As a followup to my last post (see the last paragraph) I am awaiting delivery of a CMMG Banshee in 10mm, it should be here tomorrow, and I have to admit I'm more stoked about getting this gun that any other firearm in recent memory.  I have a metric buttload of ammo loaded for it already, and the weather looks promising later this week, so I expect to get a lengthy range session in, and have a chance to get it really hoy and dirty and see what it can do. 

Film at 11.

I bought one in 45ACP several years ago, later converted it to 10mm, and now I'm converting it back to a 45.  Why?  Two reasons.....for one, this is a simple blowback carbine, and it is NOT built to handle the 10mm round, period.  The other reason is that unless you only shoot factory ammo, it will stretch the brass, and sooner or later you'll have a round come apart in the chamber, and you're out of business until you get the front half of the brass out of there.  If you don't reload that's not an issue, and anyone who keeps reloaded ammo on tap for Home Defense situations is an idiot, but if you like to shoot a lot you'll have issues with this carbine. 

The violence of the Ten is just too much for this gun, my charging handle was bent rather severely from the bolt slamming backwards, then forwards as it slammed shut.  Strong springs seem necessary to keep the gun from being damaged when it fires, but they also add to the issues.

I am having Ron Williams at RMWExtreme build me a DI 10mm carbine, I'm a lot more confident in his builds than I am with the TNW stuff.  And ditto to the customer service issues with TNW, they promised me three times they'd send me a new charging handle, on the third try I got a hold of someone who actually followed through and sent me one.  It was free, but it also took several months to get it. 

I think the TNW stuff is fine in the milder calibers, but frankly there are very few guns made for the Ten that can actually handle it, and NONE of them are standard blowback guns.  Just my dos pesos. 

PJ

If anyone is still looking for one I picked one up off GoneBroker a couple months ago from The Old Western Scrounger, they were selling off the "Salesmen's Demo" guns for $300 so I had to snag one.  (They had HUNDREDS, might still have some.) It came with one mag (so I bought four more and a foregrip) and so far it's been a fun range toy.  I took off the stock sights and replaced them with a Bushnell red dot, the next step is to tear it completely down (again) and make it into a Stormtrooper Special, I'm just enough of a sixty-year old geek to think that's cool. 

I also found a deal on those "SinterFire" bullets from Midway, they were listed as a New Product, and the introductory price was $75/1000, so I bought a couple thousand to play with in the 40 and the Ten.  They're lead-free, light, and I can run them like little greased piggies without boosting pressures into the stupid zone.  I seem to recall when those bullets were introduced they were pretty spendy, apparently they weren't big sellers and we reloaders get to clean up the scraps of someone's failed idea.  The cool part is that we can run charging drills right up to the steel targets with little risk of getting peppered, I never cared for the taste of hot zinc! 

I know they all look basically alike, but I still think my Custom II is particularly handsome.    But I could be a little biased.

I'm not.  But I'm just saying that I could be!   

There are several more magazines and a set of faux-ivory grips due in tomorrow.  It's just too purty to leave in Basic Black. 

I picked up my Kimber Custom II last Thursday on the way to the range, ran about 50 rounds of handloads through it, and am well pleased.  There were several fail-to-go-into-battery issues, but I expected a bit of break-in would be needed, and I'm in no rush with this one, for now it's just another range toy.   The trigger is around five pounds and pretty crisp, the sights are perfect for my aging (aged) eyes, and it feels like shooting with an old friend.  I have a gaggle of assorted 1911's, but this one seems a tick above the others, maybe just because I love the 10mm. 

Thank you all for your input, it helped.

I think we'll be very happy together.   

This is why a good barrel crown is so important.  If the bullet leaves the barrel with inconsistent pressures around its base, it's going to be destabilized.   The pressure wave as the bullet exits is not likely to ruin the bullet's rotation or kick it sideways as long as the muzzle crown is concentric and even.  Put a scratch in the lands of grooves near the muzzle and things change.  I once had a Marlin 30-30 that had been dropped on the muzzle, the damage was hard to see with the naked eye but the results on target were really obvious.  I had a gunsmith remove an inch of barrel and cut a target crown, and it went from shooting 10" groups at 50 yards to cloverleafs at 100.  Cost me all of $30, as I recall.   

