December 2010 Archives

I tried out my .40S&W handloads this morning. I like 'em, but to get a true mousefart style load I think the powder may need to be dropped as much .5 grains. I don't think I will do that until I can get a reduced power recoil spring though.

I wanted to practice drawing and firing the M&P, and transitions, but everyone and their dog was at the range today, so I ended up at the 25/50 yard range. I made the best of it and worked on long distance shots. I wouldn't say I did great at that range, but out of the 3 guns I have ever owned that would be legal in Production (XD 45, Glock 17, M&P 40 Pro), this one did the best at that distance.

When I got home the goodies I ordered from Apex were waiting for me. I replaced the striker block, the sear, and added their RAM. I am impressed. Big difference for not too much money and time. I still have some springs and such that came with the kit that I am probably not going to install. The weight is probably around 4 lbs, and it breaks and resets nicely. The overall length of pull is basically the same though. I wouldn't mind a shorter trigger, but without a safety I wouldn't feel comfortable with it.

I'm going to try not to have too much fun tonight so that I can make the match tomorrow morning.

I loaded up 200 rounds last night, hopefully I will get a chance to chrono them this weekend, but these aren't max loads by any means so it's not that important. Normally, I wouldn't load up 200 rounds of something I hadn't tried before, but there's a match on Jan 1st that I need ammo for, and these are very close to a book load. (I may not make the match though, depends on how much fun I have on New Year's Eve.)

These are designed to be light loads for use in USPSA Production division. I expect them to be somewhere around a 145 power factor.

Here is the base load data from Hodgdon:

Bullet Weight (Gr.)

Manufacturer

Powder

Bullet Diam.

C.O.L.

Grs.

Vel. (ft/s)

Pressure

Grs.

Vel. (ft/s)

Pressure

180 GR. HDY XTP

Winchester

WST

.400"

1.125"

3.9

830

28,300 PSI

4.3

888

32,400 PSI

My load is 3.7 grains of WST, with a slightly longer COL @ 1.126. The primer I am using is Winchester Small Pistol (WSP), the bullet is a Zero 180 grain JHP, and the brass is mixed range pickup. I expect around 800 fps out of this. It can be as low as 695 fps and still make minor power factor.

The M&P Pro really tames the recoil of the .40S&W as it is, so I expect these to be very low recoiling. 

I've been wanting to shoot Production in USPSA for a while now, but I don't actually own any guns eligible for that class. See, I'm a 1911 guy, and I while I've owned a number of guns that would work in Production, I never keep them around very long.

That could still be the case here, but nevertheless, here's my new Production gun. (I'm not sure if this model is technically legal for Production yet, but I reckon at the club level no one is going to care, and I'm pretty sure if it isn't legal it will be soon.) It's a Smith and Wesson M&P 40 Pro.

Likes:

The feel of it. It doesn't feel like a brick like a lot of double stack polymer guns do.

Interchangeable grip inserts. I've found that the smallest grip feels the best in my hands, but the largest grip yields a better trigger pull. I'm sticking with large for now.

Grip texture. Very grippy without being rough. Have to see if I still like it in the hot summer with sweaty hands though.

Sights. Just the way I like 'em, black rear with a wide notch, and a fiber optic front. I'd spec a little narrower front if I was doing this custom, but it's close enough that it's not worth changing.

Capacity. I like how they crammed 15 rounds of .40S&W in a magazine that is hardly much bigger than my 9mm Hi-Power's 15 round magazine. (I know 15 rounds of .40S&W in a magazine isn't some new thing, but still cool to me.)

Dislikes:

The trigger blows. I knew that going in, but I was hoping the Pro Series would be a huge improvement over the standard M&P, it isn't in my opinion. Like I said, I'm a 1911 guy and am spoiled. It compares pretty favorably to my Hi-Power's trigger though. It actually resets without letting it all the way out, and you can feel the reset. I know Apex makes all kinds of doodads to improve the trigger, so that is an option, and I'm sure it will improve as it breaks in.

That's about it for now. I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet.

Now for the porn:

I have to admit, I've never been a big fan of the .40S&W cartridge from a self-defense standpoint. It has more muzzle flip than a 9mm, and the difference in "stopping power" is not significant enough to offset that in my opinion. If you want a bigger bullet, and I tend to fall in that category myself, the .45ACP is bigger and recoils less (recoil is subjective, but I think most people would agree with that statement if they tried both). It's kind of a middle of the road cartridge. Bigger than 9mm, but smaller than .45ACP. Larger magazine capacities than a .45ACP gun, but less than a 9mm.

