Beretta APX Compact vs Level 3 Armor

Hey everybody! This week I've got two products for you.

First: The Beretta APX Compact 9mm.
The APX was Beretta's response to the US Military saying "we've used the M9 (Beretta 92) forever, we want something shinier" ... or something to that effect. So Beretta developed the APX Family. 


Currently, the APX Family consists of:
- The APX
- APX Combat
- APX RDO (red dot optic)
- APX Target
- APX Compact
- APX Centurion
- APX Centurion Combat
- APX Centurion RDO
- APX Carry

All are chambered in 9mm, some are available in .40 caliber. There are also color options for black, flat dark earth, and olive drab green; the APX Carry has a black and "Wolf Gray" option as well. 

The APX boasts modularity with a claimed ability to change out the 9mm to a .40 and vice versa with some part swappage. By the way, there are 45 parts to these guns. From what I've read, there's no definitive answer how... but the idea is to have a gun that is capable of either caliber... while this is convenient and "nifty"... seems like it would just be easier to buy one in 9mm and one in .40 cal. 

Beretta designed these handguns well. They've got a very low vertical profile in the bore and slide, but they are wide. I have yet to see an APX Carry in stores so I can't speak to its size, but Beretta's premise was to design a family of firearms for military and law enforcement to allow them to have access to a personal side arm that is exactly the same as their duty weapon no matter the model. 

The APX features aggressive grip texture with 3 different replaceable grip sizes which helps the firearm stay locked in place in your hand during firing. With the low bore profile, it seems like it indexes well and would be easy to reacquire your sight picture quickly. The APX also includes the in-trigger safety ("Glock Trigger")... which I have to say I've never been a fan of. 

While I think this is a pretty good gun by design, between the "Glock Trigger" and the aggressive grip texture, I don't feel that this gun would be comfortable to shoot for prolonged periods of time. At least without gloves on.

Some of you probably know that even with 1,000,000+ rounds fired during testing, 500 professional end users surveyed, and 4 years of testing and development, Beretta still wasn't able to pull off the win and retain the US Military contract. That honor went to the Sig M17 and M18 (P320). 

So what does Beretta's loss mean to you? It means these firearms are available to the civilian market at a very reasonable price with ranges from upper $300s to upper $400s depending on your location. 

Now, I have heard rumors that Beretta is silently discontinuing the APX line, but that seems to be false with the addition of some more APX models on the Beretta website. Never trust what you read on the internet... except this blog... you can trust this blog. By the way, this blog is my unpaid, unsponsored, personal opinion. 

I'm excited to actually shoot this gun and see how it performs in the field. That being said, I would love to get my hands on a Sig M17 and see why the US Military chose it over the Beretta Advanced Pistol X.


Now let's talk about the second part of this weekend's video. About 5 years ago, I bought some level 3 steel plate armor from Patriot Armor for my job. I bought 2 flat plates as a set they were selling, then later I bought a curved plate for the front of my vest. That left me with one plate that's been sitting in my closet for 5 years... fast forward, thankfully, I've never had to replace a plate in my vest, but I've always wanted to shoot that spare plate and just see how good it really is... so for this video and some others to come in the future, I'll be shooting this plate to see how it holds up. Also, I'm not being sponsored by Patriot Armor... in fact... I actually can't find info for them anymore. So if anyone knows anything about them, drop me a comment on the post. 

This plate is heavy. It's never been super comfortable to wear, my vest with 2 plates weights in around 16lbs. I'm looking forward to shooting it with some different calibers and seeing if it's actually as good as it seems... or if there's a reason I can't find info for them anymore... yikes. Anyway, I hope you'll stop by the channel this weekend and check out the video. I'll look forward to seeing you.

Until then, have a great day!
Idaho Rifleman 

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