Coonan Arms .357 Semi-Auto

[Stradawhovious]

I went to the range yesterday with a friend of mine and he was passing around his Coonan .357. This is quite possible the most fun handgun I have ever fired. A 1911 that fires standard .357 Mag cartridges. Whodathunk it? Word of mouth has it Coonan will be producing them again in the near future.... I hope to get my hands on one!

Here is a short compilation video from the trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6vWw9ciM14

 

[WardenWolf]

2 words: car gun.

 

[jem375]

had 2 at one time, like an Idiot sold them...

 

[Nausea]

They also worked on one in .41 mag.

 

[MachIVshooter]

They're kinda neat, but pointless, since the 10mm is the ballistic twin of the .357 and fits in a standard 1911 frame.

 

[HiVelSword]

I dunno MIVS. The Coonan is infamous for getting incredible velocities from the .357 mag. People have handloaded 125 JHP's to fly at 1,800 fps out of their pistols. That's 898 foot pounds. So with handloading I would say it would have an edge over the 10. But then you're stuck with 7 round mags where you can get 9 and extended 10 round 10mm mags from Tripp.

And one could also argue that the 9x23 with a 125 grain Silvertip at 1,450 fps mimics defensive .357 mag from a 4" revolver barrel. Therefore giving one an 11 shot ".357 mag" 1911.

All that being said, I wouldn't mind having one of each! And remember, one man's pointless is another man's point.

 

[Nick5182]

This might be a dumb question, but would .38's work in it, or does it need the higher pressure of the .357 to cycle the action like the Desert Eagle?

 

[MachIVshooter]

The Coonan is infamous for getting incredible velocities from the .357 mag. People have handloaded 125 JHP's to fly at 1,800 fps out of their pistols. That's 898 foot pounds.

I can believe it, but at the same time, my standard defensive load in the 10mm is a 180 grain Golden Saber at 1,406 from a 5" tube. That's 790 FPE, and is not an overpressure load. I can push the 135's at 1,700, but they perform very poorly when driven 300 FPS faster than their max intended velocity, as I imagine the 125's do at 1,800.

This might be a dumb question, but would .38's work in it, or does it need the higher pressure of the .357 to cycle the action like the Desert Eagle?

Not a dumb question, but no, .38's won't function properly in the Coonan. Too low powered, and the shorter case can cause feeding issues.

 

[HiVelSword]

I can believe it, but at the same time, my standard defensive load in the 10mm is a 180 grain Golden Saber at 1,406 from a 5" tube. That's 790 FPE, and is not an overpressure load.

Damn. Even Mike McNett doesn't push his 180's that hot.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Damn. Even Mike McNett doesn't push his 180's that hot.

He has liability. He loads good stuff, but is still well below max pressure, which is currently 35k, but was 40k in the beginning. I load 10.8 grains 800x, which is .7 grains over published data. This load hits 1,342 FPS from my Witness Compact (3.5" barrel), and will actually top 1,430 from the 5-1/4" poly rifled tube in my Witness Limited. My 1,406 figure was an average between the 1006 and the Kimber Stainless Target II.

Some cartridges shouldn't be pushed, either due to already very high pressures (WSM's and RUM's), because the case head or web is weak (.40 S&W), or because no firearm so chambered was built to handle it (.38 S&W, etc.).

The 10mm has a heavy case web, and the guns are built for it from the ground up or (typically) on a beefed up .45 platform. They tend to have fairly thick chamber walls and barrels because of this. I don't run the hot stuff in the Kimber as much, but the 1006 can take it all day long and beg for more.