Beretta Storm carbine?

[wareagle]

Anyone have any experience with the Beretta Storm carbine? Also, does anyone know if its compatible with Taurus 92 mags?

[Guest nosnos]

I had one that took Beretta 92 mags. I sold it because I couldn't figure out what it was good for. Too slow and inaccurate for anything at a distance of more than 25 yards, IMO. I also just found that for me a .22lr was more fun and inexpensive for plinking.

However, it is one cool gun. I liked it, just not enough to justify keeping it when a more practical gun came along and tempted me. I don't know if Taurus mags would work or not.

The hi-point carbines are a lot more affordable.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Hi Wareagle

Have heard it said that Beretta 92FS can use Taurus 92 mags "with a little whittling" (on the mag). Never tried it. Maybe it would be the same mag mod for a Storm carbine? Dunno.

You can buy the 9mm storm carbine either setup for 92FS mags, or PX4 mags. You can also buy adapter kits to change the mag release and magwell from one to the other. However a month or three ago, some of the factory parts were out of stock on the Beretta usa store page. Am guessing/hoping that it is because the little rifle is so popular they sell a lot of parts.

Just sayin, if one were banking on switching from one mag style to the other, it would be good to check parts availability.

Have an Inox 92FS pistol for a long time and it is a favorite. Collected a few factory mags for it. If I see a good Inox 92FS for a reasonable price locally, want to buy a spare. Would rather have another Inox rather than a black 92FS, because the stainless is so pretty.

Don't like internet gun shopping. Took a long time to finally find a local Storm carbine setup for 92 mags. Have shot it about 3 times, about 300 rounds. Speer Lawman 115gr RN, and 124gr JHP light target reloads.

The carbine seems very accurate and haven't had any misfeeds. Point of impact at 50 yards is pretty similar between the 'relatively hot' Speer and the 'moderate' target loads.

I have to shoot with left eye. It was easy to switch the Storm to eject to the left, with no extra parts required. That is one of the many nice things about the little rifle.

Edited June 1, 2010 by Lester Weevils
spelling

[JeffsSig]

I love mine. And yes 50-75 yards is no problem for the 9mm.

I think it is a very good Home SD weapon, Plinker, short range all around good weapon in a common round. But then I think alot of things others dont see.

[Moped]

You might want to look at a Hi-Point 9mm Carbine. A whole lot less and probably just as accurate. Mine is a blast to shoot.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

You might want to look at a Hi-Point 9mm Carbine. A whole lot less and probably just as accurate. Mine is a blast to shoot.

Hi Moped

Yes, there are good points about the Hi-Point carbine. It is likely that a Storm carbine costs 2X or 3X as much, and AFAIK they don't make any of em in the USA. Maybe some Storms are domestic manufacture, dunno.

The Hi-Point carbine seems longer and heavier than the Storm carbine, and I don't think the Hi-Point can be setup 'real friendly' to left-hand shooting. Left-hand shooting is a necessity, because am blind in right eye.

If someone already has a goodly number of 15 rd and 20 rd Beretta mags, it is a plus point for the Storm.

And the intangible that the Storm has more appearance of a precision piece of machinery. Some things I like homely and functional, but the Shallow Hal in me sometimes appreciates devices that look precisely made.

Ferinstance, have tried on several occasions to talk myself into getting a Taurus PT-99 pistol, which has reputation of being a solid inexpensive performer. But the PT-99 just looks so 'rough' compared to a Beretta 92. Crazy that fit and finish would be worth several hundred dollars, but it seems to be a fact.

It is why I like AR type mechanisms compared to AK. Everything have read would imply that the AK may actually be more reliable in practice, but so many AK's look more like farm implements than precision machinery. <g>

Perhaps a shallow and impractical attitude.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

One 'slight disadvantage' of the Storm configuration-- The bolt handle is pretty close to the top rail.

With a 'fat' red dot sight (for instance, a conventional cheapie 40mm red dot), if the sight is mounted to the rear, one is likely to bump against the sight working the charging handle. So ended up mounting the red dot pretty far toward the front of the gun to stay out of the way of the bolt handle. Works fine forward though.

I already had the old 40mm red dot and its worked fine for a long time. On a pistol it has a little parallax error, but on a rifle if you can keep the dot centered, is decently accurate.

