03Aug06 Testing

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31July06=20

On the S&W M&P Pistol and its irritating magazine safety, from a friend and

well-known pistolsmith:

"The M&P's magazine disconnect, as it turns out, can just be taken out. No need to clip or pin it back and out of action. The lever is mounted on a cross pin and cams the trigger bar away from the sear. When the entire part is simply removed, the trigger bar will stay in contact with the sear, and the

pistol will operate as if it were never there!"

For those who, like me, consider "magazine safeties" on seri ous pistols a death trap, there appears now to be an easy way of getting rid of it on the

otherwise excellent M&P. My copy came without a magazine safety, but most M &Ps found on retail shelves have one installed.

/John

31July06=20

Beretta's PX4 Pistol:

Here is another excellent, serious pistol! I've had the opportunity to carr y for the past several weeks: the Beretta PX4 Storm in 40S&W. It went throug h a thorough workout last weekend during a Three-Gun Course we did in NM.

The PX4 is a light, polymer-frame, compact autoloader, designed for concealed carry. Gregg Garrett at Comp-Tac made me a C-Tac/IWB holster for i t, and it carries concealed just fine. Like S&W's M&P, it features interchang eable grip panels, and all three sizes come with each pistol. My copy has the " Constant-Action" trigger, which is the only variation I recommend. I t is hammer-fired, but self-decoking and has no manual decocking lever. The trig ger pull is short, similar to SIG's DAK system. My 229/DAK is a constant, six p ounds. Beretta's PX4/Constant Action is nearly identical, but eight pounds.

The PX4 uses a rotary-barrel action. To lock and unlock, the barrel rotates

instead of tilting. Size and weight is the same at the M&P, SIG's 22 9, H&K's P2000, and the G23. It comes apart almost exactly like a Glock, except that

it does not need to be dry-fired before field stripping. There are no small

parts, and it can't be put back together incorrectly. Externally, the PX4 is smooth and devoid of sharp edges and corners. It is a working gun, designed to spend its life in a holster. It has no magazine safety, nor "loaded- chamber indicator," thank Heaven!

Much more compact and carryable than Beretta's 92-series, the PX4, I believe, will now displace older Beretta models.

I ran several hundred rounds of randomly mixed, badly-corroded, junk ammunition through my copy of the PX4. It gobbled it all up with nary a hicc up. On one occasion, the pistol was dropped in the dust, picked up, and immediately fired. It continued to run just fine. I'm carrying it now, loaded with Cor-Bon/DPX. In 40S&P, the PX4 is a fifteen-shooter, and magazines are metal and, alas, designed in Beretta's thumb-busting tradition!

Like S&W, I think Beretta now has a genuinely useable and carryable, seriou s pistol. Reliable, durable, and accurate, the PX4 is good to go. Beretta is coming back!

/John

02Aug06

Comment on my Quip last month about the Wall Street Journal article on knives in America and the "need" for more regulation (as in the UK):

"Mr Farnam: ... knives really are dangerous. Regulation is probably needed."

My reply:

"Son, if politicians set out to regulate every 'dangerous ' thing, our entire government may as well be closed to all other business! As you corr ectly observed, it's a dangerous world. Therefore, we all need to grow u p, not remain guileless children, with the all-too-enthusiastic assistance of a ma ternal government whose politicians and bureaucrats see 'learned helplessne ss' as the certain path to their uninterrupted seizure of power."

As L Menchen put it: "The whole aim of 'practical politics=80 is to keep the populace continuously alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to 'sa fety,' by menacing it with an interminable nimiety of hobgoblins, all of them delusional."

And, that is the problem. Not all are delusional! Now and then, a genuine

threat gets mixed in with all the imaginary ones. Then, a weary public, so

accustomed to government and media relentlessly crying "Wolf,=80 ignores it as they have learned to ignore all the rest. Thus, this continuous litany of politically-generated false alarms invariably leads to national and individ ual unpreparedness. Some things never change!

/John