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M&P9 Ported Load Development


KampKustoms

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Finally got the Viper 6 MOA on and zeroed on my Performance Center M&P 4.25".

 

I tried some 115gr with TiteGroup (130pf in Walther P99), Blazer 115gr brass, Winchester 124gr "NATO", and some 147gr with TiteGroup (128pf in Walther P99). With the factory springs it seemed like there is the least amount of recoil and dot movement with the 115gr projectiles.

Should I try lighter projectiles? Slower powder? I was thinking of trying HP38 and Autocomp, But I have a good stock of TiteGroup. I would say the Blazer and TiteGroup 115's felt about the same.

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A slower power, i.e. one that requires more weight for the same velocity, will provide more gas (and pressure) for the ports and will reduce muzzle rise more.  And light bullets have less muzzle rise than heavy bullets in a compensated gun when loaded to the same power factor. 

 

http://www.shootingtimes.com/reloading/power-factor-recoil-bullet-weight-compensators/

 

In the end, you have to try various combinations to determine what feels and works best for you. 

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12 minutes ago, 57K said:

 

Seems like you've already found out! At 130 PF which is a good one if you can get standard deviation to 5 with your loads. This may be a tad more difficult if you go to a slower powder. TiteGroup is not a powder I use or recommend, but something in the N320 to W231 range should work fine. To save some money, there are 2 very good Vectan alternatives with Prima V and Ba 9 1/2 which was supposed to be Vectan's version of N320. They are owned by the same parent co. and share identical data. In actual handloading guys are finding that Prima V may actually be closer to N320 and that's not a bad thing with Ba 9 1/2 being a tad slower burning and maybe actually closer to N330.

 

superdude, glad you linked to the ST article that wasn't full of holes, but this one seems much more relevant to loading Major PF. I notice it was written by the same author, Brad Miller, and I guess the Ph.D. suffix might carry some weight depending on if the Ph.D. was earned for physics or sociology.

 

That load made 130pf in a non-ported gun, I have yet to chrono anything to see how much the ports are robbing the velocity. The goal with the slower powder and possibly lighter bullets is to minimize the dot movement even further by working the ports more, while also maintaining somewhere around the 130pf range. TiteGroup is my easy go to, but I have easy access to HP38 and Autocomp. I have not seen those other powders you mentioned locally, I have seen some VV and Ramshot powders.

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I ran an open M&P a few years ago and the load I developed for that gun was 6.7 gr of Autocomp with a Montana Gold 124 JHP. Gun ran well and was very accurate. Since you are using just a ported model, I'd recommend a 124 gr bullet and 5.4 to 6.0 of Power pistol. Its slower burning than Tightgroup and HP38/W231 and is super accurate. You're looking at a power factor in the 140's though. In reference to an above post about Vectan Prima V being the equivalent to N320 I have to disagree. I haven't tried the BA9 1/2 yet. I ran a test with Prima V the other day and 4 gr of N320 pushed a precision delta 124 JHP 1031 fps. 4 gr of Prima V was 1089 fps, 3.8 of Prima V was 1046 fps, 4 gr of Tightgroup was 1083. In my testing the Prima V was similar to T.G in velocity, but flatten primers and had some primer flow at 4.2 gr. You can see the whole test of prima v in my post from the other day.

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I bought some BA9 1/2 today. I will load up 124 gr P.D. JHP's  with 3.8, 4.0, and 4.2 gr. of Tightgroup, N320, Prima V, and BA-9 1/2 and test them in my DVC and Accu-Shadow this weekend hopefully. I will be testing using my Ransom rest so the results will be consistent. .

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