Almost two years ago, Beretta announced a new striker-fired, polymer framed handgun, which they called the APX. Now, the APX has finally hit gun stores… In Argentina. User mithrils of The Beretta Forum uploaded photos and a short range review of his new pistol, showing the on-the-market Beretta APX off to the other members. A section of his review is replicated below:

Long story short im very impressed, but let me be more specific:

-Fit and finish: Excelent, the fit was very good for a military/service pistol, better than most anyways. The finish is like a tennifer, seems very durable and the polymer is fiber-glass reinforced.

-Sights: Very good 3 dot sights, metal, bright and big. With a dovetail on the rear and front for an easy replacement.

-Ergonomics: Excellent, we got the M grip panel as default and we didnt get the other (Small and Large) backstraps for some reason unknown to me. It just feels like a glove and Im a Medium size hand.

-Recoil management: Very good, I want to upload a video on this but its a very soft shooting gun, the bore axis is low (not as low as a Glock maybe) and the good grip helps a lot with this, the weight is little more than your normal Glock 17.

-Trigger: Good/Very Good. The only weak point I see in this gun is that the reset is a little mushy and doesnt push your finger as strong as one might like. The trigger pull is around 5-5,5 lbs maybe a little more I dont have a trigger gauge but in my experience is an excellent trigger pull with minimal like (1 or 2)mm pre-travel and a VERY good reset distance. Very large surface on the trigger, for me its a positive thing tho.

-Magazines: Since its a new pistol i dont know the price on magazines but as the pistol develops we will see more, the pistol comes with 2 and are very high quality, they look like Mec-Gar magazines.

-Accuracy: Excellent, as you can see in the pictures the accuracy is just great and im just your average shooter. Stomach shots were at 10m very fast, and some double taps. 12 meters to the chest trying to group the best I could (this were the first shots) as you can see they are on top of each other. Head shots were at 10 and 20 meters aproximately, a little high but thats okay for me. Shot with 124gr Magtech full metal jacket with no malfunctions right out of the box without lube or anything so you can see its reliable. (I may upload a video on youtube later so you can see im not lying about this haha)

-Controls: Excellent, they are simple and fully ambi-dextreous, im left handed so this was a BIG selling point for me.

The APX was most likely designed to compete in the US Army’s Modular Handgun System program, to which it was submitted. In the MHS competition, the APX is expected to be evaluated opposite entrants from SIG, S&W (partnered with General Dynamics Land Systems), Glock, and FN. It sports a distinctively textured slide, interchangeable grip elements, large sights, and – based on the MHS model showed off this past February – possibly a variant with ambidextrous manual safety levers.

Interestingly, mithrils noted that the APX handgun was offered at a lower price than competing Glock 17 handguns in his area. While this might not be true everywhere, the possibility of Beretta’s striker-fired offering being more cost competitive than some others on the market certainly sounds promising. However, at this point Beretta is one of the last big name entrants to enter the striker fired service pistol market, following H&K, FN, S&W, Walther, and of course Glock.