KCSO
12-22-2005, 09:57 PM
I finally got a chance to do a little shooting with my new Browning HP in 40 S and W. I had a couple of surprises along the way. First, since I didn't want to sink a lot of dough in a gun I maight not like I got a Lee 175 gr. tumble lube mold, as I figured that I wouldn't be out much. Lo and behold the mold cast good bullets from the git go and they dropped out smooth and measured right on the money at 402x403. I loaded up a 1/2 a box and filled my magazines and went to try them out. My first load was kind of a shot in the dark as none of my loading books has 40 S and W. So I pulled up some loads from the net and did a little figuring and thought that 5.8 of Unique in mixed brass pushing a 175 bullet ought to make about 900 fps and should work the stiff action of the HP.
In the words of Gomer Pyle Surprise, surprise, surprise ! The load shot into 2 1/2" at 25 yards and shot just 2" lower than my carry load and dead center. I had no leading and I can't wait to run some of these over the screens and see how close I was on velocity.
I had worked the HP over a little before today and had gotten the trigger to 5#, which is the best I can do with the factory truck springs. With the heavy loads the gun is designed for the springs are necessary to handle the recoil, but a 20# hammer spring does nothing for trigger pull. I probably won't change them as I have to qual with +p's and I don't want to batter the slide and frame. The old 9mm HP was not a +p gun IMHO and I never shot them in the old beast.
I have never been a big fan of the 40 as I always carried a 45 for punch and my 9 for when I didn't want a pack of spare mags rattlin' on me. The 40 with 11 rounds is not giving up much as compared to 13 in the 9. (The HP's don't like to feed 13 so I never carried an additional round for the chamber) I may order a 9 barrel for the HP as with the heavier slide and stiffer springs this would handle +p 9's easily.
If you have ever shot a HP with standard 9's you can guess how funny it felt to have the gun givng out with a solid shove instead of a little nudge. It's just under a 45 in recoil, but close.
In the words of Gomer Pyle Surprise, surprise, surprise ! The load shot into 2 1/2" at 25 yards and shot just 2" lower than my carry load and dead center. I had no leading and I can't wait to run some of these over the screens and see how close I was on velocity.
I had worked the HP over a little before today and had gotten the trigger to 5#, which is the best I can do with the factory truck springs. With the heavy loads the gun is designed for the springs are necessary to handle the recoil, but a 20# hammer spring does nothing for trigger pull. I probably won't change them as I have to qual with +p's and I don't want to batter the slide and frame. The old 9mm HP was not a +p gun IMHO and I never shot them in the old beast.
I have never been a big fan of the 40 as I always carried a 45 for punch and my 9 for when I didn't want a pack of spare mags rattlin' on me. The 40 with 11 rounds is not giving up much as compared to 13 in the 9. (The HP's don't like to feed 13 so I never carried an additional round for the chamber) I may order a 9 barrel for the HP as with the heavier slide and stiffer springs this would handle +p 9's easily.
If you have ever shot a HP with standard 9's you can guess how funny it felt to have the gun givng out with a solid shove instead of a little nudge. It's just under a 45 in recoil, but close.