Update:

The 10mm PCC is still not feeding 100%, I might try a lighter buller and a heavier spring and see if that helps.

The 45 TNW went to the mothership for some TLC, they said they replaced a bent extractor and now it runs fine but I'll have to see that for myself, been working WAY too much lately and range trips are hopefully happening next week sometime.

Lone Wolf put their Alpha Wolf 45 Carbine on sale and I snagged one, it runs well but HATES flat-nosed bullets, give it something with a tapered ogive and it runs just fine.  Right now it's the favorite, and will be hard to displace.

A buddy of mine apparently caught the PCC fever from me and ordered a Freedom Ordnance FX-9, it looks cool but we haven't shot it yet.

Further updates pending.  And I need to load a bunch of ammo, these things are voracious.......when they work!   

Quote from: The_Shadow on June 20 2019 11:59:39 AM MDT
This is some data that was published by LEE

Please bear in mind that Lee does Not do ANY pressure testing, they only use other sources, more often than not without citing them.    :'(

You like it flashy?  Try Power Pistol.  This load is about two grains below top end, and BTW, it's not a 10mm load.............it's a 40!



4" 357 Magnum from behind......



Mild 45-70 load.......



450 BM, 20" barrel.......

It looks like most of the offerings already on the market. 

I fell in lust with a Kimber 10mm this week, I took a friend to my favorite gun emporium so he could buy a Kimber 1911 he'd been hankering after, and while he was doing his paperwork he "accidentally" mentioned that there was a Kimber 10mm in the case.  My inner Jewish Man gasped and fainted, because I've been longing for another 10mm pistol since I sold my EAA Witness.   This is kind of a no-frills gun, which is fine, I'd probably carry it in the woods and scuff it up over time.  But while Kimbers used to be consistently overpriced locally, prices have come down of late and older or discontinued models can be had fairly inexpensively.  I had almost talked myself out of considering it when I made the mistake of looking at the price tag, it was $669 and I knew right them I'd have to put it on layaway. 





I know it only comes with one magazine, which is obnoxious, but I already have holsters for it, already load for a 10mm carbine, and have a ton of components for it.  I have a bunch of 1911's, but all are 45ACP's.  Am I letting my lust get in the way of logic, or are these pretty neat guns?

Mike, I've decided to take your advice and change out the buffer, a quick search of my parts box turned up 3 spare buffers and a variety of springs.  The buffer in the 10mm AR weighs 1265 grains, the next one weighed 1220, the third weighed 1295 and the last one, though about .760" shorter than the others, weighs somewhere north of 1500 grains, more than my Chargemaster can handle.

Would you go with longer one at 1295, or use the shorter one with a lot more weight to it?

Is that a thing?  I've never heard of it, but I'm not on the computer much these days. 

FWIW, I also recently picked up a TNW Aero Survival rifle in 45ACP, and it's the worst jam-o-matic I've ever seen.  A pick-up tag is forthcoming, but right now it feeds about four rounds out of 50, the same 45-degree feed jam.  Somedays I think my Marlin leverguns are the best rifles I'll ever own!

Well.......NO.     Feeding has been good to horrid.  Once a round chambers fully, all is well, but sometimes the round jams at a 45-degree angle, sometimes it almost chambers fully but needs a little help, and sometimes it runs just fine.  I think I got ten rounds in sa row to feed and fire, most other attempts have been less than successful.

When I first got it it ran pretty well, but once I started using other (new) magazines it started getting pretty chokey.  It ran well for about 50 rounds before it went south.  Serious cleaning and lubing seemed to help a little but it's still nothing I would EVER trust my life to, unless I only needed a single-shot.  Experimentation continues, with different ammo, mags that have been left loaded to soften the springs, that kind of stuff.  Right now it's a range toy, hopefully someday it'll be something I can actually rely on. 

I've been hoping they'd bring that one back, it was supposed to be a Patrol Rifle when they brought it out back around 2005 but it just didn't sell.  The only one I tried had a 25-30 pound trigger, (yes, really) and wasn't terribly accurate.  I guess the current obsession with PCC's and the 3-gun folks made it a good time to try it again.  They'll have to make it a gas gun to offer it in 10mm, and I doubt that will ever happen, at least in that format.   The Ten doesn't do well in blowback guns. 

But if Ruger ever brings out a 10mm carbine........I'm all in!