Monthly Archives: November 2008
Beretta PX4 Storm Recon – C02 Repeater
The Beretta PX4 Storm Recon is a CO2 powered semi-automatic pistol that has the weight and shooting feel of a real pistol. This version comes complete with a Walther “head-up” sighting system, tactical flashlight, removable compensator, and a “two headed” clip that holds 8 of your favorite pellets or bb’s at each end. When you are done with your first 8 shots, simply drop the clip, rotate it 180 degrees, reinsert it in the grip and fire your next 8 shots.
The Beretta PX4 Storm Recon arrives in a retail “blister pack” which requires Ninja-like strength and cunning to open. If you are able to achieve nirvana and open the package without harming yourself or the pistol you will have reached the 7th level of knowledge and harmony with the universe. Ok, seriously, why do they have to ship these things in packaging that is certain to necessitate a trip to the emergency room?
The physical characteristics of the PX4 Storm Recon impressed me right off the bat. Before I even took it out of the packaging I knew it was going to be drastically different from other CO2 pistols that I’ve tested. The first clue was the weight. It is easily twice as heavy as the Crosman C11 that I like so much. Once out of the box, I just fell in love with this pistol. The feel, weight, and firing action, are so realistic that I forgot I was shooting a pellet pistol.
The pistol is made from composite and metal parts. Unlike some other, less expensive, pistols that I’ve tested, all the parts fit and work perfectly. Sitting on the table, someone would be hard pressed to know this was not the real thing, even after they picked it up.
With the pistol and all its accessories out and ready, assembly takes about 10 minutes including a quick look at the user’s manual to learn how to adjust the “heads-up” sight. The pistol comes with a pressure switch for the flashlight, but I prefer to just turn the light on and off when I need it rather than having to squeeze the pressure switch on the handle to activate the light. Either way, the light is fairly bright although the ability to adjust the focus would be really helpful as this particular light has a dark spot in the middle of the beam. At night it looks like a circle on the wall rather than a bright spot of light. With that said, it still works and definitely lights up the intended target.
This is the first time that I’ve had the chance to work with a “heads-up” sight and my first impression was that I found it tough to use. However, once I spent some time behind the trigger I found that I was able to find the dot quickly and sighting became second nature. I like this sight much better than a red dot “tube” as it seemed to be more intuitive for me.
Setting up and shooting the PX4 Storm Recon is very straightforward. You load the CO2 in the handle, load pellets into the “two headed” clip (there is an 8 shot cylinder on each end of the clip), insert the clip, turn on your Walther sight, release the safety and start shooting. Before you start, make sure that you’ve got plenty of CO2, pellets, and things to shoot at. You get about 3 full clips worth of shots before you need to swap out the CO2. While that may be 48 shots, they go much faster than you might think. We went through several tins of pellets during our testing.
Firing the PX4 is a real joy. The first pull of the trigger reminds me a lot of my Ruger P89, heavy and deliberate. The following shots are much easier. In fact there is a “pause” in the pull where you know your next ounce of pressure is going to release the hammer. Having such a distinct trigger pull helps accuracy.
What makes the Beretta PX4 Storm Recon really special is the blowback slide. With every shot, the CO2 discharge pushes the slide back to re-cock the hammer and provide that “real gun” tactile feedback. I had a friend of mine, who happens to be on our local police force, test this and he absolutely loves it. It was his first chance to try out the “heads-up” sight and while it took him some time to get used to it, he came to really like it. He loved the accuracy and the potential of having a quality training tool that he did not have to go to the range to use.
As far as velocity is concerned, the PX4 Storm Recon is slightly better than average. With RWS Hobby pellets the first shot is usually about 400 FPS with the 8th shot around 320 FPS. You will have this drop unless you pause for 5 or 10 seconds between each shot to let the CO2 temperature equalize. But we all know.. when we are holding a semi-auto pistol, we aren’t going to be waiting between shots now are we….? When I saw just how many pellets I was going to be going through, I quickly switched to Crosman Wadcutters. They are inexpensive, relatively accurate, and great for punching perfect little holes in paper targets.
