any one have pics of hornady .40 S&W hp expanded?

T

therealtwitch

New member
I recently bought a walther pps in .40S&W. Now I am a big fan of speer gold dot's but they just don't feed reliably through the pps. The guys on the pps forum all swear by hornady. And they do feed good but I wasn't happy with expansion of .45 hornadys(the were good but the gold dots were much better imho) The opening in the tip of the round is much smaller than the gold dots so I am a little worried about how well they will expand. I currently don't have the ability to do a water or gel test. So does any one have a pic of expanded hornady tap JHP's? preferably in 180gr is any one has them.
 
Here's a couple of pics.
On the left side of both pictures are .40 180gr Hornady TAP (4 rounds).
They were shot into a block of a rubbery adhesive.
After I figured out how to get them to fully expand (I had to place a sandwich bag full of water on the front of the block), they all turned out like the one that shed its jacket.
What I found was the lead core will end up slightly mushroomed,with any "petals" ending up as tiny fragments (broken off) and the jacket will usually separate and end up staying well behind the rest of the bullet.
If they don't fully expand, they end up looking like the others.

I don't like them.

Just as a comparison, There's also a picture (blue background) of some Federal HSTs fired into the same stuff. .40 is the one in the middle. It's sitting on a quarter. They all end up looking like this - although this one was the one with the most impressive diameter; usually they have the petals folded back a little more, but not much.
Skip the Hornadys, Go with HST or Gold Dots.
(EDIT: I guess you probably dont want to use gold dot if they have feed issues.
Have you ever thought of using Cor-Bon power ball? They may eliminate any feed issues.)

Sorry the pictures are so big. I can never get them to be the right size.

BallisticTest1021.jpg

BallisticTest1013.jpg


HST:
ballistic003txt.jpg
 
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damn those suck. Unfortunately my pps wont feed gold dots or hydra shok very well. do you have any other suggestions? I have to send in my gun so they can make mods to it so it will feed more rounds better. But I can't send it in till I get my crimson trace grips back for my other gun. so in the mean time I need to find a new round in .40
 
I don't have a lot of (or rather any) first hand experience with anything other than HST, Hydra-shok, Hornady TAP, and some cheap Remington jhp.
The only thing that has really impressed me were the HSTs.
I like rounds that form a nice star shaped, jagged hunk of lead and copper as opposed to a rounded mushroom looking thing.
If it were me, I'd try the HSTs or Winchester Ranger.
If feeding really is an issue perhaps try the Cor-Bon Pow'r Ball. That has the nice round nose, so it should feed well, but I've heard they do not have the best terminal performance (fragmentation and jacket separation).

Just out of curiousity, does the pistol feed fmj (the flat truncated nose stuff) without problems?
 
that is pretty pretty impressive. but where can I find them?
Click to expand...


Since this ammo buying craze started late last year, any sort of handgun ammo is now hard to find.

The HST is in such high demand, that it is pretty much impossible to find currently.

-
 
i was looking at ammoman and a couple other sites and all I can find is high shok. but the pic for high shok on ammoman shows a pic of the hst round. so is hst and high shok the same thing?
 
sorry.. it worked a while ago.


i cant even get to their main site.. might be down for a few.

it is where i buy all my HP ammo tho.



*should be up now!
 
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I had problems with feeding CorBon's rounds with the great Barnes bullet in my nightstand gun, a Springer Loaded... PowR'Balls solved the feed problem entirely ... I love the new Hornady Critical Defense 9mm rds in my PM9; I"m guessing the elves at Hornady are even now whipping up .45 SD rounds and they will be available eventually ...
 
I had the same problem with my PPS too, but mine was a 9mm. How are your jams occuring. That two piece feed ramp is the problem. Ranger or HST my not be the solution for you. That's what I tried in my PPS and the mouths of the bullets would catch between the two ramps. Since those loads are about as good as it gets in defensive ammunition I sold the PPS for a Kahr MK9 and have no regret.
Give the HST and Ranger a try and some other brands as well. If they don't work and you want to keep it just use the TAP. It's good ammo and very accurate.
 
I really don't like the tap. the feed issues are due to a few factors in the pps. if you send it in they will polish the heed ramp and to something to the chamber and ejector. But i can't send in my gun yet.
 
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