Sidearms & Scatterguns Reduced Recoil 9mm, help!

[wilwith1l]

My gf just got her first sidearm, a Para LDA in 9mm. I think she could benefit from low recoil ammo. However, I have no experience with reduced recoil loads.

Do you guys have any knowledge to share on the pros/cons?

P.S. Yes, I know the reduced energy. I meant other cons...

 

[W54/XM-388]

Buy a box of it and shoot it & see how it works.

The problem with a lot of reduced recoil 9mm ammo is that it can tend to jam in guns designed for heavy 9mm loads as it doesn't cycle the action with enough force.
This is also multiplied by how your grip is and so both you and her need to shoot part of the box to see, because if she limp wrists it, it may have failures to feed / eject vs. a strong grip lets it work okay.

You might also want to look at changing the recoil spring a bit if the low recoil ammo has problems but you still want to try using it.

I would say however that she might be just fine with standard 9mm loads as the gun should be heavy enough to be comfortable with them.

 

[Unknown]

If you can find a Hart's (maybe Hartt's) recoil reducer, they actually do help. If you can't find one of those, try a heavier tungsten recoil spring guide rod. Any weight you add to the front of the pistol helps reduce recoil. Previous postings hit all the other relevant info about reduced loads and recoil spring vs reliability.

If reliability is a problem with reduced loads, play around with different recoil springs. You have to balance out the recoil impulse with the recoil spring's energy. Too much on either end causes problems. When you hit the sweet spot, the gun runs great, and has a very reliable cadence that makes shooting it quite pleasant.

 

[softcock]

My gf just got her first sidearm, a Para LDA in 9mm. I think she could benefit from low recoil ammo. However, I have no experience with reduced recoil loads.

Do you guys have any knowledge to share on the pros/cons?

P.S. Yes, I know the reduced energy. I meant other cons...

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Do you Reload ? . If your wanting reduced recoil loads with proper pistol function and you don't Reload your on a hard road .
If you Reload all you really need for softer Recoil is a load that has enough Vel. to lock-back the Slide Open on the last round fired and cycle/feed proper .
Easy to work-up a reduced hand load for that . But like last Poster said . If you limp-wrist one time with reduced Loads, you will FTF proper and jam for sure . But easy for you can Fine-tune a Handload just for that one particular pistol .

Off the Shelf Retail 9mm sold can not be to soft on the Vel. by manufacture because of all the different barrel lengths and recoil spring-tension with different factory 9 pistols . It has to cycle both long & shorter barrel semi-pistols for retail customers . there is Big difference in Vel. from a full size Slide/barrel and Sub-compact 9mm slide/barrel . I love to shoot soft loads tuned for my full size 5.5" barrel but that same soft hand load will NOT function in my G-26 and it will jam on every round fired . I bet I loose almost 100 fps vel. with my sub-compact compared to a 5.5 barrel length with the same Load fired .

 

[HD1911]

Just use some good LE 147gr ammo, like Ranger Bonded/HST/Gold Dot. Very soft shooting and Superb Terminal Ballistics.

 

[427Cobra]

2.5ish of Clays, your choice of case and primer and 147s seated to 1.135 coal

 

[rdinak]

load some 147's with 3.6 grains of VVN320. Everyone will be happy

 

[Hummerdawg]

She definitely would benefit from a reduced power recoil spring. I would try 7,8, and 9#. And 17# mainspring

 

[Sevo2300]

I went down this road a while ago. I had feeding issues with 147gr factory ammo, so I bit the bullet and bought a press. 147gr bullets, a relatively fast powder like N320 (which is nearly impossible to find) and a reduced power recoil spring are very very soft shooting combination. Also, make sure grip/stance is correct and a full sized frame/slide will usually feel softer as well.

 

[softcock]

load some 147's with 3.6 grains of VVN320. Everyone will be happy

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N-320 is great powder for the 9mm & I have loaded a few thousand rounds of it in a low vel. 9mm with softer recoil . Big problem I get with soft loads with the N320 is it real is Horrid Filthy Dirty when on soft load with blowback . If you get the Vel. up more on the N-320 and it's like night & day on the Blowback Crud in the extractor & fire pin mechanism area with soft loads . N320 & High vel. it goes away .

I really prefer ' Unique ' over the N-320 on doing soft loads in the 9mm, just based on that fact that is cleaner & with having to clean huge amounts of crude on using N320 with soft loads . But for the reg. & higher loads the Viht. is great .
.
edit add :
Only reason I can think of for me seeing less Blowback Crude using Unique over the N-32 in low vel. soft loads . Is that maybe it is because the Unique is a Flake Powder .
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