S&W 9mm FPC. Any thoughts on loads?

Hi Gang!
I've been out of the loop here for quite a long time, and really haven't reloaded for about the same amount of it.
I still have lots of handloaded stock on hand though.
I just picked up the new S&W FPC, which if you're not aware, is a folding M&P based carbine.
Looking in my Lyman, and Lee manuals, I see nothing pertaining to 9mm carbine.

Currently in stock, I have a good supply of 128gr RN casts sitting on 4.5gr of Unique, coated with the bayou shake and bake gold.

I haven't sent anything down the tube on this handy little rifle yet.

Any of you out there have anything on this, or thoughts on my load for this rifle?
I know I could just give it a try, but thought I'd do a query here first.

Thanks for any info.
Glad you're all still here!

Joe

I shot mine last weekend to zero the red dot I just put on it. It's quite satisfactory as a steel gong plinker at my club. I'm mostly into older guns, but I made an exception with the FPC.

My dad has one of our Dillon's set up for 9mm using a 124 gr cast, tumble lubed bullet with Win 231 powder. It's probably a bit softer that factor FMJ but cycled fine in the FPC. It's our 9mm blasting ammo for fun at the range. I'll have to chronograph it sometime.

As long as you don't run into chamber/ leade issues, the load that you have is an excellent load- try it!
Loren

Thanks for the info so far!
As we all know, probably every gun manual in the world will say not to use reloaded ammo in their firearms. (and we should all probably only buy their ammo, right?)
So anyways, watching some more boobtoobs on the rifle, a few said the same thing, and showed some barrels of this particular rifle with like 24 squibbs stacked up in them.
I can't hardly imagine how someone can take a shot, not see where it goes, do it again, and then another 20 times before figuring out that something just isn't right, but they kinda had me questioning whether or not to try my rounds.

I picked up a Romeo 5 that I'm going to try on it. I've never had a red dot before, and I've now got positive proof that I have astigmatism in both eyes, but I think it will still work.
When I picked up my rifle yesterday, a customer at the gun shop said he zeroed his @50 yds and was hitting out to 100yds.
I'm just learning about scopes and all, but if you wanted to hit out at 100yds, wouldn't you zero it at that distance?

I found that a reflex sight worked much better than a red dot because of the astigmatism. Easier to zero at a relatively close distance, know the trajectory of that specific load, Confirm at 100. Easier to trek to the 25-yr like than to the 100. Also, I figure that anything that I'd hunt with a 9mm I couldn't even see at 100 yds with a reflex/red dot.
Loren

Thanks for all the input!
I put the red dot on, unbelievably easy to bore sight this gun! Just open, no removing bolt.
Bore sighted to 25 yds. Right on the money with my reloads with a very slight adj.
Too windy for long shots.
Later in the day I went to a friends place, much less wind, showed him the gun, and he was hitting easily at 100yds, he said he made no visual adj. on the scope, just shooting straight at the target.
This is a wonderful little carbine, and again everyone, thanks for your help!

Joe

I've found that White Label's 45/45/10 tumble lube works fantastically on the NOE/Ranch Dog TL-357-135/Accurate 35-135D. 3.7 grains of Bullseye gets it to 1030 fps out of a handgun - probably a little faster in the Ruger carbine, but the key point is that combo in the carbine left the 16" barrel looking literally freshly cleaned and unfired.

Regarding your questions on zero distance: for defensive-type applications, I consider a 4" circle to be the zone in which we want to place our projectiles. It will depend a little bit on the height of your sights above the bore and your load, but when I crunched the numbers on this, I found that a 75 yard zero will keep you inside of a 4" vertical space from zero to 100 yards with minimal effort. With AR-height sights (2.5" above bore), you get a secondary zero at 20 yards as the bullet climbs through your line of sight to its +2" peak of trajectory at about (going from memory here) 55-60 yards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bigslug

I've found that White Label's 45/45/10 tumble lube works fantastically on the NOE/Ranch Dog TL-357-135/Accurate 35-135D. 3.7 grains of Bullseye gets it to 1030 fps out of a handgun - probably a little faster in the Ruger carbine, but the key point is that combo in the carbine left the 16" barrel looking literally freshly cleaned and unfired.

Regarding your questions on zero distance: for defensive-type applications, I consider a 4" circle to be the zone in which we want to place our projectiles. It will depend a little bit on the height of your sights above the bore and your load, but when I crunched the numbers on this, I found that a 75 yard zero will keep you inside of a 4" vertical space from zero to 100 yards with minimal effort. With AR-height sights (2.5" above bore), you get a secondary zero at 20 yards as the bullet climbs through your line of sight to its +2" peak of trajectory at about (going from memory here) 55-60 yards.

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That there, is some pretty solid information.
Thanks for the work!

I’ve been shooting 9mm carbines and braced pistols with 8.3” 8.9” and 11.5” barrels for several years now.

How much velocity increase you get in the longer barrels depends on powder burn rate.

I get around 1525 fps with 115 gr HAPs or XTPs in a 16” carbine using a max load of power pistol or HS6. That’s about a 200 fps increase over a faster burning powder.

In my 8.9” MP5 I get around 1440 fps with the same load so the extras 7.1” isn’t gaining you much, but it’s still an extra 85 fps, and an extra 200 fps than you’d get with a faster powder.


Zero wise, My MP5 is zeroed at 100 yards and with a Holosun dot sight with a circular reticle it has good aim points out to 200 yards where it shoots around 8” groups.

One of my 16” carbines and my 8.3” braced pistol have Ballistic Advantage barrels and both actually shoot 1 MOA. They both have Burris 332 prism sights on them that also provide great aim points out to 200 and 175 yards respectively with a 115 yard zero. The 16” carbine has a first zero of 30 yards and the max mid range trajectory is just 2.0” and it’s only 2” low at 130 yards, where it still has 1100 fps velocity. In essence it’s point and shoot from point blank to as far as you can expect the bullet to still perform.

It will drop 10 MOA at 200 yards.