Why rare to see 200 Grain .40?

[tb1911]

Mass is good - we see plenty of 147 grain 9MM and 230 grain .45, but I only see the Gold Dot 200 grain .40 and I've never seen it for sale anywhere.

I am wondering why we don't see a better selection of heavier 200 grain .40's out there. I would like to see more choices. You would really be approaching .45 mass and the recoil characteristics are a less snappy.

Thoughts?

[ST911]

Mass is good

but it isn't everything, and has a point of diminishing return.

Thoughts?

The cost:benefit doesn't weigh out in favor of the 200s. If it did, we'd have them already.

[ImBroke]

Also could be pressure related. The longer bullet goes into the case deeper.

[DocGKR]

Powder capacity, sectional density, velocity. The conventional 180 gr JHP's work about perfectly (obviously bullets using alternate construction like XPB, EFMJ, etc... may be a different weight) from a terminal performance perspective and also are the easiest to shoot...oh, and .40 was built around that bullet weight, so it often has optimal functioning characteristics.

[KhanRad]

I managed to get some of the 200gr GD a while back. I chronoed it and got an average of 875fps from a 4" barrel. While not scientific, I shot it into some water jugs and expansion was disappointing in comparison to 180gr GDs.

Ballistics is a bell-curve. In other words, there is an ideal balance between velocity and mass. To much mass and not enough velocity, and you get performance issues. Same goes with too much velocity and not enough mass.

[Heavy Metal]

200gr Gold Dots you say?

That would be about perfect for a 10MM!

[Nemecsek]

A while back I saw a bunch of Speer ammo in 200rd boxes with 200gr Gold Dots. The boxes were marked "for training only" or something similar. Probably some agency etc rejected a bunch of it and it got sold off as training ammo. Maybe Speer tried to sell it to agencies, who upon testing it, felt it falls short in some respect. If they pump the velocity to a useful level to expand, recoil may get harsh.

[sgtjosh]

I was under the impression that 200gr bullets were for 10mm only.

HP bullets are designed to expand in a certain velocity range. Too slow and expansion is lackluster...too fast and expansion turns into fragmentation.

I can't imagine a 40 S&W being able to push a 200 grain bullet at an adequate velocity with out chamber pressure issues.

[tb1911]

I can't imagine a 40 S&W being able to push a 200 grain bullet at an adequate velocity with out chamber pressure issues.

DoubleTap has a 200 grain load moving at 1050 FPS out of a 4 inch barrel:
http://www.doubletapammo.com/php/cat...b34450d69cmnk6

What Doc says makes total sense. I carry 180 grain Gold Dots. I was just curious....

[kmrtnsn]

I like 155gr, doing over 1250fps myself.