In summary, I can’t find a single thing that I don’t like about this pistol. It feels great, shoots great, and can hit quarters at 25’ all day long. I’ve tested about a dozen different CO2 pistols and this is the 2nd most accurate of the bunch with only the Crosman 2300S shooting better. With the Beretta PX4 Storm Recon you just put the green dot on the target and pull the trigger. Thanks to Beretta for making this great pistol and another special thanks to PyramydAir for sending us one to review. Also, if you’d like the PX4 without all the extra “gear,” click on this link to the Beretta PX4 Storm over at PyramydAir.
Written By,
Rick Eutsler
Editor / Owner www.AirGunWeb.com
editor@airgunweb.com
Copyright 2008 www.airgunweb.com & Dog River Design, LLC.
Beretta PX4 Storm Recon – VIDEO
Here is another great product sent to us by PyramyAir. (www.pyramydair.com) When I saw the Beretta in a recent email blast from the sales team over at PyramydAir, I knew that I needed to review this pistol. After an email or two, they happily sent us one so that we could put it through its paces and boy did we. This is by far the nicest, most realistic, pellet pistol that I’ve shot to date. Take a look at this video for all the details, and please remember PyramydAir the next time you are looking to purchase your next airgun, or airgun supplies.
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7 Crosman Pistols – VIDEO
This is a very brief overview of 7 different Crosman BB and Pellet pistols. Starting with the 2240 .22 hunting pistol and ending with the new C11 Tactical BB pistol, there is a lot to squeze into 10 minutes. We want to thank Crosman for providing the bulk of these review product. Next time you looking for a new bb/pellet pistol or rifle, think Crosman.
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Click on the video to start. |
Crosman Quest 1000 – VIDEO
Finally we are getting back to business with some new product reviews and videos. We received many requests for us to review this product. It is the Crosman Quest 1000. It is a break barrel rifle that boasts up to 1000 FPS with a single cock of the rifle. It comes with a Crosman 4×32 scope and mounts.
Our test rifle tested our patience, but in the end….. well watch the video and find out!
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Click on the video to start. |
TechForce® QB78 Review
Hello again. I bet you thought we’d NEVER get another review posted. Well, frankly I was beginning to think the same thing. Fortunately we’ve found some really talented contributors and we are starting up again with this article submitted by Gerald Austin. Gerald found us via our youtube page and agreed to take a look at this rifle for us. So let’s get to it!
TechForce® QB78 Review
Written By,
Gerald Austin
Contributor for www.AirGunWeb.com
editor@airgunweb.com
The QB78 has been around for quite a few years. I remember back in the mid 90′s when I was fairly active in field target and a few of my friends were impressed with the gun. I remember shooting it then thinking it was “nice” but never had the opportunity to take a close look at the gun. I have owned a Crosman 2260 and Crosman 180 for some years now and have always been looking for a GOOD way to mount a scope. The QB 78 takes care of this with a steel grooved receiver.
The rifle came to me as a return with no indication of what it was returned for. The overall look of the gun was very good. The stock was much darker than ones I had seen before with some slight character marks that appeared to be the result of handling and not related to factory workmanship.
The bluing was a medium to deep blue with just some slight variations that would only be noticed by someone paying very close attention to that feature.
The craftsmanship on the remainder of the gun showed some signs of details that could be improved upon but didn’t make me think this gun was not worth the price I had seen advertised.
The buttplate and stock did not flow together well. The fit of the buttplate to the stock showed areas of up to 1/16″ mismatch.
The buttplate was loose upon receipt of the gun.
A few machining marks were visible that were blued over including a
tool mark around the circumference of the cap.
The trigger right out of the box was a little creepy and had a little more side to side movement than I cared for as it was slightly distracting when shooting from a bench. After a few rounds with the gun as supplied, I removed the action from the stock and adjusted the trigger using the instructions provided in the owners manual. The operation was much more pleasant after the adjustment but could probably benefit from some polishing and lubrication. The side to side movement still existed but was less noticable.
