beretta apx

BERETTA APX CENTURION FOR SALE ONLINE

Specifications

UPC	082442894362	Manufacturer	Beretta
Manufacturer Part #	JAXQ920	Model	Centurion
Model	APX	Action	Semi-automatic
Type	Striker Fired	Size	Compact
Caliber	9MM	Barrel Length	3.7″
Color	Black	Capacity	10Rd
Description	w/Rail	Hand	Ambidextrous
Safety	Trigger Safety	Sights	3 Dot
Subcategory	Pistols – Polymer Frame	Material	Polymer

Beretta APX Centurion Review

Back in May, we saw the roll out of the new Beretta APX A1, the full-size upgrade to the original APX series. This meant that the previous generation of APX pistols are designated as “Legacy models” by Beretta, which is a nice way to say they’re pretty much discontinued. However, there’s still a large volume of the original family of APX pistols available, including my personal favorite, the Beretta APX Centurion.

Beretta APX Centurion Features

The Legacy APX lineup breaks down into the following sizes: Target, Full size, Centurion, and Compact. Like most modern semi-automatic striker fired pistols, the frame houses a modular trigger chassis that is the serialized part. That means you can swap the trigger into various size frames to customize fit to the shooter.

In my opinion, the best frame size was the legacy Centurion frame. This mid-size frame holds 15 rounds in the magazines, and has a 3.7 inch barrel. The sights are fixed, with three white dots. Thankfully, the rear sight notch is nice and wide. If you black out the rear dots, the front white dot gives nice contrast for fast shooting. From the factory, the trigger is a touch heavy, with mine coming in around 5.5-6lbs.

You can also use 17 round magazines from the full size APX in the Centurion. In terms of size, the APX Centurion is in between a Glock 19 and a Glock 26. The slide and barrel is shorter than a 19, but the grip is about the same size and the magazines hold the same. As is common, it comes with replaceable backstraps for the Centurion grip module. I went with the largest option to better fill my hand.

All of my APX pistols were upgraded with Beretta’s Competition Firing Pin spring, which reduces the trigger pull by about half a pound. The design of the legacy APX trigger shoots in well, so now after 1955 rounds the trigger is a nice 4.5 pounds. Pulling the trigger gives you a short take-up, and a clean break. An interesting note on the recently released APX A1 full size: it incorporates the Competition Firing Pin spring from the factory, so the gun starts with what I consider a mandatory upgrade for the Beretta APX Centurion as well as the other legacy APX guns.

4 Years with the Beretta APX Centurion

I’ve had a pair of APX Centurions for over four years now. Between the two of them they have a combined round count of 2,586 rounds. I used them to finish in the top 10 of CCP Division at the 2018 IDPA Nationals. I’ve won club matches, shot state level championships with them, and even crashed a Vespa wearing one at the appendix carry position.

Over that time, the Beretta APX Centurion has only failed to feed one round of brass cased ammo. I do need to say that neither of these guns like steel cased ammo. Both Winchester Forged and the now discontinued Hornady Steel Match wouldn’t feed correctly. The simple solution for that? Don’t run steel cased ammo.

O​ff a bench with high quality ammo, the APX has always produced excellent groups in the 2-3 inch range. Its practical accuracy is also excellent. Thanks to the nice sights, getting hits standing unsupported at 25 yards is easy.

Recoil is no issue. I personally don’t like guns with “slow” recoil impulses, and the APX snaps back on target quickly. That means fast follow up shots are a breeze. I’ve hit sub 2.00 seconds on the Bill Drill using this gun on multiple occasions.

APX Centurion Accessories

You’d be within reason to wonder why I’m writing a review for a legacy model pistol. Well, the simple fact is that even if it’s “legacy” there are still loads of them out there. I looked on Grabagun this morning and you could buy a brand-new one for $400, and they’re all over Gunbroker in the $300-450 range.

Now, here is some bad news. If you want to put a red dot on the APX Centurion you’re kind of out of luck. They offered an RDO version for like two seconds, but finding them is nearly impossible. Will there be an APX A1 Centurion? I certainly hope so. But for now, if you want the Centurion, you’re stuck with the really good iron sights.

For holsters there aren’t a lot of options available, but the ones that you can get are great. I enthusiastically recommend the entire product line from JM Custom Kydex. I was carrying my APX in a Wing Claw 2.0 when I went over the handlebars of my scooter in Miami at 35 mph. The holster and gun were fine, I wasn’t.

