Been shooting 10mms for at least 30 years, never fired one over a chronograph, until today.
I learned a couple things today. One turns out that most of the ammo, I have been saving and carrying in my 10mm for years, turns out to be some very light loads. I have not had the boxes for either type of ammo, I have had my 10mm mags loaded with, so I am not sure what exactly the two types of ammo are. I know the nickel plated cases are some type of Federal ammo. The other ammo I have, have gold colored hollow cavity bullets, that I would guess are Speer bullets, but really don't know.
The Federal hollow cavity ammo, turns out to be loaded very light. I only got around 1000 fps, when fired from my pistol. Then when I shot those same loads from the carbine, I got close to 1100 fps.
The Sig Sauer FMJ ammo I have, I got 1240 fps, to 1280 fps, from the pistol. From the carbine, I was getting upper 1300 fps, the lowest number I got was 1386 fps, the highest was 1436 fps.
I also shot up the rest of the old hollow cavity ammo, with the gold colored bullets. I have no idea what they are, I bought up $600 of assorted 10mm ammo from a gun shop years ago. I saved two different types of hollow cavity ammo that looked like good self defense ammo. Whatever the rounds were with the gold colored bullets, those produced around 1200 fps, from the handgun, then mid 1300 fps from the carbine. The nickel plated ammo, I know that stuff was Federal, because those cases, have FC on the cases. The unknown brass, has markings that look like Starline brass. I know all of that ammo, I bought back in 2003. I did not know Starline was in business at that point, never heard of them making loaded ammo. Possibly some small ammo company used Starline brass, and probably some Speer bullets.
All three types of ammo, were 180 gr.
I was expecting higher velocities from all three different types of ammo. Kind of surprised the cheap, FMJs produced the highest velocity. I am guessing the Federal ammo were reduced loads, to reduce recoil, for faster follow up shots.
So after burning up the last of my old hollow cavity ammo, I have been carrying around in my pistol for years, I decided it was time to start loading some more ammo.
My Hornady manual shows a max charge of 9.5 gr. for Longshot. I started off with 8 gr. of Longshot, thinking I was going to be up around 11 gr. to 12 gr. for a max load with the carbine. Right off the 8 gr. of Longshot was definitely hotter than any of the factory loads I have shot so far. I did not run any of the handloads across the chronograph, because it was later in the day, I did not have enough light, so I did not even set the chronograph up for the handloads.
To my surprise, 9.5 gr. was very close to max charge. I decided 10 gr. would be max. I went all the way up to 11 gr. but did not like the looks of the primers. 10.5 gr. was a bit hotter than I like. So I backed up to 10 gr. I am going to load up some at 10 gr. with large pistol primer brass. Then I am going to load some rounds with the small primer brass and see what those look like. with the same powder charges.
It looks like the only small primer 10mm brass I have, are what's left of those two boxes of CCI Blazer brass.
At 9.5 gr. to 10 gr. of powder, the recoil is a lot heavier than with any of the four types of factory 180 gr. ammo that I have shot through the carbine so far. Tomorrow, if the sun is out, I will run some over the chronograph. Cool thing, is the handloads hit the same spot as the factory loads. Hopefully the Longshot works good with the longer carbine barrel. I noticed that the factory Federal ammo I ran through both guns, gave almost the same velocity out of both guns. So I am guessing whatever powder Federal used, was a very fast burning powder, that was mostly burnt by the end of the handguns 5" barrel. The Longshot is supposed to be the slowest burning powder, of all of the powders that produced good velocities with a 10mm, shooting 180 gr. jacketed bullets. So hopefully the carbine barrel will give me quite a bit higher numbers from the carbine.
I set the gun up on a couple of bags, that gave me a better rest that the first time I shot the gun. I was able to get better groups from the gun. At this point, I have the gun working perfectly with all three mags. The bolt is held open after the last shot with all three mags, and only after the last round, not the second to the last round. The gun feeds beautifully, and the brass does not have all of the marks, that I was getting previously.