The open sights suited my eyes well and could be adjusted for elevation with the ramp. Windage could be adjusted by loosening one of the screws on the rear sight but out of the box it was not needed. Using the open sights I was able to get some one hole groups at 33 feet using GAMO Match pellets. My interest though was in seeing how the gun performed using a scope.
I mounted a 4-16 x 40 Centerpoint Scope with a one piece Centerpoint mount. The scope was already mounted on another gun and I took it of of that gun, dropped it onto the QB-78 and sighting in took only 6 clicks of windage and 20 for elevation to be on at 15 yards. During the sighting in process a housfly landed on the target at 15 yards. I was pleasantly surprised when I pullet the trigger and the pellet appeared to go to the exact spot where the fly had been.
At 15 yards the gun consistently made one hole 5 shot groups using Crosman Premier Hollow Points, Gamo Match, Gamo Master Points and RWS Super H Points. I moved the targets out to 25 yards and around 250 round through the gun to get a feel for it. At 25 Yards I was able to notice some pellets performing better than others. And decided I would do the accuracy testing with the Crosman Premier Hollow Points, The Gamo Master Pointed, and RWS Super H points. With each pellet tested I shot a total seven five shot groups. Each group was assigned a group number that reflected the shot number from new CO2 cartridges. Overall the RWS Hollow Points performed the best.
| Pellet | Groups | Shots | Average of Group Size | Min Group Size | Max Group Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crosman hp | 7 | 35 | 0.79 | 0.50 | 1.05 |
| Gamo Master Pointed | 7 | 35 | 0.82 | 0.50 | 1.10 |
| RWS Super H Point | 7 | 35 | 0.65 | 0.35 | 1.00 |
The targets below show the pellet type, shot from new CO2 and the group number.
At 40 YDS I performed some informal testing and was pleased to be able to hit the steel T posts in my pasture 8 out of 10 times. Putting some paper at that distance showed a gun that could give a soda can some trouble at 40 to 50 yards on a calm day. The Bull on the target below is 1″ Diameter with a 2″ outer ring.
The Chronograph showed the numbers below at approx 75 deg F. No Gamo Master Pointed pellets were chronoghraphed. CO2 cartidges were changed prior to testing and a few shots fired prior to taking the readings.
| Pellet | High | Low | Average | Standard Deviation |
| RWS Super H Point | 652.7 | 639.2 | 644.8 | 4.35 |
| Crosman H Point | 646.8 | 623 | 638.9 | 6.24 |
Though the power of the gun is on the low side, I would probably take it to the woods for early squirrel season since the shots are closer due to leaves. The accuracy out to 25 yards is shown on the last target below that I shot before this writing. The leftmost column was shot with Crosman destroyer pellets,, the center column was RWS Hollow Points and the right column was shot with Gamo Hunters. The bottom group on the center column was actually 6 shots as I pulled the very first one. The RWS Hollow Points will be the pellet of choice for this fall.
All together I have used 16 pairs of CO2 cartridges with this gun. Each pair yielding 60+ shots. The gun has been nothing but FUN. I have shot Fence Posts, Paper Targets, Ice Cubes, Houseflies (2 kills at 15 Yards), paper cups, and I don’t know what else. The only performance issues I had were related to the barrel band becoming loose and the point of impact shifting if a barely bumped the barrel. Loosening the screw and allowing the barrel to center itself and then tightening the screw returned the point of impact to within 5 clicks of the original point of impact.
Here is the gun as tested.
The workmanship could use improvement but as far as my opinion goes, looks aren’t anything if it works well. I would like the barrel band a little more secure and the trigger could benefit from a little polishing. At the list price, I find the gun a great value and would recommend it to anyone that wants an accurate and consistent gun at a great price. I just hope they don’t figure out how to run cars off of CO2 !
Copyright 2007 www.airgunweb.com & Dog River Design, LLC.
All Rights Reserved.