This might be a dumb question to ask. Anyways, I have read several articles about shooting 180 gr could eventually damage your 40 S&W due to the high pressures it causes. I own a G23 Gen 4. and she's my babe. I just want to feed her the right stuff. Am I just being paranoid or what. Your thoughts..... Thanks in advance.
I have a gen 3 G23 and prefer the 180 grain. Ii have never had any problem out of it. Just my experience. You may be right tho. I'm interested to see what everyone else ha to say
If it is factory ammo, they will load the powder lower than a normal .40 because of the fact that it can create too much pressure if there is an accidental overload. You should not have a problem with 180 gr. factory ammo, but the recoil will not be the same as most carry ammo because of the fact that they load it a little weak.
Haha, it isn't really mine, but I thought it was awesome. It would be pretty cool to have for some shooting videos.
I have to disagree with that, that the factory will download a cartridge in case of an accidental overload. Rounds that are factory produced are rund thur the mill an a load is worked up for that specific round using certain powders and primers to meet power factor requirements for that round and it's design. All loading charges are ensured they meet strict requirements of SAMMI and other manufacture guidelines to my knowledge. Pistol/revolver gun powder has to burn extremely fast and produce a lot of gases in a short amount of time to ensure the projectile gets the correct amount of pressure requirements so it can leave the barrel and reach it's intended target range. While it happens rarely problems do occur but they aren't going to short change every round in case of a overload.
180gr is known to have 1 major problem. The bullet is still the same size as the 180gr 10mm but in a smaller casing. The issue this causes is that there is less room for gas expansion behind the bullet so it becomes very hard for manufacturers to maintain the correct pressure for SAMMI spec so they maintain a slightly lower pressure that is easier to maintain across rounds. Because of this, the 165gr bullet has become very popular as it provides more expansion room inside the case which in turn allows the manufacturers to maintain the correct pressure for SAMMI spec on every round. This leads to more potential energy for the bullet and higher muzzle velocity. I use to use almost exclusively 180gr bullets till I read the recent ballistics test document where the FBI defined their reasoning in the conclusion for switching to the 165gr PDX1 as their standard service round, It was a good read.
I was speaking specifically about 180 gr 40 Smith and Wesson. I wasn't very descriptive haha. And I meant that they lower the powder load in case of an overload. The 180 gr was not really designed for 40 but for the longer case of the 10mm.
Go 180 gr all day long as long as its not Remington Golden Sabers garbage the 165 are killers tho. [ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=McmpqPMRlmg[/ame]
I know F.B.I used to shoot lighter 10mm 180 grain loads, due to the lack of a good 10mm pistol. This was before the Glock 20 was introduced. They used the lighter load to avoid damaging the 10mm handguns available at the time. There is a really good article in the 2007 Glock Annual, titled " Glock's Perfect 10". I have shot 180 grain .40 in my G. 27 on several occasions with no problems. Except on one trip to the range, my friend was shooting my 27 with 180 grain rounds. About to clips in the after market plug for the gap on the bottom of the grip fell out. I told my friend he broke my Glock, and it was not a fixable part. He got a distressed look in his face, and offered to go down to the gun shop below the range and buy me a new Glock. I laughed and put the plug back in. He looked very relieved, and used a few choice words. I thanked him for being a good friend, and we shot another 100 rounds. That's about the only 180 grain .40 issue I have ever had : )
As to the fbi using the 10 mm 180gr, you are not 100% correct. They have 2 loads that they used. 10mm 180gr Full and 10mm 180gr FBI Mid. The difference in these 2 loads is the amount of powder. The FBI felt their agents were having issues not with the round breaking the gun, but with the round being too hot. IE, it penetrated too far (16+ inches on avg) and had too much felt recoil. The FBI Mid is the same powder charge weight that is used used in the SAMMI spec 180gr .40sw. The FBI mid 10mm and .40 sw have almost the same characteristics with the .40 being slightly lighter and easier to carry which lead to the FBI switching to the .40.
I am sorry, I was trying to say that they used the 180 grain rounds in 10mm, because the full 10mm load was to hard on the S&W 10mm that they had at the time. Sorry if I put incomplete or wrong info in my post. Probably should have read article again before I posted. I will be more careful in the future.
^This. And, with 180gr, there's little to no room for error in loading the powder charge. Too much powder, too much pressure and kB. I shoot and carry only 165gr in my .40s.
Depends on the powder used. I use UNIQUE which is slower burning powder. To make Major in USPSA i use 5.5 gr's which fills the case about 3/4 of the way and is well within SAAMI specs. Besides there is Plenty of room for bullet seating and if i double charge, the case overflows...so a built in fail-safe against double charges.
