. Know what? IT IS!

It's about a half an inch longer because Beretta measures overall length and Glock lists the distance from the back of the slide to the muzzle of the barrel and calls that length.

What about height? The PX4 is about 1mm taller than the Glock 17 by my measurements (measured from top of sights to bottom of magazine).

The PX4 is thicker than the Glock, but not as much as the numbers above make it sound. If you don't count controls in the thickness numbers, the frames differ by 0.04"--about a millimeter.

So in reality, while the PX4 is thicker and taller than the Glock 17, it's only by about a millimeter in each dimension (not counting control levers). The biggest difference in dimension is that the PX4 is about half an inch shorter than the Glock 17. Pretty different picture from the "official" numbers.

Why the disparity? Part of it is that there are different ways to measure the length of a pistol. Part of it is that there can be measurement or data entry errors. For example, I found two different numbers for both the height & length measurements of the G17, all from official sources.

Just thought it was interesting...

 

[Devonai]

Yes, very interesting, thank you for the post!

This raises the PX4 in my estimation. Yet another reason to buy one.

 

[Monkeybear]

Of all the poly guns the PX4 feels the best in my hand. How dose yours shoot?

 

[JohnKSa]

It will do 3" five shot groups at 25 yards--maybe better--I haven't tried a lot of different kinds of ammunition. Recoil is lighter than the G17. My wife says the G17 hurts her but she loves the PX4. In fact, now it's her PX4...

 

[nwilliams]

PX4 is my choice

I love my PX4, talk about accurate and elegant all rolled into one simple package. I bought mine last month and took it to the range right after buying it and was making one hole groups without any trouble at all. Its by far my favorite gun purchase in a long time, and I find it to be more accurate than even my 92f, never thought I'd say that. I still have to find a decent holster for it, Fobus makes one but I haven't picked one up yet, once I do the PX4 is my new ccw carry weapon. I don't have anything against Glock but I just never found them enjoyable to shoot, the PX4 on the other hand is nothing but pure fun.

 

[hexidismal]

Great report, thanks for posting.

 

[lawson4]

When I think of the overall dims of a gun, I think of smallest the box it will fit in. The box will touch the front of the barrel and thepart of the frame farthest from that point. It will touch the top of the highest sight and the bottom of the mag plate. It will touch the outside of the controls on both sides. All the time keeping the box parallel/perpendicular to the barrel axis.

Lawson

 

[lunde]

I love the trigger on the Px4. I guess that's why I own two now. One must-do modification is to swap the controls, especially the decocker, with the slim/stealth version.

 

[Navy87Guy]

My wife says the G17 hurts her but she loves the PX4. In fact, now it's her PX4...

I have the same problem -- one trip to the range with the small backstrap installed and she claimed it for her own!

Thanks for the detective work -- I know this came up the other day in another thread. It's always easier when we compare apples to apples!

Jim

 

[JohnKSa]

When I think of the overall dims of a gun, I think of smallest the box it will fit in.

That's the way I measured both guns with the exception of the controls. I measured the frames at the thickest points omitting the lever thickness.

I did that because:

1. You can get extended controls (slide stop and magazine release) for the Glock which would increase the thickness.
2. You can get slimline controls (slide stop and safety/decock levers) for the PX-4 which would decrease the thickness.

The Glock thickness number I quoted (about 1.18") is fairly representative of the "box" measurement of thickness since the stock controls add very little to the width. The PX4 overall thickness from the manual (1.42") includes the thickness of the stock controls.