I have been reading more and more about the danger of the unsupported case in a .40 Glock and have gotten to the point where I'm wary of shooting any kind of reload in my G22, but realize that there are 10s of thousands of Glocks out there probably firing millions of reloads.
As is my habit for reloading, I start with a powder charge of 92% of stated max load and work up to 96-97% of the "do not exceed" looking for signs of excess pressure along the way. If there is none I stay with the same amount of powder,97% of max, as long as the other components remain the same for the recipe. I also seat the bullets out as far as reasonably possible to reduce pressure in case I accidently throw a few extra granules in the case.
Today I was shooting a load I have been working up(8.4 gr. of blue dot, about 95% of max 8.8 gr., with a 180 gr. Hornady XTP bullet) and the gun damn near seemed to blow up. It kicked the spent case about twice as far as usual and the recoil seemed a LOT more powerful, jerking my hands about 2 feet into the air. The report was enough for the other shooters around me to look in my direction. Luckily I was using new Star-line brass. I don't know what went wrong, but I think I was close to a disaster.
Finally the question. If the load had been a little more powerful I'm sure I would have experienced a kb. Would a Bar-Sto barrel have prevented this? I not thinking of buying one in order to produce more powerful loads, but just thinking of added insurance in case of a similar accident. Also, does the Bar-Sto barrel actually offer more support or does it just have closer tolerances making it stronger. I understand they will also shoot lead bullets and are more accurate. The lead bullets are not important but the improved accuracy would be nice.
Any thoughts and/or ideas on the Bar-Sto would be appreciated. And thanks for reading this overly long question. PS The remaining XTP loads are being disassembled. Good shootin' to you all. dgang
As is my habit for reloading, I start with a powder charge of 92% of stated max load and work up to 96-97% of the "do not exceed" looking for signs of excess pressure along the way. If there is none I stay with the same amount of powder,97% of max, as long as the other components remain the same for the recipe. I also seat the bullets out as far as reasonably possible to reduce pressure in case I accidently throw a few extra granules in the case.
Today I was shooting a load I have been working up(8.4 gr. of blue dot, about 95% of max 8.8 gr., with a 180 gr. Hornady XTP bullet) and the gun damn near seemed to blow up. It kicked the spent case about twice as far as usual and the recoil seemed a LOT more powerful, jerking my hands about 2 feet into the air. The report was enough for the other shooters around me to look in my direction. Luckily I was using new Star-line brass. I don't know what went wrong, but I think I was close to a disaster.
Finally the question. If the load had been a little more powerful I'm sure I would have experienced a kb. Would a Bar-Sto barrel have prevented this? I not thinking of buying one in order to produce more powerful loads, but just thinking of added insurance in case of a similar accident. Also, does the Bar-Sto barrel actually offer more support or does it just have closer tolerances making it stronger. I understand they will also shoot lead bullets and are more accurate. The lead bullets are not important but the improved accuracy would be nice.
Any thoughts and/or ideas on the Bar-Sto would be appreciated. And thanks for reading this overly long question. PS The remaining XTP loads are being disassembled. Good shootin' to you all. dgang