A mini-red dot could be mounted over the bolt handle without getting in the way. If one mounted a scope and had to mount it pretty far back for proper eye relief, it would have to be a pretty skinny scope to stay out of the way of the bolt handle.

[Moped]

Oh I totally understand. I think the Beretta is a fine rifle! I'd love to have one, but I personally don't want to pay $800 for a pistol caliber carbine, that I'll probably only plink with. For something like that, the Hi-Point fits my needs perfectly. And your right about it not being very functional for a lefty, though mine does tend to push the empties forward instead of backward.

I also wish Hi-Point would produce larger capacity mags or better yet come up with some system for using other manufactures mags like the Kel Tec 2000 does.

[wareagle]

GUys,

Thanks for feedback. I'm willing to pay for the better quality, but I don't like to pay for name plates. I want something nicer than the hi-point but less expensive than the beretta .

[Moped]

Kel-Tec Sub2000 in 9mm. Some are made to accept Beretta Mags and some are made to accept Glock Mags. About half the cost of a Beretta and twice as much as a Hi-Point. They also have the added advantage of being able to fold up for easy storage/cancealiblilty.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=171006463

There are also some YouTube videos of them in action. You sometimes see them for sale in the classifieds here.

[141FE]

Marlin Camp 9

[dralarms]

Kel-Tec Sub2000 in 9mm. Some are made to accept Beretta Mags and some are made to accept Glock Mags. About half the cost of a Beretta and twice as much as a Hi-Point. They also have the added advantage of being able to fold up for easy storage/cancealiblilty.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=171006463

There are also some YouTube videos of them in action. You sometimes see them for sale in the classifieds here.

Yes, the subs are great. I have 3 of them in 40 that take the glock mags. they make a good SHTF gun.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Speaking of 'needing' a particular item, for me they are just loud elaborate paper punches <g>.

Following the time-tested principle of "It seemed like a good idea at the time"-- It somehow seemed like a good idea to have both a rifle and pistol in the calibers of interest, .22, 9mm, .357, .223.

Looked around at 9mm rifles quite awhile. Might have got a Marlin Camp 9mm or an old Ruger 9mm police rifle if had seen one locally at a good price.

The Kel-tec was tempting, but not quite enough to buy one.

At gun shows saw Colt and Spikes 9mm AR's that were tempting except for price versus practicality. If getting an AR might as well put a bigger round in it, and 9mm rifle was the point of this particular excercise <g>.

At gun shows saw some strange old 9mm gadgets. 9mm AKs, and weirder thangs possibly of East European origin. Attractive in some ways. Some with wire stocks and whatnot. They tended to look like farm implements and weighed about 50 pounds <g>.

Finally found a Beretta Storm Carbine 'nearly new' for about $600. Comparing to all the other thangs had seen, it seemed the best compromise for a loud elaborate 9mm paper punch <g>

[chadbuddy]

I thought I wanted a storm, untill I check the prices on gunbroker. If I end up getting a carbine, it will probably be the fugly hi-point.

[Moped]

I thought I wanted a storm, untill I check the prices on gunbroker. If I end up getting a carbine, it will probably be the fugly hi-point.

The news ones are much better looking. It's a good little rifle. The weakness is the Magazines. I paid $175 or so for mine. Then I dropped in a ATI stock. It looks a lot like a Storm. It's a fast handling little carbine too.

Lester, you were talking about a Pistol/Carbine combination. The best one available in my opinion is the Ruger Blackhawk in .30 carbine and an M1 Carbine. Another good combination would be a revolver in .357 and a Marlin lever action in the same caliber. Or a Ruger Blackhawk and a Ruger carbine in .44mag. There are several combination's out there if you look.

[R1100R]

I ran up on a Hi-Point awhile back for 150.00 with 10 mags and a redot. It is a blast to shoot. Thinking about putting another stock on it.

[Moped]

WOW! Awesome deal!!! Wish I'd come across something like that.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Lester, you were talking about a Pistol/Carbine combination. The best one available in my opinion is the Ruger Blackhawk in .30 carbine and an M1 Carbine. Another good combination would be a revolver in .357 and a Marlin lever action in the same caliber. Or a Ruger Blackhawk and a Ruger carbine in .44mag. There are several combination's out there if you look.

Thanks for the good ideas, Moped

Scored a Henry Big Boy octagonal barrel brass receiver .357 lever gun to go with the S&W 586 pistol. It shoots pretty good.

