My new 9mm Beretta CX4 Storm Carbine! With Pics!

[Phaedrus/69]

Some time ago I started a thread about the viability of PPC for CQB/Home defense. Well, I guess I talked myself into it because I now have an HK USC .45 ACP and a Beretta CX4 Storm carbine in 9mm! Right now the USC is equipped with my Surefire X300 Ultra.

On the Storm I decided to try something different than the Inforce APL or Surefire that I have. I picked up this cheap but sturdy mount off Amazon to mount a 1" body light to the gun. I already had a JETBeam BC25, and I got to looking and it has a spring on both the + and - ends of the batteries. Hmmm...this should stand up to recoil, I thought. The light has been awesome, had it for about a year. Super bright (650 rated lumens- I dunno if it hits spec but it's car-headlight bright), very tough and reliable. So I stuck it on the Storm to try it out.

Here are a few crummy phone pics of the Storm with the JETBeam BC25. Sorry about the mess.









You may notice that my MecGar 20 round mags came today, too- one is in the gun. I haven't run them yet but already I'm impressed. The 20th round goes in as easily as the first! No mag loader needed. Honestly the first round was harder to put into the 30 round mag than the first into this. It won't matter if the mag doesn't run right but I've never had an issue with any MG mag so I expect good things.

So as of not I have 2 x 15 round Beretta factory mags, 2 x 20 round MecGar mags and 2 x 30 round Beretta factory mags. The 15 and 30 round mags are money- ran the snot out of them at the range and they work great. Still have to test the MG.

The Storm is a really sweet shooter! I must have forgot to post it when I got it but I'm glad I bought it.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Congrats. I picked up a CX-4 Storm in 9mm setup to use Beretta 92 mags a couple months ago, and it's a great shooter. I used the Mec-Gar 20 round mags and they work perfectly. I've added a Bushnell TRS-25 red dot on a riser, a Surefire G2 in a mount similar to yours, and a knock-off Magpul sling. I also converted mine to left-side ejection and put the charging handle on the right. I might add a second charging handle on the left so it can be used with either hand.

It's a great little gun.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Are they still using plastic sights on the Storm?

 

[snapshot762]

Yup, rear sights are plastic but the front sight post is metal. I recently bought a CX4 too, and I'm glad I did! So far it is a light, accurate, reliable little carbine.

I have mine set up with a Simmons red dot mounted with A.R.M.S. throw lever rings, Butler Creek sling, put the charging handle on the left side, set up for right side ejection (I am right handed), I reversed the magazine release on mine so I can drop the mag with my firing hand, makes magazine changes much easier.

 

[frankiestoys]

Its on my list ,I like carbine length rifles ,its obvious not built to be a target gun... I have others for that .My primary pistol round is a 9mm its what I practice with most and a 92 fs also resides in my safe so I can recommend Berretta quality. Nice set up you have btw

 

[marksg]

I just picked one up last week at the gun show. They are nice shooters. But I think its lonely, guess I'll have to get a Berretta M9 now.

 

[Jackal]

Anyone else get the god awful cheek slap from the Beretta CX or is it just me? I sold mine for that very reason.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

I love the gun! The sights kind of suck and the trigger is horrendous but that doesn't harm the minute-of-bad-guy accuracy. I'm glad the rear sight aperture is plastic; on the advice of a guy over at the Beretta forum I drilled out the aperture a bit, now it's much better. For anything inside of 50 just folding the rear sight down is ideal. Great idea on putting a charging handle on both sides! I like the right-hand ejection but having two charging handles would be nice.

I especially love how short it is! OAL is only 31" or so! It's not light exactly- it's very very solid. Mine has been 100% reliable although I haven't put a ton of rounds through it. It has a great reputation for reliability though and being blowback it should run well.

It's really sweet that it runs 92 mags. The 30 rounders are basically impossible to load by hand without my Uplula mag loader but they'll probably get easier after a while. The 20 round mags from MC are easy to load, though. If they run well (and I expect they will) I'll likely pick up a few more.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

BTW I haven't picked up an optic yet. I have been leaning towards an Aimpoint PRO or a Meprolight M21, but maybe I'll get a Primary Arms Classic Dot to get me started.

 

[chris in va]

Some clarification, the rear sight isn't 'plastic' per se, but made of the same carbon reinforced polymer the rest of the gun is fabricated with. Darn strong.

I got 'lucky' and bought the 92 version for $649 cash ad Bud's store in Lexington. What a sweet gun.

Anyone else get the god awful cheek slap from the Beretta CX or is it just me? I sold mine for that very reason.

None to speak of using 9mm. I imagine 40 and 45 would have a bit though.

I have a Millett dot on there that cowitnesses with the sights but I'll be using a riser soon so I'm not scrunching down on the stock so hard.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

That's what I got, the 92-mag version from Bud's. Couldn't pass at the price. I really like the little Storm a lot. I also haven't noticed any slap from the cheek part of the stock.

 

[cat_IT_guy]

Jealous here. Seems like a great rifle for plinking out to 100 yards or so with more oomph that .22lr but cheaper than just about any bottleneck rifle round. Definitely one on my wish list.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

...I drilled out the aperture a bit....

Yup, I did this as well. The aperture that it comes with is too small for anything other than a well lit range. I went up one drill bit size from what fit into the existing aperture (forget the specifics) and it made it into a ghost ring.

 

[Hacker15E]

Anyone else get the god awful cheek slap from the Beretta CX or is it just me? I sold mine for that very reason.

