March 2011 Archives

I haven't been blogging much the last few days because I've been spending my free time at the reloading bench. Got 2100 rounds of 9mm done with my new WST load.

It was kind of aggravating there at the end because I have a lot of brass from cheap brands and had issues with primers not wanting to seat all the way. I finally had to pick out the Privi and S&B brass because it was just too much hassle. Maybe I'll get bored someday and ream the primer pockets.

Anyway, it's done and I probably won't do too much more reloading before summer gets here. I try not to load at all during summer because it's too damned hot in the garage. Luckily, I got nice Smith and Wesson 2206 recently, so I can practice with cheaper .22LR and save my "real" bullets for matches and classes. I'll do a review on it after a few more range sessions.

I'm free to talk about the case now, since it is over. Yes, I did get picked to be a juror. I was shocked!

Turned out to be a big waste of everyone's time and tax dollars. It took us all of 5 minutes to unanimously rule for the defendant.

The plaintiff ran out in front of a moving car, and tried to claim that the defendant was 2/3rds responsible for the accident. None of us agreed.

I will say if I'm ever sued, the defense attorney in this case would probably be the first attorney I would call. He's probably not cheap, but he's definitely worth it. He kicked ass.

After the ruling was read, the defendant wept openly, and not only that, after the case she and her attorney met us after it was over and thanked us. I can assure you that none of us expected that, and it had no factor in our decision. It was kind of nice though, and I'm glad I was able to be part of justice at work.

Still, I hope to hell I am never called to serve on a jury again!

Well, I had planned on not drinking until April 1st, but at the time I hadn't planned on taking a vacation either.

So, I'm taking a break from taking a break, and am going to imbibe some this weekend.

I picked up some new fuel for the kegerator, Real Ale Fireman's #4. Gonna watch some basketball and drink some beer. Maybe order a pizza, who knows?

As promised, here is my load for 9mm using Winchester Super Target powder with chronograph data.

I actually have two loads for this with two different bullets. They are both target/plinking loads and a little on the low side for velocity, which is making the spread larger. Grouping is excellent though, so I'm ok with it. More powder should tighten it up.

Load #1

Bullet: 115 gr FMJ from Delta Precision
Powder: 3.7 grains WST
Primer: Winchester Small Pistol
Brass: mixed
COL: 1.15 in.

Avg feet per second: 1019.76
Std Dev: 25.13
Min: 974
Max: 1083

Load #2

Bullet: 115 gr JHP from Zero Bullets
Powder: 3.7 grains WST
Primer: Winchester Small Pistol
Brass: mixed
COL: 1.08 in.

Avg feet per second: 1033.81
Std Dev: 32.64
Min: 968
Max: 1104

Test Gun

Smith & Wesson M&P 40 Pro with KKM 9mm Conversion Barrel (5" barrel)

I've gone as high as 4.4 grains of WST with both of these bullets, but I don't have chronograph data for that. It really didn't shoot any better, and didn't merit the extra recoil since these are for practice, so I settled on 3.7 grains. I think 4.4 grains would probably be about perfect for a medium velocity 9mm load.

Couple of pics

Leaving in the morning for Ruidoso, NM. We're going to stop at Fossil Rim and Carlsbad Caverns so the kids will have some interesting stuff to observe and won't go totally insane on the way there.

In a way this is kind of lucky, but on the way home from the kids' teeball practice tonight I noticed a really weird sound coming from under the hood. I got out a length of brass rod and determined it was the alternator. So, $160 later and the noise is gone and hopefully we won't have any car trouble. I'm glad it happened before the trip, there's some places in West Texas and New Mexico where if you broke down it would be a long and expensive tow.

New Mexico is an open carry state, and I think I'm going to take advantage of that on our day hike. I'm personally of the opinion that most of the time concealed carry is the better method, but out in the wilderness is one of those times where it's more of a liability. Unfortunately, all the stuff for my .45 Super conversion didn't arrive in time, so I'll be carrying the M&P and Double Tap's 200 grain 40S&W load. I think it will be fine as the odds of needing it are very low as it is, and if it meets their claims, it's a hell of a stout load for .40S&W. Plus I get 16 rounds of it without a mag change, vs. 9 rounds of .45 Super. I also have a lot more trigger time on my M&P of late, so that's a good thing too. (One of these days I need to make room in the budget for a true woods gun, something with more than enough oomph to knock a mean critter's nose in the dirt.)

So, anyway, see y'all in about 5 days. We've gone west!

It's almost spring break time, and this year we're going to visit my grandparents in New Mexico. While there we are going to do a day hike and picnic in the Lincoln National Forest, so I'd like to have something with a little more stopping power should any 4-legged critters decide we would make a good lunch. I really don't think there's anything to worry about (if I did, I wouldn't go), but always be prepared as they say.

Ideally I'd have something like a Ruger Alaskan, but I don't and can't really justify the cost for one day of activity where I probably won't need it anyway.

