News Brief – 9/21

Beretta has been on a roll this past week, announcing an updated 1301 Tactical shotgun, the new M9A4, and the new 92X RO. 

The Enhanced 1301 Tactical still has all the things folks dig about the standard 1301 Tactical– enlarged controls, a cold hammer-forged, back-bored barrel; and Beretta’s ultrafast BLINK gas operating system with a cross tube gas piston that allows for 36 percent faster cycling than its competition– but finally delivers a 7+1 capacity (when using 2.75-inch shells) from the factory, a new M-LOK compatible barrel clamp with dual integral QD Sling swivels and an optional (and fully adjustable) Mesa Tactical Urbino pistol grip stock.

The Enhanced 1301 Tactical retails for an MSRP of $1,429, with the pistol grip variant hitting $1,449. 

With the production of M9 for the military ending after a 37-year run, Beretta just released the new 4th Generation M9A4 model to the public.

With the same slim M1911-style grip of the Vertec series, it has a threaded barrel and a slide cut for optics, making it both suppressor- and (kinda) MRD-ready right out of the box.

It also has new-pattern 18-shot mags (but is compatible with the millions of older models floating around), an accessory rail, and a G-series slide (safety lever, not safety decocker like the F-series).

Beretta also says they have improved the factory trigger to the short reset “Xtreme Trigger System,” and it comes with the same excellent ergo and grip texturing that the 92X series brought to market a couple of years ago. Downside? It runs $1,099 and ships without mounting plates, only with a plate cover installed.

While this alleviates the owner having five different plates floating around their pistol box, it is a bummer that you must buy your plate separately (which they may not have in stock) after the fact.

The new 92X RDO, which they really should have introduced in 2019 when they debuted the four guns in the 92X series, comes with a red-dot optic ready slide and dovetailed combat sights.

As you may have guessed, the standard 92Xs do not have optics cuts. It also comes with two of the new 18-round mags that the M9A4 was just released in. The Beretta 92X RDO is now available for purchase and retails for an MSRP of $699.

That sweet price comes with the caveat that, also like the M9A4, you must buy the optic plate you want separately. 

While we don’t normally cover much suppressor news, the Utah-based can maker has been making some excellent short films in the past couple of months in what they call the “American Gun” series.

They aren’t what you expect and aren’t a lot of chest-thumping, energy drinks, and apple pie, just hanging out with normal folks to get their feelings on guns. So far, they have released “The Realtor,” “The Farmer,” and “The Riflesmith” in the series. There are far worse ways to spend eight minutes at a time on YouTube.

Sig Sauer is one of the biggest and best-positioned competitors for the Army’s futuristic Next Generation Squad Weapons program, which aims to replace the 5.56 NATO M4 carbine and M249 SAW in military service.

A big part of the program is that the new guns are full-time suppressor hosts, a requirement that means they must have some really tough cans.

The suppressors developed by Sig for the NGSW program, the SLX (5.56 or 7.62 NATO caliber) and SLH (7.62 NATO or 300BLK caliber) series, are now available for discerning gun buyers who are into quiet time. 

They feature a monolithic core construction in either Inconel or Titanium, an internal multi-flow path to exhaust gases at a higher rate resulting in lower toxic fume inhalation (always a plus), a flash reducing end cap, and are available with either the new Clutch-Lock QD mounting system or direct thread. 

 Sorry, no MSRP. If you have to ask…

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