Bullet Weight Restrictions In Open

[JFlowers]

I was looking at the bags of odds and ends in the shop the other day and case across a large bag of 60gr Aquila IQ 9mm bullets. These are full sized bullets with deep deep hollows made from some alloy that is very light. I thought they would make an interesting experiment to push them fast enough to make minor/major in an Open gun.

Then I remembered there was a rule and pulled the rulebook off the shelves. Why do we have a bullet weight limit in OPEN? I noticed there is not one in LIMITED. The other thing I noticed was that the IPSC OPEN Appendix declares below weight (120grs I think) ammo as unsafe where the USPSA OPEN Appendix makes no claim about under weight (112grs) ammo. So in the US if you don't make your Division requirements you get moved to OPEN, so what happens to someone shooting under weight ammo in OPEN?

[XRe]

In a word: safety. Partially because of loading pressure dangers, but also because of bullet splatter, dangerous (and expensive) damage to steel targets, etc...

A 60gr bullet at Major PF would be going 2750fps!!!! That's a .223 rifle equivalent handgun!!! Wow.... Might be fun to shoot, though *IF* you could get it to Major, that sucker would be *LOUD* but might shoot flat.... I highly doubt you could safely make Major with it, though.... anyhow....

[George]

A sixty is going to take an awful lot of powder to get over 2k fps. It takes over twenty grains and a 14 inch plus bbl to do it in a rifle. I doubt it will happen in a pistol sized case and a 6" or shorter bbl.

--

Regards,

[shred]

Accuracy will also likely suck. In the old 9x25 days people played with 88gr JHPs for the .380 at 2000 fps, but got, in the words of TGO "dinner-plate sized groups"

Light bulles can also be hard on steel-- imagine if somebody showed up with an AR-pistol. The rangemaster would not be happy.

[MasterLefty]

The weight restriction first showed up via the international rules and the US (as normal) released a revision.

The story I heard was that some of the folks from South America showed up with some 80ish grain teflon bullets.

Kenny

[gary meyer]

maybe he could use those bullets in steel challenge...

[JFlowers]

The idea with the 60gr Aquila bullets was just a passing fancy, what I was really looking for was an explanation of the rational behind the fact that Open had a bullet weight restriction.

[Harmon]

its for safety.

the guns are really at the limit of what the brass can hold with 115 grain bullets.

If you were shooting a 9X25 it wouldnt be an issue, but with 9x19, somebody trying to make major with some 88 grain bullets is going to blow something up.