ChuckS Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Hey Chuck, one quick question. What # recoil spring were you using on your open 40 with 135 gr. BBs. Are you shooting Mesa this week? Pete I have run anywhere between 8 and 10. 8 felt great but rare feeding failures drove me back to 10. Yeah, I am on squad 3 for the Desert Classic. Shooting my STI 9mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbc44 Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 See you there, I'm on 6. Good Luck and have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 See you there, I'm on 6. Good Luck and have fun. Good luck to you, sir. I see you are mixed in with some of our locals. You will be impressed with Bianca and Tia! They are getting very good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splashdown Posted July 16, 2016 Author Share Posted July 16, 2016 Well, I'm finally back in the 40 Open game. I shot a local match last weekend and somehow wound up 3rd out of 14 in Open and 4th of 78 overall. I think it was beginner's luck. This was with my G23 "Shorty Forty" with RMR on the slide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjones6686 Posted July 17, 2016 Share Posted July 17, 2016 I'm building a 2011 style 40cal open gun soon. All my competition guns are chambered in 40cal so it only makes sense to do the 40cal open gun. I can fit 26 rounds in a 170mm MBX 40cal magazine. Means the 9major/38super guys only have a 3-4 round advantage on me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudukai13 Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Perhaps a silly question, but - When you load .40 for an Open gun, you have to use a lot more powder to ge the comp working, right? Are you effectively loading .40 to 10mm pressures? If that's the case, why not just start with a 10mm chambering...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splashdown Posted July 18, 2016 Author Share Posted July 18, 2016 Perhaps a silly question, but - When you load .40 for an Open gun, you have to use a lot more powder to ge the comp working, right? Are you effectively loading .40 to 10mm pressures? If that's the case, why not just start with a 10mm chambering...? No, not at all. I am using book loads for .40 S&W cartridges from Hodgdon. We just use lighter bullets. I found 135gr Rainier Ballistics worked best for my STI, but I'm liking the 155's better in my lighter weight Glock. Plus, the reason many of us shoot 40 open is to avoid the extra expense of new equipment if we're already shooting Limited. I certainly don't want to start stocking large pistol primers and getting a new gun with a new set of mags and mag pouches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted July 18, 2016 Share Posted July 18, 2016 Perhaps a silly question, but - When you load .40 for an Open gun, you have to use a lot more powder to ge the comp working, right? Are you effectively loading .40 to 10mm pressures? If that's the case, why not just start with a 10mm chambering...? No, not at all. I am using book loads for .40 S&W cartridges from Hodgdon. We just use lighter bullets. I found 135gr Rainier Ballistics worked best for my STI, but I'm liking the 155's better in my lighter weight Glock. Plus, the reason many of us shoot 40 open is to avoid the extra expense of new equipment if we're already shooting Limited. I certainly don't want to start stocking large pistol primers and getting a new gun with a new set of mags and mag pouches. Does anybody make a 26 round big stick in 10? Besides, brass is a tad cheaper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjones6686 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 (edited) MBX magazines makes 170mm magazine that holds 26 rounds of 10mm or 40cal. These are the magazine's I bought for my 40cal open gun. Edited July 19, 2016 by bjones6686 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tag129 Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 Hi I'm new to this forum. I'm building a Glock 35 opengun, thinking of using 135gr bullet. Any suggestions on slow burning powder? Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemmo Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 When I was experimenting with .40 open i used N105 for 135grs bullets. That was the closest I could get in sort of getting a .40 gun to work as good as 38 super and 9 major open guns. There are a few american gun powders with similar burn rate according to this chart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 (edited) 6.9 7.9 Grains N340 and a 135 grain bullet loaded to 1.157". I found 350 too slow and left unburnt powder everywhere. Never tried 105. I also tried Silhouette with results similar to 350. Autocomp worked but was kind of blasty and somewhat dirty like 350. Have fun! Chuck Edited December 8, 2016 by ChuckS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splashdown Posted December 8, 2016 Author Share Posted December 8, 2016 @tag129, I have experience with the Glock and STI platforms in 40 Open. I would suggest trying Hodgdon CFE Pistol. With your longer barrel, the 135 grain bullet might get to major PF comfortably. It might take 8.2gr or so of powder. My experience with my shorter 4.5" barrel is that 155 grain bullets made major without being as harsh as the 135's. I use all book loads from Hodgdon's website. My bullet mfr of choice is Rainier Ballistics. I find them to be consistent and accurate. You will probably want to lighten the slide of that G35 a bit, but start with what you have and see how it goes. You'll want to get 22 round Glock mags and the Taylor Freelance +3 basepad to get your 170mm mags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 tag, you may find your dot tracks better with a 155gr bullet. I certainly did. I have two 40 Open pistols. I shoot Rainier 155s in both. I use CCI 500 primers and load to 1.135" OAL. 7.2gr Autocomp makes 172PF. 7.3gr Silhouette does the same. 8.2gr HS-6 makes 173PF. With Rainier 135s you'll need more powder. 