I took my P365 to the range the other day for my buddy to shoot and decided to let him shoot some of the Federal Syntech 130 gr PCC ammo through it. The box indicates that velocity is supposed to be 1130 FPS. I’m not sure of the barrel length they used to get that number. Anyway, he had one failure to fully extract in 100 rounds wherein the case was still in a horizontal position, trapped between the breech face and edge of the barrel hood. As my buddy was shooting it, I noticed that the brass was not being ejected very vigorously. More like very lightly rolled/tossed out of the ejection port and dropped right next to the shooting position.
Obviously 100 rounds is not definitive, but I found the ejection pattern interesting. With the exception of the one failure to extract, the pistol ran fine, so it may have been something my buddy was doing to cause the failure. I’ll have to run the ammo in some other pistols and see how it performs. My buddy was shooting on a well used target so I didn’t notice if there was a change in the POI.
Federal's PCC ammo is designed for use in Pistol Caliber Carbines. The box even describes it as "rifle cartridges".
As a result, the factory stated velocity of 1130 FPS is almost certainly out of a rifle-length barrel (16+ inches).
Outside testing reports that in a 4.25" barrel pistol, the ammo is only getting ~990 FPS, which is rather slow for 9mm ammo. (Usually closer to ~1200 FPS.) And in the P365's even shorter 3.1" barrel, the muzzle velocity would be even less. (Possibly close to ~900 FPS.)
Thus that low pressure/velocity in a short barreled pistol is likely the cause of the weak ejection pattern.
The 130gr was what was on sale at the time. I figured since it was made to run what are typically blowback carbines, it should be loaded a little warmer than standard. As it is it runs like a target load so no worries. It’s range use only. It does a great job of keeping the bore clean, but everything else seems to be a bit dirtier.
Originally posted by bonanacroin: It does a great job of keeping the bore clean, but everything else seems to be a bit dirtier.
Being designed for rifle-length barrels, they will most likely have used slower burning powder, resulting in excess sooting from unburnt/partially burnt powder when fired from shorter pistol barrels (and often times a larger muzzle flash).