Yep, same here.

The reason I now happily own an MP5 copy.

 

[desidog]

A Primary Arms red dot will co-witness, so you can still use the "irons." That gun pictured above looks like the scopes too high to get a good consistent cheek weld.

 

[snapshot762]

I haven't noticed any cheek slap from the storm (9mm) at all.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

I actually just ordered a Primary Arms Classic Micro Dot. I ordered a short and a medium riser; they were cheap and I wanted to have a couple options. Got a single point sling on the way, too.

Everything I've heard about Primary Arms has been positive. I've never used a RDS before so I didn't want to spring for an Aimpoint Pro or something like that without kind of seeing how dots work. But down the road I may get one. Hopefully the PA will work pretty well for now.

BTW, I'm surprised that anyone is getting slapped hard enough to bother them out of the 9mm version of the Storm. Granted, the recoil is a little more than you might expect for the caliber but not excessive IMOHO.

 

[Jackal]

BTW, I'm surprised that anyone is getting slapped hard enough to bother them out of the 9mm version of the Storm. Granted, the recoil is a little more than you might expect for the caliber but not excessive IMOHO

Im a decent size fellow, 6' tall 240lbs and is not the actual rearward recoil impulse that bothered me. Its the actual massive, internal reciprocating bolt carrier that would hit its rearward limit right under my cheek, causing a hearty "slap" sensation on my cheek. Hi-point carbines and Keltec Sub2000's also do this to me. Some folks hate it while others dont even notice. I think it depends a lot on your personal ergo's/size/weapons handling characteristics. I've never had any similar trouble with Fnar's, AR's, AK's, Fals, M1A's, etc. Only blowback guns seem to slap me.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

Yeah, direct blowback guns have a good "jolt" from the bolt. The MP5 is a rolley delayed blowback so a bit milder to shoot.

 

[Armor Snail]

I actually just ordered a Primary Arms Classic Micro Dot. I ordered a short and a medium riser; they were cheap and I wanted to have a couple options. Got a single point sling on the way, too.

Everything I've heard about Primary Arms has been positive. I've never used a RDS before so I didn't want to spring for an Aimpoint Pro or something like that without kind of seeing how dots work. But down the road I may get one. Hopefully the PA will work pretty well for now.

BTW, I'm surprised that anyone is getting slapped hard enough to bother them out of the 9mm version of the Storm. Granted, the recoil is a little more than you might expect for the caliber but not excessive IMOHO.

I have an older PA M3 on an AR.
great sight for the money IMO.

I really like the M21 though. I would like to pick one of those up this next winter.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

I got the PA RDS today- fast shipping! I mounted it on the gun and took it to the range to put 100 rounds through it, so I thought I'd post my initial impression.

First off the sight is well made. The optics are very clear and clean. The mount leaves a bit to be desired though, at least on my gun (a Beretta Storm carbine in 9mm). I did read the instructions (which I normally avoid), but the sight just will not really mount tightly. There's quite a bit of movement front to back on the rail. Looking at the lock it's very very narrow in relation to the width of a pic rail slot, so I can't really see any way it possibly could lock down without movement. Ultimately I shimmed it a little...a kluge I know but I don't know what else to do.

I do get a bit of smearing/artifacts on the dot. This is not a flaw in the sight, it's my eyes. I wear contacts and have always had a bit of astigmatism and have worn torics for years. About two years ago my right eye improved the point where I wasn't prescribed a toric for that eye. Now my prescription is expired and I know I will probably need a toric again and a little tweak of the RX when I go back to the eye doc. I will note that the dot looks flawless when using my left eye (and toric contact). The artifact is relatively minor although it looks worse as I crank up the brightness. In brighter light (eg daylight, bright house lights) the dot looks perfectly crisp; it's only in very low light that I can see the blemish at all. FWIW I had a chance to look through a Burris Fastfire III and a Vortex SPARC today and both of them looked flawless. As a final control I took the gun to my brother & sister and neither of them saw any blemish on the dot.

The dot wasn't very close to zero OOTB but it was pretty quick to get on target. I can't believe in my nearly forty years of shooting I've never tried a RDS! It's amazing how quick and intuitive it makes shooting. I was quickly shooting one ragged hole out to typical handgun range at a high rate of fire. I will note that while actually shooting the gun on the range I never noticed any flaw in the dot, just rounds hitting the X ring.

I'm hooked! If a cheaper dot like the PA is this good I can't wait to try an Aimpoint or Meprolight.

 

[Hacker15E]

Im a decent size fellow, 6' tall 240lbs and is not the actual rearward recoil impulse that bothered me. Its the actual massive, internal reciprocating bolt carrier that would hit its rearward limit right under my cheek, causing a hearty "slap" sensation on my cheek. Hi-point carbines and Keltec Sub2000's also do this to me. Some folks hate it while others dont even notice. I think it depends a lot on your personal ergo's/size/weapons handling characteristics. I've never had any similar trouble with Fnar's, AR's, AK's, Fals, M1A's, etc. Only blowback guns seem to slap me.

Yep, this is it. Same story with my experience with several 9mm blowback carbines.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

Okay, fixed the issue of the sight moving around by using a low profile riser. The sight lock down tightly and it gets the sight up into a bit more comfortable position. I get lower 1/3 co-witness and a lot better field of view; with the sight right on rail in full co-witness the enormous "ears" of the rear sight really limit the FOV.

Here's a quick Galaxy S4 pic of the carbine with the low-profile riser, dot and single point sling: