Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns I now own the ULTIMATE backpacker's sidearm

I have a Glock 40 inbound, doubt it's the "ultimate" anything, but I think it will do in a pinch...

Currently it is stoked with older 230 grain Hydra-shoks. I also use 230 grain Gold Dots.

Tailored handloads are 250 grain cast flat points, pushed by heavy doses of Unique or Clays. I am out of loaded rounds right now though.I really need to get an evening to crank some out.

No personal experience, but it sounds like a hammer.

I carried and shot hell out of a 4" Model 29 for decades. A year of 300+ grain bullets sent it back to S&W for a rebuild. And yes, heavy bullets will pull themselves under recoil from even a steel framed, short DA. I had to taper AND roll crimp certain lead bullets to get them to stay put.

I have a wore-slick old G30 that shoots awfully well and can shift gears to 45 Super on the cheap or 460 Rowland with the kit. Loaded heavy, I'd prefer it over the old S&W.

You look good in green.



Travis

Have you run many of those through the 30S? How fast are you pushing them?

My experiences with two different 30S samples had them choking on heavy/hot loads (230 and 240gr cast); those same loads ran flawlessly in the heavier slides of the 30SF and 21SF, with less recoil and faster follow up too.

My conclusion, after trying a number of loads in them, was the 30S was a little nicer to carry (than the 30SF) but gave up too much in shooting. Like a 329, but not so extreme.

Clark, you continue to crack me up.........gotta make a trip to Havre one of these days.











But until then, you can still GFY

MM

Almost right. PERFECT backpacker's sidearm is the S&W 396 Mountain Lite.

10 grains Unique and a 240-250 cast is as heavy as I find tolerable. After that, I prefer a steel frame gun.

GFY!

I know one of these days I will have the right trading stock and you will be forced to hand that 396NG over to its rightful owner.

I have put exactly ZERO rounds of my heavy load through the 30S yet. Like you, I have run them in a 21, so now I am really interested to see how they do. The G21 runs them easily.

Of course I have never had a finicky G21.

I have a 329pd and a G20. I have backpacked and hiked with both. Both are good choices, but I prefer the G20.

Same here, the 21 seems to eat pretty much anything.

One caveat to my comment - my heavy loads were using Power Pistol and Blue Dot (not in the same load) and moving a bit faster than anything you can do with Unique safely. Your loads may work better if they're moving slower, but definitely test them.

Interested to hear your feedback once you run some heavy stuff through it. On both of my bud's 30S's, we decided 200gr or lighter worked best.

I was about to buy a g29, but I got a great deal on a g27 with 3 mags instead. However I also have a SF 20.

It is funny how many guns are made to sell vs how many are made to use. Anyone carrying a Scandium or Titanium gun sure hasn't shot one much. They may feel good on the belt, but all that vanishes when you shoot it.

The 3 inch S&W 686 + not only feels good on the belt, but it is also a shootable sidearm with plenty of power with 7 rounds in the cylinder. All that power of light 44 revolvers that you can't shoot worth a damn won't do a bit of good hitting dirt and anything else but the intended target...

Me too! I've got both and I defiantly prefer my Glock 20.
I've had my S&W 329 lock up and become non-functional when a bullet jumps the crimp do to heavy recoil. I prefer to shoot a 250 gr LBT WFN with 10 grains of Unique and crimp the hell out of them, for use in the 329pd

But with 16 rounds of Buffalo Bore 220 grain Hard Cast ammo in my Glock 20, I'll take it hiking in bear country any old day and twice on Sunday over the S&W 329pd.

Also, I've had a Glock 40 Longslide 10mm for about a month now, and I'm really loving it!
It makes my Glock 20 feel like a sub-compact.

I, I mean my son , will stick with a POS 4 5/8" Flattop 44 Mag loaded gently with 275 gr WFN's at 1050 fps. Easy to carry and shoot well. He's taken a particular liking to it.

+1 on the Old Model Flattop 44 Magnums. My wife has laid claim to my 6.5" OMFT because, unlike my steel frame single actions, it balances well in her hand.

Lipsey's really needs to get Ruger to make a run of Flattops with an alloy XR-3 frame. Unfortunately when they reintroduced the FT's Ruger caved to the alloy-whiners who, after 70 years of development of high-strength aluminum alloys, still object to any non-steel parts on their sixguns. Consequently, the NMFT's don't balance nearly as nicely as they might.

I shoot the scandium 329 just fine, but I freely admit is isn't 'fun' to shoot. It is akin to a NASCAR race car, great at one thing but not something you want to drive every day. The G20 on the other hand, is easy to shoot accurately.

Old model Blackhawk is great as well. I have a .357 and I use it (and a single six) quite often. I really like the G20 because it does so many things well. Wilderness, urban, resistant to environmental conditions, adequate power, etc.