As mentioned above, I recommend the Beretta Competition Striker Spring, which is available on Beretta’s website. This dramatically improves the trigger pull while still keeping it above 4 pounds, which is where I want a duty/carry trigger.

Why Buy a Legacy APX?

That’s a fair question, however for the answer I’ll refer to the price point. Due to its legacy status, the Beretta APX Centurion is crazy affordable, as I mentioned above. I was able to find new in the box versions available online for $350. The highest price I saw was $450. If you’re breaking down pistol manufacturers in to quality tiers, there is no question Beretta is a Tier 1 manufacturer. The APX Centurion legacy models are available at Tier 3 prices, but you’re getting Tier 1 quality.

There are also reasons you shouldn’t buy a legacy APX. The lack of holster support from a wide group of manufacturers is one. The rail on the Centurion is too short for a TLR-7 to fit, which is really annoying. While I like the way it looks, the aesthetics of the slide serrations aren’t for everyone. They work really well, though.

beretta apx

The addition of the new APX semiautomatic pistol completes the full size pistol portfolio and makes Beretta one of the few manufacturers to offer full size polymer and metallic framed handguns in both hammer and striker fired operating systems.

Designed specifically for military and law enforcement operators, the APX has been put through extensive testing and evaluation at the professional end user level. The result is a pistol that delivers superior performance in durability and reliability, ergonomics, trigger, and modularity.

Utilizing a removable, serialized chassis frame, the APX can be easily modified with replaceable grip frame housings and is simple to disassemble and maintain.

Each APX comes with 3 interchangeable back straps so users can best fit their hands and preferences. The APX’s aggressive full length slide serrations make slide manipulations easy under any conditions. To accommodate right or left-handed use, the APX’s magazine release button can be easily reversed, and the slide stop is ambidextrous.

The APX’s trigger breaks at 6lbs and has a clear tactile and audible very short reset. The APX truly is the ultimate striker fired pistol from Beretta.

beretta apx

Each APX comes with 3 interchangeable back straps so users can best fit their hands and preferences. The APX’s aggressive full length slide serrations make slide manipulations easy under any conditions .

To accommodate right or left-handed use, the APX’s magazine release button can be easily reversed, and the slide stop is ambidextrous. The APX’s trigger breaks at 6lbs and has a clear tactile and audible very short reset. The APX truly is the ultimate striker fired pistol from Beretta.

• Aggressive Slide Serration
• Ambidextrous Slide Stop
• Interchangeable Back Straps
• Large Magazine Plate
• Low Bore Axis
• Modular Grip Frame Housing
• Picatinny Rail
• Reversible Magazine Release
• Striker De activator

At the 2018 NRA Annual Meetings, Beretta announced two new options for their APX striker-fired guns: The midsized APX Centurion and the slightly smaller (and, cue uninspired name) APX Compact. These releases are meant to fit somewhere in the Goldilocks zone of “just right” for concealed carriers.

We can’t really proceed without saying that Beretta is a tad late to the game with the release of the smaller APX pistols. While on the whole the shooting community has gained a whole lot of new and awesome plastic fantastics from the DoD Modular Handgun System (MHS) trials, the same benefit has yet to be seen for the companies themselves — outside of SIG SAUER, of course.

We’re probably being a bit unfair by calling them late to the market, as these options were announced slightly more than a year after the duty-sized APX hit the streets. At the same time, other manufacturers definitely beat them to the punch.

Getting Weird With it

The Centurion and APX Compact only differ in terms of the grip size. The Centurion is slightly longer and accepts flush-fit 15-round mags, while the APX Compact can only fit a 13-round magazine seamlessly. The barrel lengths are absolutely identical and easily interchanged.

Fullsize-duty APX slide on a compact frame? Totally doable. Sure, there’s some exposed recoil spring assembly, but that’s it. Want the same ballistic effect a longer barrel gives, but with a stubby slide? Throw a fullsize barrel in a Centurion or Compact. Yup. You can do that too.

The one mash-up you cannot do is throw a Compact slide on a fullsize frame a la Glock 19X. This isn’t because the barrel lockup is different (it isn’t), but because the recoil spring assembly of the compact just doesn’t quite fit inside the frame. Doubling the problem is that the Centurion/Compact frame is just slightly wider than the fullsize. Regardless, we like seeing a near-universal system (are you reading this, Glock?).

beretta apx

Hot Swapping

While switching the mag release around for the statistically insignificant left-handed population, we totally broke the mechanism. Normally, if a company is called and we’re told we’re the first to break something, we think it’s a lie. This time around, the uncomfortable pause and the exclamation of “really?!” made us believe it.

