I like, but don't love my PX4. Anyone else?

[Redcoat3340]

I have carry guns in calibers including 38S&W, 38 special, 32, 380, 9mm, 40 and 45. (Been accumulating over a whole bunch of years.)
I don't carry the 32 or 380 (my 9s are the same size!), sometime pocket carry the two .38s with Buffalo Bore ammo, and mostly carry 9mm, 40 or 45.

On paperthe Beretta 9mm PX4 compact is THE BEST GUN I own. (Well, not really BEST, but best carry gun) It's the perfect size, the mag holds 15 or so of sufficient caliber, and Langdon worked it's magic on it for trigger, slide, sights, safeties, and I added a laser. It should be my #1 carry gun.

But it ain't.

I go much more often to a dead stock S&W 3953 (with a 3913 slide to provide yet another safety feature) or a 40 SW99 compact or my 9 or 45 Chief's specials that were worked on by a very good smith on this site. Even my 4513 (same size as the PX4 and it was also worked on) gets more carry than the PX4.

I don't know what it is about the Smiths, but somehow there's a lot a luv for 'em, even though the PX4 is the logically better option. (As I rarely go into Seattle city anymore, I can't say there's a huge need to actually carry, we live in a pretty safe area; but old habits die hard and I'd hate to ever have to think, if something went south, that I had a gun at home, in the safe, when I really needed it. Hence I still carry most times out.)

Anyone else put heart over head when it comes to things like this?

 

[Fishinfool]

Even though my primary carry - a Sig p365 or Glock 26 - make more sense, I still find myself with a .45 acp 1911 on my belt quite often.

Larry

 

[Telecaster]

I totally sympathize. My Shield Plus 4” should put a pup tent in my britches, but it doesn’t. I was considering giving up on 9mm because no 9mm gun I’d tried made me want to go shoot it just for fun.

I figured out that I’d been choosing “combat accurate” 9mms, and group sizes were correspondingly lackluster. I recently got a CZ 75 and things are turning around.

 

[Farmer17]

I love my Sig 365 and 365 XL with Holosun optic but there's just something about my Browning HP that makes me want to grab it first as my "everything gun".

 

[somorris]

I think most of us hear and understand what you are saying!

 

[BB57]

I totally sympathize. My Shield Plus 4” should put a pup tent in my britches, but it doesn’t. I was considering giving up on 9mm because no 9mm gun I’d tried made me want to go shoot it just for fun.

I figured out that I’d been choosing “combat accurate” 9mms, and group sizes were correspondingly lackluster. I recently got a CZ 75 and things are turning around.

Acceptable “combat accuracy” used be defined as 3” at 25 yards. What definition have you been using?

 

[LVSteve]

Acceptable “combat accuracy” used be defined as 3” at 25 yards. What definition have you been using?

...and even if the gun can do it, I'd venture that quite a lot of us would be pushed to do that from a bench wit ha carry size gun, let alone freestanding.

 

[Echo40]

Sentimentality often defies logic, you just like most what you like most, despite the fact that there are objectively better things available to you.

Case in point, my all time favorite semiautomatic pistol is the Walther PPK/S it's gorgeous, extremely accurate, and fits my hand like a glove. Meanwhile, it's heavy, unpleasant to shoot, and large for caliber by today's standards.

My M&P40 Shield is superior in practical every regard, which is why it has replaced the PPK/S as my EDC, but I still prefer the PPK/S.