Gen_Y_Ballistics
Member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2017
- Messages
- 16
Mind pointing me to where it is shown that 147s are bad for snub guns? Everything I've seen puts them roughly average with any other weight.
For 9mm subcompacts and .357 snubs, the issues are increased recoil, and risk of pass-through (in other words, failure to transmit shock to the target).
I want to do a full thread on this when I get the notes together, but here are a few points in that general direction for the time being.
Velocities with 147s in the very small guns are IIRC in the high 800s and low 900s. This is in the same area as .38+P LHPSWC loads from a snub. There are only a few factory loads of that type that will expand, and the .38s are soft lead. The 9mm 147s are jacketed, and they need even more velocity.
I am not a fan of 147s in general, because I was frequently getting pass-throughs with them even on bare gel, regardless of how fast they were driven. The best that can be hoped for with them is approximating a .38 Special 158 at about 1000 fps, which will expand but doesn't transmit shock like the 115s. The Zimmerman load, IIRC, was a 115 gr Prvi Partizan, and it was proven effective in that instance from a subcompact 9mm.
For the 158s in .357 snubs. This is what I used to carry, thinking that if a 125 was good, a 158 must be better. But that gun stung like !@#$%^, and the load would have done around 1000 fps, again very little shock to the target. Those loads also give about 2 feet of penetration, which begins to be a liability concern.
The 125s, and even the 110s, are better with snubs. Winchester makes a 110 load that I have seen some people disparage as "watered down," but it does IIRC around 1100 fps from a snub, with less recoil than other loads.