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Question about .40 ammo and STI's


MrWallace

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I've searched a bit, albeit probably not as much as I could have, and didn't define what I'm looking for. What I'm trying to figure out is if I'm going to have to use .40 long or not.

I'm in the final stages (at least I hope so!) of fitting my .40 STI and was wondering if I'm going to have to shoot .40 long or if I'll be able to use regular .40? I haven't reamed the barrel yet and didn't know if that was something I should be aware of when I do ream it? I understand this may be a gun smithing question but thought I'd ask here first before posting in that section.

Thank you in advance!

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You need to see what your barrel likes. When I was having problems with my gun here is what was suggested to me and it worked great.

Load multiple batches of rounds, to an OAL of 1.175, 1.180, 1.185, 1.190, 1.195, and 1.200.

Load only 10 rounds of batch #1 in a mag... Lock the slide back and with a black Sharpie marker, color the feed ramp black. Then load the mag and shoot all 10 rounds. Then examine the feed ramp - the goal being to have the bullets contact the feed ramp as high as possible.

Then repeat for each batch of the different OALs.

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Many haver reported good operation with factory 40 ammo in a 2011. Many have reported the need to load longer.

My 2011 with a Kart barrel would not run factory 40 very well but just a bit longer (~1.16) is just fine. I have several other 40's (Kimber 1911 w/ Kart barrel and M&P Pro). I want to load ammo that would work in any of my 40's and the M&P won't even load longer that 1.165-1.17 in the mag so 1.160-1.165 it is.

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In tune with this question, with OAL for freeloaders,with the added length are you also increasing powder charge to maintain the power factor/fps?

Pick a COL that works then tune the load (based on chrono results) to get the PF you want.

Edited by Rob Tompkins
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Many haver reported good operation with factory 40 ammo in a 2011. Many have reported the need to load longer.

My 2011 with a Kart barrel would not run factory 40 very well but just a bit longer (~1.16) is just fine. I have several other 40's (Kimber 1911 w/ Kart barrel and M&P Pro). I want to load ammo that would work in any of my 40's and the M&P won't even load longer that 1.165-1.17 in the mag so 1.160-1.165 it is.

FYI - this is using 180gr conical flat point bullets.

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I carry a STI Tactical 5.0 2011 on duty. For duty use obviously it needs to run stock length ammo (lawyers would have a hay day if I reloaded my own duty rounds). I ran several boxes of Federal 180 grain HST's through my gun flawless. Both of my 2011's run 1.125 and up without a problem. With that being said, I still load them for matches at a 1.175, probably just for peace of mind.

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