.400 Corbon in a 1911

[g_one]

So I'm curious, as I'm doing more research into 1911's and reloading - I understand that the .400 Corbon was basically designed to mimic the ballistics of the 10mm. Does this mean that, for all intents and purposes, felt recoil and slide battering are also going to be equal to the 10mm when shot out of a 1911?

 

[Wil Terry]

IT NEVER WAS in mine, at all.

 

[jdh]

400 CB is much more gentle on the gun and the shooter than full power 10mm in my experience with both. 400 feeds better. Performance is very close.

YMMV

 

[MikeJackmin]

Pretty good writeup here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/400_Corbon

The .400 operates at significantly lower pressures, for this very reason.

 

[Chuck Perry]

About two years ago I was hell bent on a 1911 in 400 CORBON. The more research I did, the less enthusiastic I became. It's not as versatile as the 10mm. It's not as fast as the 10mmn. It's more difficult to reload than the 10mm. Not impossible to reload, just the bottleneck case 400 requires more attention to detail than the straight wall cased 10. Cases can be formed from 45ACP which was a big drawing point for me. But, CORBON made the switch to small primer 45 brass and recommended not using large pistol brass. SP 45 brass is somewhat common now but it's just another complication.

If you want 10mm performance, get a 10mm. If you just want a niche cartridge to fool around with, go for it!

 

[Zaydok Allen]

It's not as fast as the 10mmn. It's more difficult to reload than the 10mm. Not impossible to reload, just the bottleneck case 400 requires more attention to detail than the straight wall cased 10.

I've heard that is the case with 357 sig as well, for the same reason.

 

[dtsdave]

If you are looking to wildcat your 1911, go with 460 rowland. It uses your 45acp dies and is a pretty powerful load to shoot. There are buffalo bore loads available for purchase.

 

[Chuck Perry]

I've heard that is the case with 357 sig as well, for the same reason.

I'm a 357 SIG fan and can attest to that! Still, for me the SIG round offers something that is not otherwise available. Since it's a near ballistic match for a 125 grain 357 Magnum load, with my M&P I get a 16 shot 357 Magnum with a better trigger and quicker reloads than my S&W 686. If I need 357 Magnum performance in a semi that I cannot duplicate with the SIG round, then I pull out the Coonan

 

[BlindJustice]

I've got a .400 Cor Bon Barrel from Jarvis

I've read that the .400 COr Bon is limited to 155/165 gr. bullets
because the 180 gr. and heavier bullets are too long and take
aaway from case capacity when seateed to correct O.A.L.

ALso, on the Ammo Can / 1911 Forum board a couple of years
ago a rep. from Cor Bon said the SAAMI rates it at 23,000 CUP
which is the same as .45 ACP +P.

Randall

 

[BlindJustice]

I found Reeds Ammunition & Research .400 CorBon ammo

155 gr. Hornady XTP HPs @ 1,350 fps
155 gr. Gold Dot JHPs @ 1,350 <- Not listed currently

and R.A.R. also offers

165 gr. Gold Dot JHPs @ 1,300 fps
165 gr. Golden Saber JHPS @ 1,300

Same bullet weights with R.A.R. is 50 fps faster.
flat shooting in either case

Randall

 

[mljdeckard]

My experience matches post #5 exactly. I decided that there wasn't enough of a performance improvement to justify it. I'll just get a 10mm.

 

[hentown]

I've got a .400 Cor Bon Barrel from Jarvis

I've read that the .400 COr Bon is limited to 155/165 gr. bullets
because the 180 gr. and heavier bullets are too long and take
aaway from case capacity when seateed to correct O.A.L.

ALso, on the Ammo Can / 1911 Forum board a couple of years
ago a rep. from Cor Bon said the SAAMI rates it at 23,000 CUP
which is the same as .45 ACP +P.

Many moons ago, I loaded and fired over 10,000 .400 Cor-Bons and over 3000 .40 Supers. .40 Super is a superior round, but there just wasn't factory support.

I was having trouble getting .400 Cor-Bons to feed from my double-stack G21 magazines; blew up my first G21, and later discovered that the Klintonista G21 mags had a shallower stack angle and fed .400 Cor-Bon o.k.

I was getting a lot of advice at the time from Peter Pi, Prez of Cor-Bon. He suggested that I cannelure and roll-crimp my .400 Cor-Bon brass into the cannelures, in order to mitigate setback. Peter confirmed to me that the only reason they didn't recommend bullets larger than 165 grains was because they'd be competing against their own 185 gr .45acp +ps. There's absolutely no problem with loading 180s.

I fired most of the .400 Cor-Bons through G21s, but do have a .400 Cor-Bon barrel (all of my .400 Cor-Bon barrels are threaded and compensated) for my 70 Series Gold Cup. Never had any feeding problems with the 1911 single-stack.

Having wasted a lot of $$ and time before "discovering" 10mm, I sure do wish I'd made the 10mm discovery a few years earlier than I did.

Setback can be a bear with the short-necked bottlenecks like the .400 Cor-Bon!

 

[Walkalong]

The .400 Corbon is fun, but it is certainly no 10MM. Mine is strictly for fun with something different.