Winchester Wight Box 45 vs 9mm

[bobkarno]

Spent a few hours at the range the other day shooting my M&P45L and my M&P9c and I had an interesting experience with my ammunition. I shot 150 rounds of WWB FMJ ball ammo from both guns, and when I finished I observed that the muzzle of the 45 was really dirty (probably an inch back from the muzzle), while the 9 looked like I hadn't fired it at all (it was also pretty clean in the breech area). None of the ammo was of the clean burning variety, it was just the standard stuff. I am just curious as to why the 9 was so clean and the 45 so dirty. I had noticed on a previous outing when I only shot the 9 that it was really clean, but I chalked that up to having only shot 50 rounds (spent most of the time watching my son shoot our 15-22). I also have an M&P40, and it gets pretty dirty as well when I shoot it. Aside from the dirt, or lack thereof, all of the guns shot flawlessly, and I might add that I have yet to experience a single issue with any of my M&P's. I guess I was just wondering if anyone had any input on this.
Thanks in Advance

 

[Brass Nuggets]

It's common for me to see the same results. 45ACP is a big round compared to a 9mm… I shoot a lot of WWB as well as Federal, MagTech with the same outcomes. The only issue I've encountered is FTF with some brands of ammo after #number of shots fired. I clean after every outing so I'm not that concerned with residue. What seems to help is to wipe down the pistol with a dry gun cloth to remove any oils as this helps to reduce "some" of the stickiness that collects spent powder.

 

[angel71rs]

Noticed on my last range trip that the WWB was putting out a nasty smoke ball with each round I fired thru my M&P 9. It was almost comical. At 1st I thought maybe it was more noticeable cause this was an indoor range; last few trips before were outdoors. But I next shot some USA ammo reloads, no smoke bombs.

Never has the issue with other boxes of 9mm or 380 WWB, so I guess this particular lot used some skanky powder???

 

[Maximumbob54]

WWB and UMC have always been the sootiest, dirty, cheap ammo I have ever used. I don't know what that powder is but it is some dirty stuff. The first two inches of my 1911 is covered with soot by the time I pack up. It wipes right off though so not a big deal. If I were to hazard a guess I would say that the higher pressure of the 9mm loads causes the powder to burn better while the much lower pressure of most .45 ACP must not allow the powder to burn uniform enough or something.

 

[Pisgah]

A manufacturer may use different powders for different rounds -- in fact, they may use a different powder on a different lot of the same load; different manufacturers will use a different powder for the same round. Some powders are more or less sooty than others, and some will produce more or less smoke; additionally, the lubes used on cast bullets may cause smoke even if the powder is not smokey.

 

[lebomm]

I've kind of gotten away from autos for the last several years, but when I was shooting a 1911 and a TZ-75, I had similar experience. In pondering the circumstance, all I could come up with was that the .45, with its big, slow bullet, reflected more of the blast gases back from the muzzle to dirty up the front inch of the slide.
Make sense to anybody else, or am I just full of it?

Larry