When you start getting into USPSA though, the .40S&W begins to gain some advantages. With reloads designed for competition and not for self-defense, the .40S&W becomes a soft shooting cartridge (I have read that it can be loaded to shoot even softer than 9mm), that still has enough momentum to knock over a popper that you might have hit a little low. In Limited class, it's the smallest caliber that makes major power factor, so you get major scoring vs. minor scoring for a 9mm, and more rounds than a .45ACP gun.

So, I ordered a new gun in .40S&W (more on that later this week), and all the accoutrement that goes along with it and spent the morning setting up my reloading press for the new caliber. It's been a while since I had to do that, so it took a fair amount of time. I hadn't used the press in a number of months either, so that meant I had to spend some time cleaning it up and getting it prepped.



One of the things that took the longest was modding the shell plate so that it ejected consistently. Hornady has supposedly fixed that with their new ejector thingy, but I have the older model which has problems ejecting pistol cases unless you grind and polish the shell plates.



I haven't settled on a recipe yet, but it will probably be loaded just enough to make minor power factor since I plan on using it in Production at first. I have settled on a bullet, a 180 grain JHP from Zero bullets.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

The Guardians: I thought it was ok. The wife liked it. The kids lost interest in it pretty quick. I could have sworn that Elijah Wood was the voice of the lead owl.

Dawn Treader: I liked the first Narnia movie, but the sequels have been disappointing. This was a continuation of that.

Inception: I really liked this movie.  Very cool premise, and you're never quite sure where fantasy ends and reality begins. (Ok, it's a movie, so none of it is reality, but if you see it you'll understand what I mean.)

If you watch any of the political shows you'll hear that phrase thrown out ad nauseum from the left, I guess it polled better than "tax cuts for the rich" ...

I've also heard that apparently we're going deeper in debt because we're giving tax cuts to Warren Buffet.

Think about that for a moment.

It strongly implies that we're giving money to people like him, that we have to borrow the money we give them, that we're actually cutting taxes, and that "millionaires and billionaires" don't pay their fair share.

All of those are false.

We're not giving money to them, we're not taking as much. Wealth does not flow from the government to the people, it flows from us to them, by force I might add. (And then they waste it.)

Since we're not giving people money, it does not follow that we have to borrow money to give to them. The reason we are borrowing money is because spending exceeds income. (I'm fully confident in Congress' ability to spend more than it takes in, regardless of how much it takes in.)

The proposed plan is not cutting taxes at all. It keeps rates the same. (I guess being against "keeping rates the same for millionaires and billionaires" didn't poll very well for their side.)

The top 1% of the population by income pays 40.4% of all income taxes, or to put it another way, more than the bottom 95% combined.

I think we need to figure out what services are really necessary, what is the cost of those services, and what is the most efficient way to collect that amount that impacts the economy the least, basically the exact opposite of what we're doing.

I went up to the range on Saturday to get some practice in before Sunday's match, turns out, the match was Saturday and was already well under way when I got there. Oh well ...

Anyway, one of the things I wanted to do was shoot my carry gun (Rock Island Armory Tactical) in it's extremely lint covered state. If you carry a gun concealed, you'll find that it eventually gets lint all over it, and in it. I try to clean my carry guns once a month, but this gun had been carried over 2 months with nothing more than being wiped down a few times, and when I had cleaned it, I did a "top end" cleaning where the slide comes off, and is cleaned, but the frame is not taken apart. So in reality the frame had probably not been cleaned in 6 months of carrying. As time went on, I thought it would be good to see what would happen if I had to use it.

So, what happened?

Nothing to speak of really. It shot fine. Two magazines and no malfunctions. (Two magazines is not a very thorough test, but in reality I never carry more than two magazines so what happens after that is kind of a moot point.)

Then I got home and proceeded to do a full break down and cleaning. The screw in the magazine release was stuck and didn't want to turn but I eventually was able to work it out and get the frame apart. The trigger bow was covered in black oily lint. Some of that lint probably worked it's way into the magazine release, which would explain why it was so hard to get out. There was some lint in the rails on the frame and the grooves in the slide too. Other than that, nothing unusual.

I'm glad that I had I needed it, it would have worked. (I dry fire it from time to time, so I was pretty sure it was going to work or I would have carried something else.)  I'm also sure there are people that clean their carry guns much less frequently and have never had a problem, but lint isn't supposed to be in your gun, and it can't be helping anything. I'll be doing complete cleanings more frequently now.