Any experiences good or bad? Will be mostly for the nightstand/road trips/range. I am trying to stay sub $500 any quality firearms I am looking past?

Both excellent handguns, so there isn't enough con's on either one to recommend one over the other. I would say that if you can only get one, get the one that fits your hand the best. Or at least fits your wallet.

If you are in the Brazos Valley area, call Independence Firearms near Brenham and see if they still have any FN FNP9's on sale. If you can find one on sale, it would be an excellent choice. I prefer this one over the PX4 or the SR, but only because of it's shape.

Another excellent choice is the Stoeger Cougar, if it fits your hand. These run about $399.

My girlfriend has a PX4 Storm 9mm that she wants to sell. It only has about 100 rounds through it. She does not like the it fits in her hand. Let me know if you are interested 210.748.1629 text me.

Get an M&P. You won't regret it.

We have a px4 I personally dont like the grip feel yet my dad is in love with the gun! Which works out great bc I ended up with the 92fs!

I love my PX4. I've had it for about 4 years now and no issues at the range.

I own an SR9 and have multiple friends who have the PX4. Biggest difference is the feel of the gun in your hand. Go test them out and see which one feels best. Both are great guns you will be happy with.

Thanks for the feedback. I will go try them out and add the M&P to the mix.

Scotty, I'll send you a text once I have tried them out to see if the PX4 is still available.

I prev owned a PX4 in 40. I have one in 9mm now. It's the only polymer handgun I own. I personally prefer metal guns with replacable grips (so I can put rubber grips on the gun).

But, it's a great gun, and the only polymer gun I want, after previously owning several other makes and models over the years. Very reliable and not much recoil

I will caution you on the SR9/SR9c, having owned one for a year and shot the crap out of it. I found mine to be a pain to work on, as I had continual problems with a camblock retainer spring not holding the camblock pin and and the magazine catch pin walking out every hundred or so rounds.

Also, I took a 16 hr combat handgun class a couple of weekends ago and the guy with the SR9 was having all sorts of malfunctions with his (though mine never had any problems except for the rare light strike).

All the M&Ps (including mine) and glocks in that class ran like champs as you would expect them to.

One of the other reasons I upgraded to an M&P is the availability of parts and accessories for it (good choice of aftermarket sights, bladetech training barrel, airsoft replicas for FoF, etc.)

If you are just going to occasionally plink with it, it is a good gun and fit my hand better than anything else I have ever picked up. If you are doing anything serious with it, I'd recommend looking elsewhere.

[This message has been edited by 96AustinAg (edited 10/27/2011 2:01p).]

Can we also include the XDM 9 compact in this discussion?

I am trying to stay away from compacts as this won't be a carried. My wife will be co-user as it will be a night stand piece, so I was enticed by the grip descriptions of SR9 and PX4 and the lower felt recoil descriptions. I won't be using it for law enforcement or extended combat. But I do want it to be reliable enough that when the time comes that she may need to dump 17 rounds it won't fail her.

She will be going on the test fire with me as I want her to be completely comfortable with it as I can deal with it if it is not perfectly comfortable for me. The wide Glock type grips are out as I already know she is very uncomfortable with them.

I can second the Stoeger Cougar. I have one and love it. It is essentially an aluminum framed Px4 (adds a little more weight) the exact same slide and rotating barrel. They even come with Beretta Mags made in Italy (back from when the Cougar was still branded under Beretta before cost drove them to ship everything to their Turkish plant)

I really love this gun but have your wife hold it (an the Px4) if she will be shooting. The grips is not wide but it is fairly deep front to back and not really a small hands friendly weapon.

Oh also the Cougar is about $200 - $250 cheaper than the Px4 if I remember correctly.

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I am trying to stay sub $500 any quality firearms I am looking past?

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Glock,Springfield XD, and Kahr are all in this price range. As well as some Ruger and Smith revolvers.

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If you are in the Brazos Valley area, call Independence Firearms near Brenham and see if they still have any FN FNP9's on sale.

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Affirmative.

Figure out what fits your hand, buy it, use it, clean it.

FYI - M&Ps have interchangeable backstraps. I use the small backstrap to get close to the grip size that my SR9c had.

Thanks for the insights. This will be a purchase to add to my collection that will be a little more grip friendly for the rib. I don't have a lot of spare time to "shop" so I appreciate all of your insights.

After browsing the ob I have decided to get two hi points and a tek9.

I believe the SR9 has two springs in the slide. When the slide is racked back and open, the release button is hard to operate with the thumb, making it difficult to reload with a new magazine quickly. My hands/thumb are strong and I found this feature of the SR9 a big surprise.

On the Ruger it is a slide STOP, not a slide release. Sometimes they loosen with wear but it is not designed to be a slide release.

The other key difference is hammer vs striker fired. The PX4 is hammer fired and has a great "decocker" feature on the safety that allows you to safely decock with a round in the chamber. I am unsure if the striker-fired SR9 has anything similar.