Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Tale of the Tape...

So, CapArms had sent me some ammo for evaluation purposes. Five hundred rounds of their 9mm 147gr RNCB Match/Target ammo packed loose and a hundred rounds of their 147gr XTP Duty/Carry load in the retail 20-round blister packs.

I ran three hundred and some-odd through the Glock 17 at the Citizens Defense Research class in Ohio with no malfunctions. When I got home, I put the remainder of the Match/Target ammo, save fifty, through the Gen3 G19 during a range trip before leaving for Texas. There were no malfunctions on that outing, either.

The remaining fifty were saved for the purpose of chrono testing and shooting some benched groups. To that end, I went to MCF&G and set up the chrono yesterday morning...

The first shot of the day, shooting off the bench, was the very first shot through the brand-new P320C, and a reminder about what powder-puff match loads require:

With the loose grip on the benched pistol, the first round failed to eject properly. The remaining nine, with a firmer grip on the gun, dribbled out of the ejection port, with most of the rounds landing on the table by my elbows.

The consistency was outstanding. Frankly, most small ammo companies don't have outstanding consistency in the velocity of their loads. I've seen multiple lots of Nosler Match, for example, turn in velocity spreads that looked more like East Bloc steel-cased fodder. Generally, for consistency in factory ammo you wanted Hornady, or premium ammo from Federal or Speer.

The numbers on the CapArms Match/Target, however...
LO: 814.7
HI: 839.3
AV: 826.5
ES: 24.68
SD: 7.74
And as good as the ball ammo was, the Duty/Carry XTP hollowpoints turned in an even better performance:
LO: 896.2
HI: 914.2
AV: 905.4
ES: 18.00
SD: 5.74
Ejection was firm and consistent, dropping all the brass neatly over the shooter's right shoulder.

The only downside to these is that the XTP bullet is a little behind the state of the art and not as insensitive to intermediate barriers or heavy clothing as more modern designs like the HST or Hornady's newer Critical Duty.

While there, I also chrono'ed a string of 230gr Federal HST through the Hipster Bulldog Glock 39:
LO: 842.3
HI: 867.0
AV: 854.7
ES: 24.73
SD: 8.88
So that's a 30 foot-per-second drop in velocity moving from the full-size Glock 37 and its 4.48" barrel to the stubby 3.42" tube of the little Glock 39. Jello testing to follow...
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