Chupacabra
Member
I had heard DoubleTap makes excellent "full house" loads for 10mm and near +p loads for .45ACP. With my curiosity piqued, I checked their website and noticed that they also have loads for .40S&W, which I use in my home defense/carry pistol; A USP40 compact. Looking at the numbers they had posted, I could see this was hot stuff. A 165grain slug going at 1140fps from a 3.5" barrell! Yikes! Now I just knew that I had to try some of this stuff. I ordered two 50 round boxes of their 165grain Gold Dot load. Ordered on Tuesday, arrived on Friday via UPS. Total cost after shipping was about $53. A little expensive, but this is premium stuff.
So Sunday rolls around and my brother and I head out to the range for some paper punching goodness. First I warm up by putting 40 rounds of left over .45ACP through my Kimber Custom II 1911. Yay! That was fun! Now it's time to bust out the USP40c. I drop the magazine and eject the 180grain Federal Hydra-Shok I am currently using as a defensive load. I plan on shooting those later and comparing them to the DoubleTaps. Next I load up two 10 round Clinton magazines with PMC 165grain FMJ to get warmed up with the USP. While I'm loading up, my brother (A fellow USP40c shooter) had just finished up his turn at the firing line and came back to the bench to reload. I asked him if he would like to run a magazine of these new DoubleTaps through his gun. He says "okay," loads 10 into his magazine and steps up to the line...
Looking back, I probably should have shot these things first. I warned him they would probably be a little "hot." Sucker!
...takes careful aim, and squeezes the trigger...
KERBLAM!!!!
The sound coming out of that little 3.5" barrell was like thunder from the heavens. It shook the walls of the range and made me jump. It was LOUD. My brother turns to me and utters a string of swear words and we both grin.
Now it was my turn. I decided to stick with the plan and shoot 20 rounds of PMC through my gun to warm up. Pop x 20. No sweat. I'm shooting okay today. My groups aren't that bad at 20 feet, but I'm pulling them slightly to the right. I'll have to work on that with dry fire practice. I go back to the bench and load up the DoubleTaps. Honestly, I'm a little scared.
I step up to the line, aim, and squeeze... KERBLAMMO!!! Hey! That wasn't too bad! I describe the recoil as snappy with a sharp push back, but really not that severe. I was able to regain my sight picture quickly enough and I wasn't in any pain. However, about half way through the mag, I started noticing a problem.
About 6 months ago I accessorized my USP40c with a Hogue slip on rubber grip. It makes the grip a lot more ergonomic and shooting a lot more comfortable, because as we all know, the USP grip has stippling from hell on the front and back strap that will chew your hands up. Well, on Sunday, it was awfully warm at the range. It was early in the morning (about 10:30am) and they hadn't turned the air conditioning on yet. About half-way through the first magazine of DoubleTaps I started sweating. When I sweat, my hands sweat.
Sweat + Rubber grip + Heavy recoil = Not so good grip on gun. I was loosing my grip on the gun on every shot. Not good. So I take a break and decide to take the rubber grip off. I then head back into the firing bay to finish off the first box of DoubleTaps. The next 15 or so minutes were painful and afterwards my right hand felt like it had been hit repeatadly with a meat tenderizer.
But I had a better grip on the gun so it worked out okay. I finished up my session with the USP by shooting the 25 rounds of Hydra-Shoks I had been using for carry. In comparison, they felt like shooting 9mm. After that, I was spent! I concluded our range session by shooting some .22LR out of the Ciener conversion kit I have for my 1911. Sweet sweet soft shooting .22, I love you.
To conclude: DoubleTap ammo is HOT, but the USP handled it like a champ. Muzzle flash was almost non-existent. It is also very consistent and as far as I could tell, quite accurate. I neglected to test it out to 25 yards but I have no doubt it would group well at that range. I also had zero failures of any kind with this ammo. It cycled in my gun perfectly.
Personally, I would not shoot this out of a sub-compact. For me, shooting it out of a compact is pushing it but I feel comfortable using it for self defense in my USP40c. It would be perfect in a fullsize, all metal firearm.
All in all, I would give it four out of five devil smileys.
x 4
So Sunday rolls around and my brother and I head out to the range for some paper punching goodness. First I warm up by putting 40 rounds of left over .45ACP through my Kimber Custom II 1911. Yay! That was fun! Now it's time to bust out the USP40c. I drop the magazine and eject the 180grain Federal Hydra-Shok I am currently using as a defensive load. I plan on shooting those later and comparing them to the DoubleTaps. Next I load up two 10 round Clinton magazines with PMC 165grain FMJ to get warmed up with the USP. While I'm loading up, my brother (A fellow USP40c shooter) had just finished up his turn at the firing line and came back to the bench to reload. I asked him if he would like to run a magazine of these new DoubleTaps through his gun. He says "okay," loads 10 into his magazine and steps up to the line...
Looking back, I probably should have shot these things first. I warned him they would probably be a little "hot." Sucker!
...takes careful aim, and squeezes the trigger...
KERBLAM!!!!
The sound coming out of that little 3.5" barrell was like thunder from the heavens. It shook the walls of the range and made me jump. It was LOUD. My brother turns to me and utters a string of swear words and we both grin.
Now it was my turn. I decided to stick with the plan and shoot 20 rounds of PMC through my gun to warm up. Pop x 20. No sweat. I'm shooting okay today. My groups aren't that bad at 20 feet, but I'm pulling them slightly to the right. I'll have to work on that with dry fire practice. I go back to the bench and load up the DoubleTaps. Honestly, I'm a little scared.
I step up to the line, aim, and squeeze... KERBLAMMO!!! Hey! That wasn't too bad! I describe the recoil as snappy with a sharp push back, but really not that severe. I was able to regain my sight picture quickly enough and I wasn't in any pain. However, about half way through the mag, I started noticing a problem.
About 6 months ago I accessorized my USP40c with a Hogue slip on rubber grip. It makes the grip a lot more ergonomic and shooting a lot more comfortable, because as we all know, the USP grip has stippling from hell on the front and back strap that will chew your hands up. Well, on Sunday, it was awfully warm at the range. It was early in the morning (about 10:30am) and they hadn't turned the air conditioning on yet. About half-way through the first magazine of DoubleTaps I started sweating. When I sweat, my hands sweat.
Sweat + Rubber grip + Heavy recoil = Not so good grip on gun. I was loosing my grip on the gun on every shot. Not good. So I take a break and decide to take the rubber grip off. I then head back into the firing bay to finish off the first box of DoubleTaps. The next 15 or so minutes were painful and afterwards my right hand felt like it had been hit repeatadly with a meat tenderizer.
But I had a better grip on the gun so it worked out okay. I finished up my session with the USP by shooting the 25 rounds of Hydra-Shoks I had been using for carry. In comparison, they felt like shooting 9mm. After that, I was spent! I concluded our range session by shooting some .22LR out of the Ciener conversion kit I have for my 1911. Sweet sweet soft shooting .22, I love you. To conclude: DoubleTap ammo is HOT, but the USP handled it like a champ. Muzzle flash was almost non-existent. It is also very consistent and as far as I could tell, quite accurate. I neglected to test it out to 25 yards but I have no doubt it would group well at that range. I also had zero failures of any kind with this ammo. It cycled in my gun perfectly.
Personally, I would not shoot this out of a sub-compact. For me, shooting it out of a compact is pushing it but I feel comfortable using it for self defense in my USP40c. It would be perfect in a fullsize, all metal firearm.
All in all, I would give it four out of five devil smileys.
x 4