I have full sized pistols in 9mm, .40S&W, and a couple of 1911's in .45ACP. I could also pick up a .357 Sig barrel for my .40S&W. The 9mm is definitely out. That leaves .357 Sig, .40S&W, and my 1911's

I thought about the .357 Sig pretty hard, the whole concept behind the cartridge is near .357 Magnum power out of an autoloader. I wouldn't need anything else except for a barrel, but S&W doesn't offer a factory .357 Sig in the Pro/L lineup so that means a fairly expensive aftermarket barrel is needed. So I ruled that out.

I have some .45ACP loads using 230 grain Hornady XTP bullets that I've loaded to "+P" velocity. I am getting around 875 fps if I recall correctly. I think these would work better if they weren't JHP bullets though. I haven't done any expansion tests on these myself, but I would expect some expansion and hence less penetration from these. Also there's the whole issue of the possibility of having to use these against 2-legged predators and the legal ramifications thereof that Mr. Ayoob is always talking about. Still, if I had to leave right this second, I would take these as they are probably the best of what I have right now..

That brings me to .40S&W, I decided to pick up some of Double Tap's 200 gr hard cast bullets as kind of a back up in case my chosen setup (more on that later) didn't work. They give the following data on the load:

990fps   435 ft/lbs from a 3.5"bbl.
1050fps 490 ft/lbs- Glock 23 (4.0"bbl)
1100fps 538 ft/lbs from a 4.5"bbl.

I'm guessing with my 5" barrel I could pick up another 50 fps, which comes close to some 10mm loadings, although still short of a max 10mm load. That bullet at that velocity should penetrate pretty well, and would probably be fairly acceptable for a woods gun closer to my home where the closest thing to dangerous game is coyotes and feral hogs.

So what did I settle on? .45 Super. With a few new springs in one of my 1911's I should be able to shoot this modern update of the .45ACP cartridge. The .460 Rowland would be a better option, but the kit is about $300, and I couldn't really justify that vs. $20 in springs. I picked up Buffalo Bore's loading that uses a 255 grain hard cast bullet that is advertised at making 1090 fps in a Colt Gold Cup. That's roughly 685 ft/lbs of energy and should penetrate deeply.

It's not .44 Mag territory, but 685 ft/lbs is right up there with 10mm which makes an ok woods gun, plus it was only $20 (and cost of the ammo) which makes it a fairly cheap option.

Most pistols are capable of functioning even after a lack of maintenance, but eventually it will lead to problems. How often should you clean a carry gun?

I don't know, to be honest, but here's what I do.

I clean my carry gun once a month regardless of whether or not I've shot it, or rather my goal is to clean it once a month. It does not always happen that way, but that's my goal. The reason is that in my opinion carrying a gun is probably harder on a gun than anything else, even shooting it. Lint gets into everything, the moisture from your body can promote rust, and the lubricant seems to magically disappear over time.

Should I happen to shoot my carry gun, I don't necessarily clean it immediately. It's a judgment call. Things like round count, ammo type, and even how smooth the slide feels when I rack it are considered.

I admit, I probably clean more than is really needed, but one benefit of frequent cleaning is that it takes far less time to clean than if you let a bunch of crud build up in there. Another is that it gives you a chance to function test everything. We should never depend on a mechanical safety to prevent accidents, but it's a good idea to make sure they're working as intended and the gun will fire when needed.

There are times when you should clean ASAP. If you ever drop a pistol into mud or water, clean it as soon as you can. If you've shot ammo with corrosive primers, you need to get the bore clean as soon as you can (I've read you can squirt some windex into the bore after shooting to neutralize the corrosive agents.) There's probably some others I can't think of right now, too.

One thing I think that people neglect that they really should clean more frequently is the magazines. Many pistol failures can be traced back to dirty or bad magazines, so I pay special attention to them. (When I got my first pistol I was ignorant of this myself and after three thousand rounds through only 2 magazines, I had some problems do to that.) If you're at the range with your carry gun, keep a spare magazine off to the side for use getting home. It's not a bad idea to rotate magazines from carry to range use after a while either.

I'm working up a new 9mm load for plinking and practice using WST powder. There's a gentleman on a lot of gun forums who is kind of the WST prophet. Per his posts I tried WST in .45ACP and it's pure awesome. Soft-shooting, clean, and meters exceptionally well.

I recently worked up a very minor load in .40S&W for my gaming load. It's soft-shooting as well but a little on the dirty side because it's very low pressure and the powder doesn't burn as completely.

The manufacturer doesn't list any loads for WST in 9mm, but I found some loads that other people have tried, and based mine off that. Going to start pretty low, and am working up in .1 grain increments.

Hoping to get a nice load with moderate to light recoil that isn't dirty, and shoots to point of aim with my sights.

I'll post more details after I get a chance to try it.

Update

Here is the entry with the data.