8.2gr Autocomp makes 170PF. You need a lot more HS-6 and it is very loud and concussive. I didn't like it. I'll only have about 200 rounds left after the match this Sunday. I'll experiment again this Winter before I load up everything for next season. So far I like Silhouette better. It is cleaner than either WAC or HS-6, has low flash, burns cool and meters well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 9 minutes ago, zzt said: --- snip --- With Rainier 135s you'll need more powder. 8.2gr Autocomp makes 170PF. --- snip --- And this is why you may want to question loads from the internet. I am totally embarrassed to have quoted my 9mm load for my 135/WAC .40 load. My log shows 8.2-8,3 to squeak into Major. Sorry for the FUBAR. 7.9 Gr N340 was my goto load for the 135 Rainier... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tag129 Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 Thanks guys. I have loading data for longshot but don't have any info on N105. I want slower burning powder is because my comp is custom made and I will have 3 popper holes on the barrel. Any suggestions? Greatly appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemmo Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 10.5grs N105, about 200pf I tried 3n38 too, but N105 was the best one. I tried different loads, from 9.9grs and up until 10.7. With 10.7 the load was so compressed the cartridge oal was too long to feed reliably. I still couldn't get it to shoot as flat as a 38 super or 9 major gun though, so I ditched the whole idea of shooting .40 open. Reloading for 9 major costs about 1/3 of reloading .40. So the choice was fairly obvious for me at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 slemmo, I'm using 155gr Rainiers with WAC, Silhouette and HS-6 and mine shoots way flatter than yours. Everyone who watches me shoot says the gun moves straight back. That's not quite true, because I see the dot rise a little. Try using less of a slightly faster powder. BTW, the delta for reloading between 9mm and 40sw is 2 cents each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tag129 Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 I always thought slower powder would do a better job than a mid range powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemmo Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 I tried using slightly less of faster powder, didn't help. And yes, when loading for a comp, the basic idea is to use as much of slow powder as you can with the lightest bullet possible. 135grs .40 bullets cost about 4 times as much as 9mm bullets in Europe and 9mm brass is basically free. I'm now shooting 9 major in a CZ Czechmate, which works a lot better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 tag, it depends on the shooter and the ports/comp. The most important to me is the dot returns to the same spot in a straight up and down motion. People swear that my gun recoils straight back with no visible muzzle rise. There is some, because I can see the dot jump. I chose Silhouette and WAC for that reason. HS-6 feels softer, but the dot wiggles and I find that annoying. The second thing you have to consider is how the gas gets used. If you have so much that it jets out the front of the comp, you increase recoil and hit your hand harder. You can also have so much gas, used so effectively the muzzle moves down under recoil. The first time that happened to me I was flabbergasted. slemmo, ouch on the 40 pricing. I didn't realize you were in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tag129 Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 1 hour ago, zzt said: tag, it depends on the shooter and the ports/comp. The most important to me is the dot returns to the same spot in a straight up and down motion. People swear that my gun recoils straight back with no visible muzzle rise. There is some, because I can see the dot jump. I chose Silhouette and WAC for that reason. HS-6 feels softer, but the dot wiggles and I find that annoying. The second thing you have to consider is how the gas gets used. If you have so much that it jets out the front of the comp, you increase recoil and hit your hand harder. You can also have so much gas, used so effectively the muzzle moves down under recoil. The first time that happened to me I was flabbergasted. slemmo, ouch on the 40 pricing. I didn't realize you were in Europe. zzt what is WAC powder? And what comp are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tag129 Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Anyone try Hodgdon Longshot? For 40 open Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splashdown Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 tag, I initially tried Silhouette and found it to be too slow. By the time I got to major, there was too much gas going out the end of the comp which contributed to more recoil and muzzle flip. Longshot was another slower powder, so I never tried it. I landed on Power Pistol for my STI 40 Open and currently using CFE Pistol for my current Glock open gun which has a carver 4 chamber comp. YMMV. It will depend on the length of comp, how many chambers and if you have any poppel holes in the barrel. It could be a viable powder for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tag129 Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 5 minutes ago, splashdown said: tag, I initially tried Silhouette and found it to be too slow. By the time I got to major, there was too much gas going out the end of the comp which contributed to more recoil and muzzle flip. Longshot was another slower powder, so I never tried it. I landed on Power Pistol for my STI 40 Open and currently using CFE Pistol for my current Glock open gun which has a carver 4 chamber comp. YMMV. It will depend on the length of comp, how many chambers and if you have any poppel holes in the barrel. It could be a viable powder for you. My comp will look similar to STI Trubor comp with 2 additional bleeder each side. - top port will tilt back 10 degrees - bleeders may be 20-30 degrees - 3 (3/16"-5/32") popper holes on the barrel. I don't know if that's too much or not, any suggestion? Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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