Shield .40 problems related to bullet setback? PICS

[DeeBee]

After hearing about the "few" KBs in Shield .40s , I decided to empty my 3 self defense magazines to look at the ammo. I did find one that seemed to be setback pretty far. My question is... how far is too far for the .40 cartridge?

[Tinn-Can]

1.085 is saami min but you never know what the stuff is loaded at... I'd put money on the recoil spring binding and rounds going off out of battery but S&W would probably never admit it... I load up with 165s just to give a little more room in case of setback...

[DeeBee]

Originally Posted by Tinn-Can

1.085 is saami min but you never know what the stuff is loaded at... I'd put money on the recoil spring binding and rounds going off out of battery but S&W would probably never admit it... I load up with 165s just to give a little more room in case of setback...

So 1.085 is minimum OAL? Thanks for the quick response!

[Ksimons]

.014 is not that much. But what is more important is what is the weight of the bullet? And how much head space there is. If that was a 180grain+ I would say you might have a problem as most OAL are 1.125. Whereas 150grain are closer to the 1.11

[DeeBee]

Those in the pictures are 165 grain Winchester Ranger T.

[Maximumbob54]

Originally Posted by Tinn-Can

1.085 is saami min but you never know what the stuff is loaded at... I'd put money on the recoil spring binding and rounds going off out of battery but S&W would probably never admit it... I load up with 165s just to give a little more room in case of setback...

You do know that the lighter the bullet then the more the powder, right?

[Smitty357]

If it ever goes KABOOM. Then u can safely say its set back too far.

Dont worry though, because there are thousands more Shields out there that have never had an issue.

[Doug M.]

It may not be possible to discern how much "setback" is safe for your pistol, with the ammo you use. It could very by small differences in the chamber size, the specs of the ammo, etc. SAAMI spec may not be the final answer, too - remember that the manufacturer has developed their loads with specific bullets and powders, and loaded to a length that may have a lot less tolerance than the SAAMI spec for the chamber.

We have discussed this several times before (you may want to search for the discussions we have had; I think they are mostly in the Lounge), and I stay with this position: in an autoloading pistol or rifle, the best answer is you load a round once, and then you shoot it. Repeated re-chambering is going to cause a problem, and it does not take much setback to have a big problem. From what I have been able to tell (and I admit it is not scientific data collection and crunching), setback related KBs seem to be more common/reported more often in .40. Any savings you might have by reusing a particular cartridge will be lost by damage to your pistol and your body.