Velocity PC carbine

Yesterday, a co-worker brought his chrono indoors and ran factory ammo out of his 4" XDm 9mm vs. his PC carbine. The longer barrel of the carbine added 250-350/fps depending on the brand used.

Here's some work I did with my chronograph and seems to confirm your friend's experiments. The 16 inch barrel really perks up the MV and the energy, of course!

Liberty Civil Defense 50 grain was 1932feet per second out of the pistol; 2604 (+672) out of the carbine with 753 foot pounds of energy
Federal 105 grain was 1124fps out pistol; 1386 (+262) carbine with 444fpe
Freedom Munitions 115 grain was 974 out of the pistol; 1251 (+272) carbine with 400fpe
Hornady Critical Defense 124 grain was 975 out of the pistol; 1294 (+277) carbine with 461fpe

You get some great velocity out of the 16 inch barell. The 9mm really picks ups speed. approximately 100-300 fps .(depending on bullet weight and powder load)
My 40 caliber carbine averages only 100 fps increase (which is just fine )imo.
Love them pistol carbines!

I just had some of the 65 grain NovX +P ARX and +P RNP's delivered by the Big Brown Truck. Advertised (on the box) velocity for the ARX's is 1655fps and for the RNP's it's 1635fps. It will be interesting to see what pumping them through the 16 inch barrel will do for those velocity numbers. I'll let everyone know what my chronograph records.

I got out to the range this morning before the wind picked up and tested the NovX (the +P RNP) rounds through the carbine and a pistol.
5 shots through each firearm; chrony set at 15 feet in front of shooting bench; 65 grain bullets
Through the 3 1/2 inch Glock, the average MV was 1657fps
Through the 16 inch PC9, the average was 1980fps; an increase of 323fps, and at this speed, 566 fpe!
And they were accurate, as well at 50 yards!
I intend to test the +P ARX rounds as soon as I get a calm day and the time to test them.


Since, as we all know, muzzle velocity drives muzzle energy, I thought this chart might help put it all in perspective. The little 9mm bullet, driven at high speeds, can flat out put some energy down range.

Adding some more data top this thread. I have tested two 9 mm loads in both my 5" M&P 2.0 pistol and in my 16" PC Carbine. The loads and velocities are:

124 gr. Montana Gold JHP, 4.4 gr of Titegroup

M&P = 1163 fps PCC = 1261 fps Difference= 98 fps

124 gr. LRN, 4.0 gr of Titegroup

M&P = 1136 fps PCC= 1244 fps Difference= 108 fps

So the longer barrel does add some velocity but not a great deal. I've always heard the 9 mm is not terribly barrel length sensitive and my data seems to confirm, that. Perhaps larger charges of a slower powder would make the velocity differences greater.

Great report! Thanks for sharing some good information with us!!

Thank you! Exactly what I was after the other day's thread. Mine arrives Friday. Going to rifle range as soon as I get it.

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I did some velocity work today. The load was 7.2 grains of Power Pistol pushing a 90 grain Hornady XTP. Each string I shot consisted of 5 shots. Chronograph was set 10 yards from the end of the shooting table.

I first shot a string with the Ruger SR9; average velocity was 1390fps
Next up was my PC 9 with an XL Linear Compensator on it; average velocity was 1790fps
Next was the PC 9 without the Compensator on it; average velocity was 1784fps

Then, just for the heck of it, I removed the barrel from my carbine and replaced it with the barrel of my son's carbine. There was no change in Point of Impact.

All indications are that this little rifle is a very solid platform!!

mikein said:

I did some velocity work today. The load was 7.2 grains of Power Pistol pushing a 90 grain Hornady XTP.

Click to expand...

As I conjectured, a larger charge of a slower powder did provide a greater velocity increase from the longer PCC barrel. My difference with Titegroup was only about 100 fps while yours with Power Pistol was about 400 fps. My "Relative Burn Rate" chart shows Titegroup right next to Bullseye in burn rate while Power Pistol is a bit slower than Unique.

Tipped rams over at 200yds. That little 115 grainer seems to hold its own.

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Box magazine fed firearms have problems with rimmed revolver cases so a dedicated and proprietary magazine would be required for the .357 mag to be used in a PC Carbine.

Remember Ruger's original 44 Mag semi-auto used a 4-round tubular magazine like a lever action rifle, and their later .44 mag "Deerfield" semi-auto and 96/44 lever action used a 4-round rotary mag. Neither used a high capacity a box like the current PC Carbine.

Frankly, if you want more power than the 9 mm, there are tons of suitable rounds available but they don't fit in a short, light carbine and can't be handled by a reasonable weight blow-back action.

Well there's a more potent cartridge than the 357-the 10mm! It doesn't have the problems redesigning a magazine to feed rimmed. It makes a lot more sense.

A PC carbine in 10mm - Yes Please!

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You point out a problem with today's 9/10mm loads. They are optimized for shorty CC pistols. They even under perform in my blackhawks with a 6.5" barrel, forget a 16! It's quite possible to load for the 16" barrel, but not with loads that will perform well in a 3" barrel! Even LIL' gun will produce an improvement. Confabulating load problems with cartridge capacity ignores 50+ years of development. The situation is more like the 30-06 versus the 308. Except that the 10mm, with good loads, will beat the 357. It's just harder to load for.

I consider the 9mm to be a versatile self defense cartridge. In a pistol it retains enough energy to meet the military's "kill" requirements at 400 meters. In the carbine with perhaps 200 additional fps it should be an excellent weapon at 100-200 meters. That is well within rifle ranges. 9mm is obtainable everywhere and makes an outstanding survival and self defense round. I have the PC9 and consider it to be an excellent combination of power and controllability. What else does one need?

I pretty much agree; but with some factory loads you don't get an extra 200fps or even 100. Really you ought to get around 400fps from a 16" barrel. The 9mm is great except that some factory loads have gone overboard in optimizing for pocket pistols. Nothing wrong with that except they should be honest that the load will under perform even in a 6.5" barrel.

Good point, Grobin. I plan on shooting ball ammo in my PC9, and I imagine that is not optimized for short barrels. But I need to do some research and find out. Thanks.