40 S&W protection round
What bullet weight would be best for the 40 S&W out of a three inch barrel?
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155gr HP..golden saber,fed hydroshock,ect 0 -
Most all of the premium JHP stuff that I have run across is 180 Grain. The sell it in 20 & 25 round boxes. Make sure you function test it in your pistol though. I have had problems with some of the blunt nose JHP stuff in G 23 magazines. The flat blunt nose has a tendency to jam on the front inside surface of the mag body. Immediate action pulling back on the slide clears the jamb usually. Appears to be a common problem with the G 23 followers though, as the engineering change is up to number 8. 0 -
These should feed good and stop anybody you need to stop.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=2074888920 -
quote:Originally posted by babun
These should feed good and stop anybody you need to stop.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=207488892
$1.25 per round shipped, is kind of spendy IMHO. Check out the Winchester Ranger, LEO overrun stuff. If you can't find it on our auctions, a number of on-line dealers carry it. It's in the lighter bullet weights, but the price per 50 round box are quite appealing.0 -
quote:Originally posted by 5mmgunguy
What bullet weight would be best for the 40 S&W out of a three inch barrel?
Whichever one you're most comfortable with that functions reliably through your gun is "best".
Honestly, I don't think it makes all that much of a difference, and I think people spend WAY too much energy worrying about this stuff.
80% of it is where you put the bullet, 15% of it is the caliber, and about 5% is which individual load within a given caliber.
I'd say you're not going to go wrong with a "standard" 165 or 155 grain premium defense type .40SW round. If that works for you, you're done.
There is a bunch of surplus 135 grain ammo out there on the market right now that is cheap, uses a premium bullet, and that basically gives you ballistics like a hot 9mm +p. That could be good from a smaller gun since recoil is a bit reduced (ie faster followup shots) and the ammo is priced right.
180 grain could work too, though as mentioned the slightly longer bullet length doesn't work well in every gun, and I think the longer bullet can promote setback of the bullet in the case under recoil (think "kaboom").0 -
5mmgunguy,
My experience has been 155's for "best knockdown". That is (really) limited scientific results from knocking over weighted targets. You get the most speed out of the 155's while still providing enough weight to maintain the energy level.0 -
quote:Originally posted by sandwarrior
5mmgunguy,
My experience has been 155's for "best knockdown". That is (really) limited scientific results from knocking over weighted targets. You get the most speed out of the 155's while still providing enough weight to maintain the energy level.
I can't comment on which .40SW offer the best "knockdown" (see below).
What I can say is that "knockdown", ie, the ability to knock over weighted targets), is directly proportionate to the projectiles momentum, or what the IPSC people call "power factor". In terms of basic physics, its a product of the bullets weight and velocity.
Many authorities believe, and I think with good reason, that while imperfect, this is the single best physical measurement correlating with stopping power against living targets. It works better than kinetic energy, which is a product of mass and the square of velocity, that tends to favor lighter bullets at high speeds.
As to which .40SW rounds offer the highest momentum, I don't know. You'd have to look at the ballistic tables for that, or lacking them, just multiply the bullets weight in grains by its velocity and seen which loads give you the highest numbers.
Again, if you did this, I think you'd find that within a given bullet weight, there isn't all that much of a difference in performance between different premium brands. The "super-premium" brands like Corbon, Double-tap, etc, will give you higher velocities and more energy/momentum, but will also deliver more recoil and cost quite a bit more, too.
The problem with just looking at the numbers is that it doesn't take into account bullet design *at all*. Its debatable how much expanding bullets from handguns really change thingsm and its also debatable which manufacturers' bullets are the "best".
Again, my personal opinion on this is:
a. Despite the internet and advertising chatter, differences in terminal ballistic performance between similar premium loads from different manufacturers are likely to be fairly small. All of them are going to launch similar weight bullets are more or less the same speed. Nobody has a "magic bullet" and in fact all handgun rounds are intrinsically low-powered.
b. Its somewhere between extremely hard and impossible to objectively measure terminal ballistic performance of these rounds to know which (if any) product is the "best".
You can't shoot 1000 people which each round under laboratory conditions to see what happens! What you can do is try to measure penetration of the loads through various standardized materials: ballistic gelatin, denim, wood, with the idea that these are going to simulate what might happen if the bullet hits a person. Different testing labs have their own procedures/formulas to try to evaluate performance this way, but I don't think anybody has validated a method that exactly replicates terminal ballistics in a human target.
The point is in the real world its virtually impossible even to know which round is the "best". What works best against an anorectic dwarf in the summer, may not be the best round against an intoxicated obese football player in a winter coat!
c. Even the "worst" .40SW round is going to put a LOT of hurt on whomever gets hit with one, assuming the shooter does his part.
For example, even a low end target/practice load (eg full metal jacket Winchester "white box" off the shelf of Walmart) is still going to put out a 165 grain projectile at over 1000 feet per second.
Compare to say, a 158 grain .357 magnum round doing 1200 feet per second from a 4" bbl revolver, and I think you'll see that even the weakest .40SWs are nothing to sneeze at.0 -
I switched from 180 to 155 grain. I thought a little more velocity would cause more hydro shock!. Placement will be most important. Any good quality defensive that functions reliably through YOUR pistol will work.
Hornady, Speer, Magtech, Federal, Winchester and Remington(plus more) make defense/police ammo.0
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