12Sept06 Beretta CX4 After surgery to remove superfluous material, my copy of the Beretta CX4 is in service. We used it in OH last week, during a battery of courses. Ran just fine! It is designed to be rapidly convertible from right-side ejection, to left side. The bolt handle can also be moved from side to side. Nice feature for use within a department. We found it to be amazingly accurate, effortlessly delivering consistent brain-stem shots at twenty meters. Of course, it shoots 40S&W pistol ammunition, but it is light, smooth, short, handy, easy to maneuver, and easy to use. Excellent car gun! /John

12Sept06

On magazine safeties, from a friend and student:

"I remember you once said that you removed the magazine safety from all your S&W pistols as soon as you got them. Did you accomplish this by completely

removing the appropriate plunger and spring from the slide? I've had a gunsmith do this on my S&W CS45. However, I am now wondering if having an open hole on the bottom of the slide (that communicates with the firing-pin chan nel) is a problem. My gun runs fine, but I'm wondering if this modification wil l increase fouling in the firing pin channel and create problems when the gun

gets dirty."

My reply:

Removing the magazine safety on any S&W pistol will not create problems. S&W deliberately makes the process easy, knowing that serious gunmen will w ant nothing to do with magazine safeties. All who use these guns for any kind of serious purpose remove them. Little fouling ever makes its way into the firing pin channel. Get rid of it! Your pistol will continue to run just fine.

/John