I learned a couple things today. One turns out that most of the ammo, I have been saving and carrying in my 10mm for years, turns out to be some very light loads. I have not had the boxes for either type of ammo, I have had my 10mm mags loaded with, so I am not sure what exactly the two types of ammo are. I know the nickel plated cases are some type of Federal ammo. The other ammo I have, have gold colored hollow cavity bullets, that I would guess are Speer bullets, but really don't know.
The Federal hollow cavity ammo, turns out to be loaded very light. I only got around 1000 fps, when fired from my pistol. Then when I shot those same loads from the carbine, I got close to 1100 fps.
The Sig Sauer FMJ ammo I have, I got 1240 fps, to 1280 fps, from the pistol. From the carbine, I was getting upper 1300 fps, the lowest number I got was 1386 fps, the highest was 1436 fps.
I also shot up the rest of the old hollow cavity ammo, with the gold colored bullets. I have no idea what they are, I bought up $600 of assorted 10mm ammo from a gun shop years ago. I saved two different types of hollow cavity ammo that looked like good self defense ammo. Whatever the rounds were with the gold colored bullets, those produced around 1200 fps, from the handgun, then mid 1300 fps from the carbine. The nickel plated ammo, I know that stuff was Federal, because those cases, have FC on the cases. The unknown brass, has markings that look like Starline brass. I know all of that ammo, I bought back in 2003. I did not know Starline was in business at that point, never heard of them making loaded ammo. Possibly some small ammo company used Starline brass, and probably some Speer bullets.
All three types of ammo, were 180 gr.
I was expecting higher velocities from all three different types of ammo. Kind of surprised the cheap, FMJs produced the highest velocity. I am guessing the Federal ammo were reduced loads, to reduce recoil, for faster follow up shots.
So after burning up the last of my old hollow cavity ammo, I have been carrying around in my pistol for years, I decided it was time to start loading some more ammo.
My Hornady manual shows a max charge of 9.5 gr. for Longshot. I started off with 8 gr. of Longshot, thinking I was going to be up around 11 gr. to 12 gr. for a max load with the carbine. Right off the 8 gr. of Longshot was definitely hotter than any of the factory loads I have shot so far. I did not run any of the handloads across the chronograph, because it was later in the day, I did not have enough light, so I did not even set the chronograph up for the handloads.
To my surprise, 9.5 gr. was very close to max charge. I decided 10 gr. would be max. I went all the way up to 11 gr. but did not like the looks of the primers. 10.5 gr. was a bit hotter than I like. So I backed up to 10 gr. I am going to load up some at 10 gr. with large pistol primer brass. Then I am going to load some rounds with the small primer brass and see what those look like. with the same powder charges.
It looks like the only small primer 10mm brass I have, are what's left of those two boxes of CCI Blazer brass.
At 9.5 gr. to 10 gr. of powder, the recoil is a lot heavier than with any of the four types of factory 180 gr. ammo that I have shot through the carbine so far. Tomorrow, if the sun is out, I will run some over the chronograph. Cool thing, is the handloads hit the same spot as the factory loads. Hopefully the Longshot works good with the longer carbine barrel. I noticed that the factory Federal ammo I ran through both guns, gave almost the same velocity out of both guns. So I am guessing whatever powder Federal used, was a very fast burning powder, that was mostly burnt by the end of the handguns 5" barrel. The Longshot is supposed to be the slowest burning powder, of all of the powders that produced good velocities with a 10mm, shooting 180 gr. jacketed bullets. So hopefully the carbine barrel will give me quite a bit higher numbers from the carbine.
I set the gun up on a couple of bags, that gave me a better rest that the first time I shot the gun. I was able to get better groups from the gun. At this point, I have the gun working perfectly with all three mags. The bolt is held open after the last shot with all three mags, and only after the last round, not the second to the last round. The gun feeds beautifully, and the brass does not have all of the marks, that I was getting previously.
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