Had mostly been shooting light target .357 reloads in the pistol, but for the rifle made some 'full tilt boogie' 158 gr jacketed flat point reloads that would probably be rather unpleasant to shoot in the pistol. Max load of Blue Dot. Don't have a chronograph, but just judging by recoil and the amount of dust the rifle stirs up on the target berm, this combination seems pretty powerful, considering it is a weenie pistol round. I suspect it is stronger than ferinstance a .223 round anyway. At least at 50 yards. I don't shoot 100 yards much because my eyes aren't good enough to clearly see that far.

The Ruger Mark II pistol is complemented with a .22 Colt AR lookalike, and a Remington bolt-action target rifle that is a tack driver, but pretty annoying to shoot left-handed. The little Colt is pretty accurate, and quite reliable if run wet. Maybe after it loosens up it won't have to run so wet.

Keltec PLR-16 .223 pistol along with an MSAR bullpup .223 rifle.

As Oh Shoot mentioned on the ammo thread, don't really want to own a lot of different calibers, because it would be too much a stocking problem to hoard ammo in a zillion calibers <g>.

Also, it is a PITA to change my reloading machine between small primers and large primers, so intentionally don't wanna get any guns that use large primers.

[molonlabetn]

Can't answer the Taurus magazine question, but I did at one time own a 9mm Storm. I loved shooting it, until after about 1000rd several small parts fatigued (ejector, extractor, magazine catch), rendering it a semi-ejecting single-shot rifle.

The internals (hammer, sear, etc) are made out of plastic... to me, that's ridiculous.

It was very accurate though, with just a red-dot I could consistently hit a 12" steel plate at 200yd. If it weren't for the reliability issues, I would love to have one for home defense... it was far more user friendly and ergonomic than the Kel-tec and High-point carbines I've fired.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Can't answer the Taurus magazine question, but I did at one time own a 9mm Storm. I loved shooting it, until after about 1000rd several small parts fatigued (ejector, extractor, magazine catch), rendering it a semi-ejecting single-shot rifle.

The internals (hammer, sear, etc) are made out of plastic... to me, that's ridiculous.

It was very accurate though, with just a red-dot I could consistently hit a 12" steel plate at 200yd. If it weren't for the reliability issues, I would love to have one for home defense... it was far more user friendly and ergonomic than the Kel-tec and High-point carbines I've fired.

Thanks for the great info!

Have you read mention of similar fatigue on other Storms?

IIRC from taking the gun apart, none of those parts you mentioned would be especially difficult for a careful end-user to replace. Had to take out the ejector and extractor to switch it left-handed, no biggie. The online instructions for the mag catch seem a little more involved, but not bad.

Just sayin, if there are good odds those parts will eventually go down, mebbe I oughta pre-order the tidbits. It wouldn't be the first gun to occasionally need replacement parts <g>.

[gotigers]

There was a Beretta Storm at a local gunshow for $525. If i had the cash i would have bought it. That was a steel. The prices are coming down. It is a very nice HD, plinker carbine. I don't like the built in sight towers. If it had a full rail for other sights i would be more interested.

The hipoint is ok. accurate, fun and reliable. But i sold mine, because it is a single stack with no quality hi cap mags available. difficult to clean and no real aftermarket for parts.

I would save up and get the Beretta. The hipoint is a limited plinker only.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Some of the Storms apparently come with the full-length top rail installed. Mine didn't have that, but it was easy to order and easy to install.

[Mark A]

I love mine. And yes 50-75 yards is no problem for the 9mm.

I think it is a very good Home SD weapon, Plinker, short range all around good weapon in a common round. But then I think alot of things others dont see.

I guess I am in trouble then as we often see eye to eye on many things.

I think the storm is a great little gun. I have a friend that has a bunch of 92 mags so it just made sense for him to get one of these. Now that I am reloading I can shoot his for just about the same money as a 22...

Mark

[Guest smileyguy]

I'd love to have one, but I personally don't want to pay $800 for a pistol caliber carbine, that I'll probably only plink with.

I agree. It's a little out of my price range for that type of weapon. I did handle one at the shop, and WOW! It handled like a dream. Felt like it was made for me. I'd love to shoot one.

[turkeydad]

ive never had a storm but I have a ruger pc9 and absolutely love it