The story goes that you could put a Marine in a locked room with three ball bearings, 10 minutes later one of the ball bearings would be broken, one of them would be pregnant, and one of them would be missing. Beretta rep Eric Stern reminded of us this parable when we talked about what we broke. Hit the nail on the head.

Despite us breaking the mag release from going Mongo on it, Beretta was quick to send out a replacement. To sweeten the pot, they also included their new magazine spacers. And if you want to run a 17-round magazine in a Centurion? No gaps. The same can be said if you want to run a 15-rounder in the Compact.

There’s no active retention on the OEM magazine spacers; therefore, just slide out of the way if they aren’t already at the bottom of the magazine body. Something we particularly like is that each spacer has a flare at the bottom to hold the hand in place. They put something else in the envelope as a bonus: a reduced-power striker spring assembly.

For a striker-fired plastic fantastic, the trigger of the APX is pretty good. For 1911 fans, that falls somewhere between a custom-fit light trigger and an old-school USGI trigger that actually works. Call it better than a stock Gen3 Glock and a hair behind the new Gen5. That is to say, totally acceptable.

The reduced-power spring reduced trigger weight to just over 4 pounds. While we didn’t have any issues with the APX eating whatever we put through it, the general advice is to not use a reduced power spring for carry — but we’d be lying if we didn’t admit that some of our CCW guns have tricked-out triggers in them.

Some Warts

Whenever we shrink a gun down, we’re going to have some warts and eyesores, and in the case of the smaller  frames, it shows the most when it comes to weapon-mounted lights. While the fullsize APX can accommodate any number of WMLs, especially due to the straight trigger guard, the same cannot be said of the shorter-grip models.

SureFire X300U? Out of the question. Actually, we couldn’t find a single SureFire light, including the über-small XC-1/2 that fit the smaller frames. Streamlight fell prey to similar issues. In fact, the only WML tested that worked out of the box was the Insight APS-C.

You could get away with a Streamlight TLR-7, provided that you were confident with only screw pressure and no lug. No bueno. Quite frankly, we see this as an incredibly large oversight from Beretta.

Italian Weirdness

Because we’re talking about Beretta, there’s going to be some weirdness going on. We’re not sure if it’s because they’re an Italian company or just operate in Europe, but not everything makes sense immediately. For instance, let’s look at the striker-indicator.

As you pull the trigger of the APX, a small column pokes out from the top of the slide. If you’re a fan (or a hater) of the 92F/M9 series, you’ll probably recognize this feature. As far as we can tell, there’s little or no practical use for this striker indicator.

Beretta APX

GrabAGun

New

From $354.07

See Deal

If it was placed on the back of the slide, it could be used to ensure a trigger wasn’t being inadvertently or accidentally pulled while holstering, just like using a Glock “Gadget” or the hammer of an HK P30.

As it stands, to do the same in the current configuration would require the use of three hands and a crazy holstering methodology. If someone has any idea of its actual use, please let us know.

The APX has a striker release so the pistol can be taken down without pulling the trigger. Undoubtedly, this is in reaction to some law enforcement agency concerns about the Glock requiring the trigger to be pulled for a basic takedown.

Actually using this feature is cumbersome; it requires you to hold the slide back slightly out of battery, while using a tool to depress the plunger. Really, just ensure it’s clear and pull the trigger in a safe direction.

Another nuance of taking down the APX that may seem unconventional to those accustomed to other plastic fantastics is that you don’t lock the slide back to engage the takedown lever. However, if you’re familiar with the M9/92 you’ll be right at home.

You simply release the striker, push in the takedown lever from the left, and rotate it down on the right. The slide comes right off. Once again, we’re seeing some of those Italian genetics.

beretta apx

While field stripping and chassis removal is covered in the APX manuals, the same cannot be said of the slide. At the time of this writing, there isn’t a non-LEO APX Armorer’s Course, and Beretta doesn’t consider any of the slide internals to be user-serviceable. So, of course, we took it apart anyway.

We’re sure that Beretta HQ has specialized tools and jigs for completely stripping the slide, but we got by with a small flathead screwdriver and a skinny punch. The first few times were awkward, but now we could probably do it sh*thouse drunk in a snowstorm.