You see, your problem is that you need to increase your price range!
I bit the bullet (so to speak) and bought a CX4 when it was still fairly new. I took it out on the range with a friend of mine and got a disparaging comment from his father about the thing (expensive silly plastic canoli shooter - let's see if it melts after two magazines, &c...) and promptly shut him up by sticking the first three rounds through the same hole at about 20 yards with the stock iron sights. Sights shot a little low out of the box, but windage was dead on and the thing was scarily, eerily accurate.
The only complaint I have about it is that the magazine insertion is 'funny', for lack of a better word. The angle at which you need to insert the magazine isn't readily apparent and if you do it wrong it tends to bind, but maybe that's because mine was new and I hadn't worn it in or something.
I've since bought an aftermarket 50 (!) round magazine for it off of Cheaper than Dirt (this was a while ago, before the AWB expired, so it was a big deal then!) and failed to melt the gun with it and the two stock ten rounders (and the two free fifteeners I got via the coupon that came with the gun) as predicted.
The Storm is beautifully built, highly accurate, fits and points really well, and takes regular M92 magainzes (which can be a plus or a minus, depending on what your sidearm is). Interesting tidbit is that magazine adapters are out there for it that run about 15 bucks and will let you load Cougar mags into it if you like (also the mags for the new PX4).
Interesting that this topic comes up, as I should be getting my Storm back from the police (
) this Friday.
I handled a bunch of other carbines before I bought that thing including the Kel-Tec and the Hy-point 9mm carbine, and neither impressed me. The Hy-point (is that how you spell it?) just didn't seem to shoulder right and the construction was very squeaky. The stock and foregrip flexed and audibly squeaked when handling the gun. It felt like it should be a cheap airsoft rifle or something.
And the Kel-Tec didn't seem well enough built to justify the price next to the Storm, though I hear it's a very nice gun in and of itself. And the folding feature was sort of nifty and almost sold me on it. Also, it takes plain jane Glock mags which you can buy by the bucketfull these days, including high caps.
