ShortBus Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 My boss has a old school single stack .40 3comp 1911 that doesn't want to run. He is using standard load data and it runs awesome without the comp. do y'all have any load data I can give him? He's open to new powders to make it work... Not sure what he is currently loading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 There is a bunch of info in the mother of all open .40 threads: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77956 Basically, where you want to begin is a light bullet over a slow powder. Gives more gas for the comp to be effective. Have fun, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortBus Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 Thank you sir! I will pass on the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 With a 3-port comp you are not going to like very light and fast. It will be loud and violent. The reason is all the gas produced by oodles of powder does not have sufficient time to exit the ports before the bullet leaves the comp. So a lot of it jets out the front and increases felt recoil. Having just gone through the evaluation process myself, I can hopefully save your buddy some time and effort. The first thing I tried was the Rainier 135gr TC copper plated bullet. I kept trying slower and slower powders, and then more an more powder until I reached a max load of N340. It was LOUD and hard on the hands, but didn't make Major. I next tried 140, 155 and 165 grain bullets. The 140s behaved a lot like the 135s. The 155 Rainiers were a different story. As I worked up the Autocomp load, it got flatter and flatter. When I reached max, I had a nice shooting load with my comp. I had two small side bleeder ports milled into the third port, and that softened the recoil a tad. Next I went to HS-6. Big difference. It was much softer shooting than the Autocomp load, but the muzzle rose more. I kept upping the charge. When I got to max, it was loud, flat and hard. It was also 188PF. I had two larger side bleeder ports milled into the second and third ports and tried again. this time the max load of Autocomp produced a very repeatable muzzle rise and the dot settled back down to the normal sport immediately. There was a fair amount of muzzle flash. The HS-6 load was now way softer than the Autocomp load, quieter and I'm told by two observers the muzzle rose just a tad less than the Autocomp load. The two loads were: CCI 500, 7.3gr Autocomp, 155 Rainier TC bullet. 173PF, OAL 1.126" CCI 500, 8.2gr HS-6, Rainier 155 Rainier TC bullet. 172PF, OAL 1.126" Since your buddy is loading for a 1911, he may want to load longer for good feeding. If so, he will have to add more powder to reach these PFs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splashdown Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 What does "not running" mean? If it is not fully extracting the spent case, the recoil spring probably needs to be lightened. I think I ran a 9-lb recoil spring in my STI 40 open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Majority1775 Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Can you send photos of your comp? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortBus Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 He bought some autocomp and 135 rainers. Gonna try that. It's my bosses gun so I don't have any pictures and I haven't even seen it. I'll see if he will bring it one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Side and top views of my second comp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortBus Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 Thanks for the picks ZZT. He is going to work up a load starting at 7 grains of autocomp and a COAL of 1.30 using the 135 rainers. Hopefully he will shoot it this weekend and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 SB, that's pretty conservative. He'll likely have to go to 8+ before he starts to make Major, especially at the longer OAL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Thanks for the picks ZZT. He is going to work up a load starting at 7 grains of autocomp and a COAL of 1.30 using the 135 rainers. Hopefully he will shoot it this weekend and see. SB, that's pretty conservative. He'll likely have to go to 8+ before he starts to make Major, especially at the longer OAL. I wound up at ~ 8.3, AC, same bullet, 1.157 in a 5" barrel to squeak in at 166-ish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Majority1775 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Anyone use CFE pistol...JBM ballistics puts 135 grain, 8.0 grains of CFE pistol making major by 2%. Has anyone used this and chrono'ed it? Hodgdon says the fps numbers are good out of a 4", I'm sure a 5" would help? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortBus Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 He wanted to start on the bottom end as he was Leary of loading so hot. I told him to start at 7 but expect to be around 8. Hoping to have some info from him soon about how it worked out and what he settled on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reshoot Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I am currently using the 135 grain Rainier plated bullet, on top of 8 grains of Auto Comp . . . 169 PF. This load is still producing too much gas, with the extra following the bullet out of the comp. I will try to refine my open load next winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splashdown Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I am working on a Glock 23 based open gun. 135gr FP Rainier Ballistics, 8.5gr CFE Pistol, 1.135" COL. Power Factor was 168 and the temperature outside was a bit cold, I'd guess about 40°F. Threaded LW barrel length is 4.5 inches. This load is too snappy out of this light weight gun. I am now experimenting with 155gr FP Rainier and 6.9gr CFE Pistol. Haven't chronoed it yet but it feels better. I am using Hodgdon's website for load data. Out of a 5" Schuemann AET barrel STI that I used to have, I loaded 135gr FP Rainier with 8.7 gr Alliant Power Pistol to 1.180" COL to make major with room to spare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Reshoot, yours is the exact load I was going to try when I get some more 135s, just to see what happens. Too much gas with 135s was the reason I went to 155s. My loads are listed above. I'm going to run the HS-6 load this year, because I've just loaded up as many as 1lb of powder will permit. I originally tried Autocomp with the 135s and ended up using 8.3gr for the 172PF I prefer. Too much gas. However, that was with the original 3-port comp. I subsequently added two side bleeder ports and that really helped with the 155/Autocomp loads. Next I went with a comp with a slightly smaller first port and four larger side bleeder ports. It is shown in a post above. That really helped a lot, even with the 155/HS-6 load. Recoil to the hand is much softer than my Limited major load. Now that I have a comp the doesn't jet the gas 8.2gr of HS-6 produces out the front, I'm hoping it will do the same with 8gr Autocomp. We'll see. I'd like to finalize a load so I can go out and buy a 4 or 8 lb jug of the chosen powder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 (edited) Well, I finally received my order of Rainier 135gr 40 bullets and was able to retry the Autocomp load. I reduced OAL to 1.126" and used 8.2gr and the results were phenomenal. The new comp really did the trick. It was loud, but the recoil wasn't noticeable. There was a slight muzzle rise and an almost instant return to the target. I really like the recoil impulse. Everything feels so much faster. Shooting as quickly as I could, everything went into a 1" hole at 15 yards. I have a new Major Open load. I also tried 7.2gr to see if I could get a soft Minor load, but the muzzle rise was more pronounced. I may experiment with lower loads and faster powders, but I think I'll just shoot the major load for steel. While I had Autocomp in the hopper, I loaded up 50 of 155gr Rainier Major loads. They were stunningly more accurate than the HS-6 loads. The Autocomp loads went into the same ragged hole from a rest at 15 yards. The best the HS-6 loads could manage was 1.5" There was always a flier or two to open the group up that much. So now I have to find a 4 or 8lb jug of Autocomp to buy and decide what I'm going to do will all the Rainier 155s I have left. Edited April 11, 2016 by zzt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKitzmiller Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Have you found a light minor steel load by any chance, (autocomp)??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now