Beretta APX 9x19mm Pistol – Just Arrived
One of the big secrets in the firearms world in the past few years has been the Beretta APX 9x19mm Pistol. Word for it leaked more than two years ago, together with photos. This pistol aimed at the international military and law enforcement market.
The APX name
The name APX refers to “Advanced Pistol X” (the “X” pertaining to a caliber of choice) because the firearm is fully modular and you’ll change calibers and frame sizes somewhat easily. So as to suits the MHS specification, the firearms must support different grip sizes to suit shooters of various stature. The APX supports this with replaceable grip straps. The space from the axis of the barrel to the highest of the handgrip has been kept to a minimum of 21 mm (0.83 in) so as to scale back muzzle rise, which increases the power to accurately fire quick follow-up shots. As laid out in the MHS specification, the APX also features a MIL-STD-1913 rail under the front of the frame.
It is known as the oldest firearms company in the world- more than 500 years old, although it can find records going back only 490 years. By the time Beretta felt the APX was ready purchasable, the gun had been in development for four years, with quite 1 million rounds fired through test guns. During the event process, Beretta surveyed over 500 militaries, law enforcement, and everyday shooters, and it used their input to boost the pistol.
This is an enormous, duty-size pistol with a 4.25-inch barrel. The barrel is cold-hammer-forged and features polygonal rifling. The APX is out there in 9mm and .40 S&W, and in 9mm it sports a capacity of 17+1 rounds. Overall, it is 7.56 inches long by 5.6 inches tall, and it’s 1.3 inches wide. The pistol equipped with two magazines weighs 28 ounces empty, which puts it in familiar territory for striker-fired pistols.
This gun is certainly faraway from the primary polymer-frame, striker-fired pistol on the market, and you’ll put only such a lot company personality into that envelope. As a result, the gun looks like a better offering on the market, but the serrations on the slide make the APX stand out in a crowd. More on those during a moment.
Beretta APX 9x19mm
Designed this pistol with the U.S. military’s Modular Handgun System requirements in mind. Rather than a serialized frame, the serial number is etched into a steel chassis. At the media event where the U.S. pistols rolled out, Beretta showed off housings in several colors. Including flat dark earth, olive drab and grey. The frame housing is, consistent with Beretta, constructed of a “fiberglass reinforced technopolymer.”
The APX has interchangeable small, medium and enormous backstraps, and this wrap around to incorporate the grip panels on either side, which suggests they might be a perfect target for do-it-yourself stippling- if nothing but the foremost aggressive grip texture possible will do that. The factory grip checkering is pretty aggressive, which combined with small finger grooves kept the pistol from occupation my hand once I had the right backstrap size installed.
The closest in size is the small and medium backstraps. The massive adds extra material under the online of the hand. I prefer medium backstraps on most of my guns, and my experience with the APX was equivalent to many of the writers at the event where Beretta introduced it.
I do not have big hands, but I found the medium to be a touch too small and therefore the large good. I would not be surprised if demand for a larger-than-large backstrap motivates Beretta to supply one.
At this gun swapping out the backstraps isn’t as easy as you will find on some pistols, but to me, this is not a negative. How often would anyone get to do that within the real world? Once you discover the dimensions that match your hand, you’re done.
The APX
When considering the APX, confine mind Beretta designed this pistol from the bottom up to be a significant enforcement, military, “shooting bad guys in the face” pistol (and that’s an actual quote from one among the company’s enforcement consultants). There’s nothing delicate about it.
If you’re employing a pistol to defend yourself, you’re probably at inside-the-room distances. Therefore the big front sight of the APX will work just fine. But at 0.145 inches, consistent with my calipers, it’s pretty darn wide- too wide for my tastes once I was shooting at six-inch circles at more than 20 yards. Anyway, Beretta paired it with a 0.16-inch rear notch, so you get tons of daylight around the front sight.
At some pistols the trigger finger lever is more curved as you will see at Beretta; it meets my finger at an almost 90-degree angle, which I actually like. The trigger itself may be a bit wider than average, with an almost flat face. It sports the ever-present safety lever within the middle.
The break is comparatively crisp, and the reset is brief and tactile. The crispness of the trigger helped overcome a weight that’s heavier than I prefer, especially when it came time to try to do some one-handed shooting and accuracy work.
The grip angle
This is definitely identifiable thanks to the ladder-like serrations along the whole length of the slide. The indented areas of the serrations are 11mm wide, and they are 1.5mm deep at the highest. The raised ridges have aggressive edges for gripping.
The grip angle on the APX is on the brink of what you will find on a 1911. The trigger guard is undercut to urge the shooter’s hand as high as possible on the pistol. the highest of the slide is flat, which I feel aids in portability.
The reversible magazine release is metal and checkered. It’s a teardrop shape so shooters do not have to shift their grip on the gun to succeed in it. The ambidextrous slide stop is additionally designed as an ambidextrous slide release. It’s large enough to figure such as you would the slide release in 1911. The magazine base pad is wide enough to supply a gripping surface if for a few reasons you would like to strip a magazine out by hand.
Military and enforcement buyers prefer pistols that do not require the trigger to be pulled for disassembly. Toward that end, on the proper side of the APX, you’ll spot a little, indented button. Push it with the tip of a pen or another tool before disassembly to decock the striker. Pulling the trigger also works for those users who are confident their gun is unloaded before they start disassembly.