Since the initial article was written, I have fired the pistol quite a bit more over several shooting sessions at the range. The long and short of it is that I neither cleaned nor lubed the pistol other than to wipe down the exterior and keep notes on how many rounds were eventually fired before cleaning and lubing the pistol.
(For those interested, the initial article is here: http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/shooting_the_beretta_px4_storm_9.htm )
That number is 1022 shots, which consisted of factory ball, quite a few warmish handloads using jacketed or plated bullets and a couple of hundred assorted factory JHP +P. Before the shooting started, the pistol was lubed “normally” using plain old Rem-Oil, but not between range trips.
My PX4 didn’t get “sluggish” or suffer any feeding, extraction or ejection problems.
When I field-stripped it, the barrel and lug area were practically dry, with but a tiny remnant of the original oil left. Would it have gone another 1000 shots w/o cleaning; I do not know, but neither am I too concerned. I just do not see most of us firing that many shots without being able to clean the pistol. I understand that results from my single pistol are both statistically invalid and not necessarily what others might experience, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it is par for this model, which so far has been reliable to the tune of 100%. (On one site, a fellow insisted that a person “must” use gun grease on the rotating lug and not oil. I checked and the manual does not mention using grease. In my opinion, though oil’s worked fine for me, if you prefer grease, go for it, but just check the gun for functional reliability. I suspect that it will work just fine with grease. Heck, maybe it will work longer than with oil, but speaking only for myself, I can clean and lube my PX4 often enough to make any possible differences moot.
The PX4 Storm 9mm is not a favorite of mine. It works fine so far, but it just does not have that “certain something” (whatever it is) that makes a handgun “special” to me like the Browning Hi Power and others. At the same time, I find it quite a satisfactory DA/SA autoloader and a pistol that I both respect and trust.
1022 shots between cleaning/lubing is not a marathon or torture test, but it is enough in my opinion for me to state that I can find nothing inherently “wrong” with Beretta’s rotating barrel in the PX4 Storm.
I think I will just shoot mine and forget about it. So far there’s just been no reason not to!
Best.