.40 S&W OAL Questions

JPainter

JPainter

CGN Regular
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Location
Victoria, BC
Good Evening Fellows,

I am in search of some information. My P16-40 does not like feeding short bullets it would seem. Anything shorter than 1.155 Jams in the breech, pointed at a steep angle up the feedramp. Is 1.155 - 1.160 an acceptable OAL (overall length) for a .40 S&W catridge? This length seems to chamber properly without incident.

Loading 4.5gr Titegroup
170gr flat nose cone Lead Bullets

Thankyou for Any Input!!!

Jeff
 
I load my son's P16-40 using OAL=1.180 for practice rounds and OAL=1.20 for competition rounds to give wiggle room for major power factor case pressures. It's flawless for both length.

Try a longer OAL 1.180 or 1.20, you will be surprised with the outcome. :)

Good luck and reload safely ;)
 
Was your son's P16-40 ever tempermental with certail types of bullets when it was still new? I have only put 800 rounds down range so far. SWC's at 1.130 shoot great, but it doesn't like the flatnose cones, only feeding my dummy rounds at the 1.160 length.

THanks

Jeff
 
All I fed my son's P16-40 are 180 grain flatnose bullet heads. Mind you, his gun never had a problem cycling using different factory rounds even the 165 grains, which should be the case. To answer your question, NO.

I had a feeding problem with it once when I changed the recoil spring to 12-lbs. After I replaced it with 15-lbs recoil spring, it never stopped working flawlessly. Are you using the stock recoil spring on yours?

One question tho, are you using the rubber recoil buffer with your P60-40? If you are, I suggest you try without them. I have never used the recoil buffer in my son's para. I am not sure why Para fit their 16-40 with the recoil buffer. It does nothing but short stroke your slide, which I think can be tricky sometimes... try not using it anyway and see how it goes. Just my 2-cents

Good luck. :)
 
JPainter said:
Good Evening Fellows,

I am in search of some information. My P16-40 does not like feeding short bullets it would seem. Anything shorter than 1.155 Jams in the breech, pointed at a steep angle up the feedramp. Is 1.155 - 1.160 an acceptable OAL (overall length) for a .40 S&W catridge? This length seems to chamber properly without incident.

Loading 4.5gr Titegroup
170gr flat nose cone Lead Bullets

Thankyou for Any Input!!!

Jeff
Click to expand...

In theory, you should be able to have your OAL as far as your mag permits flawless functionning when fully loaded with 10 rounds. Only situation to be aware of is that your bullet, when seated that far out, could jam into the barrel lands and grooves when in the chamber. You could bring pressures over the safe limit if you're at max load already.

Better safe than sorry..
 
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