TacticalReload Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 It seems like this might be a topic that has come up from time to time. Do any of you who shoot the VP pistols notice that it becomes unusually and uncomfortably hot? Specifically, my support thumb rests on the take-down lever; and it gets hot enough that I am forced to adjust my grip. I'm talking generally about shooting a few hundred rounds in a range session at a typically brisk but not purposely "mag-dumpy" manner. The reality is that I really like the way the gun feels and handles -- plus I bought it primarily for use as a defensive gun since I've been shifting to the P320 for competition shooting -- so it's not really a deal breaker at all. It's just something that I found to be quite curious as I've not had this issue before on any pistol (except for the P7) unless we are talking about a lot of rounds fired for an extended time. That being said, I'm guessing most of us are not the type of people who even bother packing up and heading to the range just to shoot 50 rounds through a gun and go home. I tried asking this question over at the HK forum; and it was promptly met with a bunch of the usual (and fully expected) a-holish responses. I should have known better... I don't know why I bother asking these types of questions anywhere except on this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polymerfeelsweirdman Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 Hk can do no wrong so the problem is probably your misperception of reality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalReload Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 I know. It's weird how Glock fanboys seem to come from a position of ignorance while HK fanboys come from a position of arrogance. They take the "you suck and we hate you" philosophy and have internalized it. Meh... whatever. I still love the feel of the gun and can live with its shortcomings for my purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzw26n Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 Never had a heat issue using mine in a IDPA Match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalReload Posted July 28, 2016 Author Share Posted July 28, 2016 Unless your IDPA matches are different than the ones I've gone to, round counts are so low and time between stages are so high that I can't imagine that you would. Have you noticed anything at the range? Maybe running 100 rounds through it at a brisk pace? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apetrulis01 Posted August 7, 2016 Share Posted August 7, 2016 I have not had an issue with the gun heating up like that. I have shot 2 gun matches and a few monster matches and nothing hotter then any other gun would get. Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalReload Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 I'm going to have to try to experiment a bit more tomorrow afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalReload Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 I took both guns out today. Looks like the .40 heats up faster, gets hotter, and stays hotter longer than the 9mm. Must be extra steel in the slide, less empty space inside the slide assembly, or the extra powder burning in the cartridge. I only have three mags per pistol so I loaded up both (46 rounds in the 9mm and 40 rounds in the .40) and fired them off reasonably quickly. Both slides were warm, as would be expected, but nothing noticeable. I loaded up the mags again and repeated. At this point, the VP40 was considerably warmer. Then repeated again. The slide on the VP40 was basically too hot to touch if my support thumb touched it... the VP9 was only uncomfortably warm. At this point, I was out of ammo for the .40... I shot another 50 rounds of +P through the VP9 and it started to get nearly as hot as the VP40 was. Regardless, neither are game guns so I guess it doesn't really matter much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EngineerEli Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 What kind of ammo are you shooting. Are you hand loading? I know I have had different powders, even loaded under the same bullet, loaded to the same PF, effect the temperature in drastically different ways. I had a front fiber start melting back when I loaded with Titegroup. Since switching to WST, the gun stays much cooler. In general, I believe the didicated pistol powders (double base) burn much hotter than the shot gun style powders (single base). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalReload Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 I've only run factory Federal HST ammo through both guns plus my reloads. The loads were about 5% below max with Bullseye under 147gr for the 9mm and 180gr for the .40. I'm not a huge fan of Bullseye for other purposes, but it's typically what I go with when I'm just churning out something similar to factory loads to test guns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EngineerEli Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I could see the federal HST loads using a double base powder to make more velocity, and making more heat. I'm not sure about how hot bullseye burns, I believe it is first and foremost a shot gun powder (single base) so I would think it to be towards the cooler end of the spectrum. Maybe someone with loading experience can chime in. Have you noticed a difference in the temp of the gun between the HST loads and your reloads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacticalReload Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 I haven't shot enough HST to be able to tell the difference. Too expensive for anything other than function testing for defensive pistols. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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