Quote:
Originally posted by HardDrive
Shuie, can you elaborate on this?
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Im not a guru with this stuff or anything but I'll try.
when we are talking about guns, to me the term 'gas operated' means that only gas from the discharged cartridge is used to do the work of cycling the action.
Handguns like the Walther PPK and Sig P232 have a fixed barrel and use only the recoil from the cartridge to work the action. I dont know what the technical term is but I say they are blowback operated. .380 is about the limit for this in a handgun. Anything else batters the hell out of the gun. If youve ever shot a Walther PPK chambered in .380 ACP or even in .32 ACP you know its not the most comfortable gun to bring to the range. Neat guns, but way too much recoil for less than 200 ft lbs of stopping power, IMHO.
The H&K P7 guns are way different than the USP line. They have a fixed barrel like the PPK are chambered mostly in 9mm (there were a handful in 10mm and .40, IIRC). The gas tube in a P7 is used to retard the recoil that would otherwise batter the hell out of the gun. The recoil of a P7M8 will still catch you off guard if you are not used to shooting anything hotter than a 9mm. Its snappy for a heavy 9mm.
With the Browning design, the barrel is not fixed to the frame. The breach of the gun is effectively locked while the gun is in battery by a set of lugs on the barrel that fit a matching set of grooves in the slide. As the round is fired the energy from recoil takes the gun out of battery by tilting the barrel back so the barrel lugs 'unlock' from the slide' and the action can be cycled.
Gunsmiths, forgive me, and please correct me if what I typed about the Browning design is inaccurate. Its simple genious when you see it animated, but its not easy for a dummy like me to articulate the genious of Jonathan Browning.
As far as stopping power goes, if you are comfortable with a 9mm and are worried about the stopping power of the cartridge, then shoot twice
Kinda doubles the 'stopping power'