Best defense .40S&W in 3" barrel

K

Kirk D

New member
I just picked up my new Kahr MK40 Elite yesterday. I've read that Gold Dot 165 is one of the best rounds for an under 4" barrel, but I was wondering what others have experienced.

I picked up some Gold Dot 155 (all they had) with the gun, and I have some Triton and Corbon rounds left over from shooting my Glock 27. I figured I might try some Golden Sabres.
 
my advice would be to shoot your pistol thru a chronograph with either the Gold Dot or Golden Saber ammo and find out what it is really doing from your gun. a quick call to the ammo company will usually reveal at what velocity range thier bullets are designed to expand. today bullets are so finely crafted that a small difference in velocity can make all the difference. this is more the case with very short barrels than longer ones. check out your barrel and see how much of that 3" barrel is "barrel" and how much is chamber. plus velocities vary widely from one pistol to the next even though they seem to be indentical. some loads lose velocity less in short barrels than others, probably due to the type of powder/primer/bullet weight used.
all things considered it is hard to beat the 155/165 grain loads for the .40 auto.

the good news here is that the 9mm and the .40 auto suffer less from velocity loss in real short barrels than the .45 does.

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
I finally got around to shooting the MK40 Elite, over the weekend.

Wasn't able to chronograph it, but I was very happy with the control, and with the trigger.

Point of aim seemed to be right on. I didn't really think the 1/8" shorter trigger pull on the Elite would make that much of a difference, but it *does* help. And the overall pull was so smooth and light that, at first, I thought follow-up shots weren't "cocking" the trigger.

Overall, I'm very happy with my new aquisition. Interestingly, I missed out on buying an MK40 last Monday, but found a Colt Pocket Nine for $629... so I bought it. I thought I could get used to that long, heavy trigger, but I couldn't. Traded it in on the MK40 Elite on Thurs. It's a shame I lost $200 in three days on the deal.., but I'm happy with the Kahr.
 
I'll have to check those out. Not sure when I'll have the time to try out some sort of expansion test, though. I only have so many old phonebooks to soak for testing.., or old jugs :)

Hmmmm, I guess I need to test my other relatively new aquisition..., a Springfield Ultra Compact Lightweight V10. I shoot mostly 200 and 230 grain rounds in my other pistols, but I'd guess the Springfield would benefit from something lighter.
 
Kirk, my V10 runs just fine with American Eagle 230gr FMJ. Last weekend, I shot a 1" group with this gun and load, 40' standing (mental note: gotta scan that target tonight). For carry, it loves Golden Saber 230s.
 
Coinneach, I wasn't really wondering what would *function* through my V10, but what affect the shortened (3 1/2") and ported barrel would have on velocity and, thus, expansion.

That's why I was leaning toward a lighter bullet, in that gun. Of course, I've got a bunch of boxes of Speer 200 HP (the old "flying ashtray") left, and it always tended to be a bit hotter than most rounds of its day.
 
I thought about the Corbon.

Actually, I stopped by my (currently) favorite gun store, Bullseye (in Lawrenceville, Ga). Talked to one of the employees. He suggested Federal Personal Defense.., said it was the fastest bullet available (at about 1050 fps, I think it was.) I said "But the Corbon there claims 1100, and that Federal round is 165 gr., and the Corbon is (I think it was) 185 gr."... he shrugged it off :) Not sure about some of these gun store employees! OTOH, he also recommended the Winchester Ranger, which he claimed was the same as the old Black Talon (It's my understanding the Ranger is similar to the Black Talon, except there aren't any talons, and the bullet is no longer black)

Anyway, I'm wondering whether to lean toward the "high tech" bullets, like HydraShok, or Starfire, or HiShok..., or even the new Federal expanding FMJ (though I've yet to see that one in any store); or just buy a fast bullet with a hollow point, and forget the doodads.
 
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