Chrono for Lost River 170gr 40 S&W through several pistols

[fatdog]

I am driving toward saying the Lost River 170gr .40 S&W is my primary wilderness and back country load, where ever I am in the lower 48 including the Rockies.

I still want to put a good quantity of no failure rounds through my primary hiking guns to say I am going with it, but so far I am very impressed with the accuracy and the velocity.

Today was chrono day, I took every .40 gun from the whole safe to the range and ran 7 rounds of the LR 170gr and 7 rounds of the Federal HST 180gr as a control group of sorts.

This ammo is quite hot but in no way did I find it punishing. There are signs of pressure in the primers, certainly some flattening and some flow but they look like my old school .40 major loads did in the late 90's and none of them blew up. No split brass or any visible bulges.




I am sure my shot to shot splits on any course of fire would be slower with recovery time due to how hot it is.

Here are my results. And I have no affiliation with Ted, bought the ammo and testing it on my own time and money.

HK USP compact

Lost River 170gr
Average: 1218.00
StdDev: 12.45
Min: 1205
Max: 1251
Spread: 46

Federal HST 180gr
Average: 1019.43
StdDev: 7.93
Min: 1010
Max: 1031
Spread: 21

Sig P226

Lost River 170gr
Average: 1283.71
StdDev: 19.33
Min: 1261
Max: 1317
Spread: 56

Federal HST 180gr
Average: 1039.17
StdDev: 7.96
Min: 1030
Max: 1052
Spread: 22

Sig P229

Lost River 170gr
Average: 1258.80
StdDev: 13.20
Min: 1247
Max: 1278
Spread: 31

Federal HST 180gr
Average: 1011.20
StdDev: 3.77
Min: 1005
Max: 1015
Spread: 10


Glock 23 Gen 5

Lost River 170gr
Average: 1276.50
StdDev: 11.69
Min: 1261
Max: 1290
Spread: 29

Federal HST 180gr
Average: 981.13
StdDev: 10.97
Min: 970
Max: 1003
Spread: 33

Glock 22 Gen 5

Lost River 170gr
Average: 1311.17
StdDev: 15.03
Min: 1284
Max: 1324
Spread: 40

Federal HST 180gr
Average: 1020.00
StdDev: 28.79
Min: 987
Max: 1040
Spread: 53

HK USP40 (full size)

Lost River 170gr
Average: 1266.71
StdDev: 12.50
Min: 1248
Max: 1283
Spread: 35

Federal HST 180gr
Average: 1042.29
StdDev: 8.22
Min: 1030
Max: 1055
Spread: 25

[GJM]

Thanks for doing this, and Ted for developing this load.

My only reaction is this load is north of 200 power factor, in 10mm territory, with more velocity than I think is needed to punch a skull. I think the load could be backed off to 1,100 fps, still penetrate a skull, and be easier on the gun and shooter. This would allow faster follow-up shots while being closer to the middle of the reliability envelope.

[41magfan]

Does anyone have any feedback on POA vs POI with a pistol zeroed for a run-of-the-mill 180 gr duty load?

[BobM]

Thanks for posting this. I have a hundred rounds of this but haven’t gotten around to shooting any yet

[JRB]

Awesome data! Definitely 10mm territory as GJM already noted.

Any subjective opinions on which pistol did better/worse with the added recoil? Any particular pistols that demonstrated substantially better or worse accuracy?

[fatdog]

Any subjective opinions on which pistol did better/worse with the added recoil? Any particular pistols that demonstrated substantially better or worse accuracy?

Accuracy is my next test as part of reliability, I never not try to make my chrono work good target work. Subjectively, best in recoil was the HK USP 40 full size, worst was probably a tie between the G23 and the USP compact. No real surprises.

[fatdog]

So today I started my serious testing of the LR .40, using my HK USP compact which has an ACRO P2 in place.

I did 120 trouble free rounds on several drills, I won't go into all details, just my high level observations

Good
-Accuracy is at least as good as 180gr HST in this gun, probably a smidge tighter but I am not a good group shooter
-Recoil is not punishing, 120 rounds and my wrists are not in any distress, no sign of tingling, etc. etc. from the day
-The gun was set up and zero'ed for 180gr HST, to get a centered 10 yard group it only required 2 clicks up and 2 clicks right on the ACRO, so not a wildly different zero
-Not a hint of a reliability problem of any type for this round in this gun.

Not so great
-Split times and shot to shot recovery were greatly impacted. Running several par time drills that I always finish well inside the prescribed time like The Test, Rangemaster Instructor Q, I was on average 10-20% over the prescribed par time on most mulitshot strings. Only drill where I made all the times was a Rangemaster Bullseye drill.
-Looking at average splits, things that normally would have been .25-.3 for me were .5-.6 all because of recovery time. The muzzle rise seriously slowed me today.

Also muzzle blast is almost at a .357 Sig level, I don't consider that a bad thing, just an observation about this ammo in this 3.5" barrel gun.

I intend to test my gen 5 G22 next in a similar day at the range and drills. I suspect that or my USP 40 are going to be the platform where I am more at home using this round.

[GJM]

Fatdog, solid work. I have a friend that tested the G5 22 and 23, and thought the 23 performed better with a fit, so it will be interesting what you determine. Muzzle blast might be a good thing for discouraging charging animals, as my PH in Zimbabwe swore to with his full auto FN FAL on leopard hunts.

[03RN]

Wow, warmer than my 170gr .357 load
Nice

[fatdog]

Took my Gen 5 G22 out today and ran an additional 120 rounds of LR 170gr through it, never a bobble, counting my chrono rounds for this gun that is about 130 rounds with zero problems.

This gun has a direct mill setup for Acro P2 done by Maple Leaf so the ACRO was in place for all today's shooting.

This is a very accurate round in this gun. I am not much of a group shooter but on a 10 yard untimed dot drill, all 5 rounds where inside the 2" circle and touching one another, that is better than I can personally coax out of 180gr. HST. Speaking of HST, my zero for the LR round was 3 clicks up from the zero for the 180gr HST in this gun.

Again without going into every detail, my scores on several par time drills I often practice were 50% within the par times and those that went over were no more than 5-10% over. Splits that would normally be in the .25-.30 range for me were coming in around .35 to .40, much better recoil control and shot to shot recovery than my testing with the USP/c last week.

At the end of 120 rounds I was feeling no discomfort, tingling, or other signs of recoil injury today. Not sayin I want to run through a 1,000 round pistol class with this gun and this ammo, but I bet I could survive it.

In summary, this is probably my top choice of a wilderness gun/ammo combination for my trips to the Rockies in the future. I was running a JMCK IWB#3 for this and it was very comfortable. I still may try a run through one of my Sigs, the P226 or P229 perhaps.

I think the LR170gr 40 turns the Gen 5 Glock 22 into a G20, except with the much easier to shoot (for me) smaller frame of the 17/22 size gun.