.30 Super Carry at the BUG Match!

I don’t normally take actual backup guns to the backup gun match; it’s usually some oddball old pistol. But today, I decided to bring out the new S&W Shield Plus in .30 Super Carry. It’s actually exactly the sort of gun that the match is designed for. I chose to minimize the size of the gun by using the 13-round flush magazine instead of the extended 16-rounder.

I took the generous magazine capacity of the .30SC to heart and treated the little Shield Plus more like a service handgun than a backup carry piece, liberally dumping rounds at every target.Combined with the compact Sentinel red dot optic, this was a great combination – I nearly won the whole match!

15 Comments

  1. I am a lover of Antique weapons or anything up to 1920. Especially the single shot breech loaders from Pauley to Military multi shots and early Auto pistols and multi shot revolvers.

  2. If this super-duper carry had come out pre 2020, I would have laughed and waited for it to die and fade away, (.327 Fed anyone?). But at a time where manufactures are having a hard time keeping up with .45 and 9×19. At a time with so many new shooters and this adding to their confusion. The .30 super-stupid really pisses me off. And now with Shield Defense’s new flush fit 9 rd mags, (10 with finger floor plate), for the Glock 43. Yep, I see no need for the “Not quite .380 +p..sort of”. Can’t wait to see it die and fad away.

    • “(…)confusion(…)”
      Wait… this seems to be caused by lack of CIP standardization, rather than design features of said cartridge. Is process of fixing that issue in progress or not?

      • CIP is more likely the source of none standardisation

        Witness the idiocy with 12.7x70mm Schuler when someone registered the “original .500 Jefferey) with the CIP

        Interestingly, examples of the original production .500 Jeffery rifles (2 examples of the 27 that Jeffery originally produced) didn’t have the chamber dimensions that had been registered with the CIP

        https://www.westleyrichards.com/theexplora/the-mighty-500-jeffery-in-a-westley-richards-droplock-double-rifle/

        Individual businesses were well able to get international compatibility whenever they wanted to, before the CIP and SAAMI came along – for example Mauser offered .250 Savage and .318 Westley Richards as factory chamberings between the wars.

        12G shotgun cartridges of various lengths were standardised internationally decades before the CIP

        The compatibility that CIP does claim, is often a one size fits all
        An example of that would be their minimum chamber dimensions for.284 Winchester, which is 0.010″ wider diameter than the maximum case head

        Such a sloppy fit might be necessary for a semi auto or a pump action, but not for what the majority of. 284s (and derivatives, such as .284/6.5mm ) are built on now, which are decent quality bolt actions

        • “(…)before the CIP(…)between the wars(…)”
          This organization was created in 1914 year, see for example
          https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_internationale_permanente_pour_l%27%C3%A9preuve_des_armes_%C3%A0_feu_portatives\
          …la C.I.P. est fondée le 15 juillet 1914…
          therefore it does predate Interbellum.

          “compatibility that CIP does claim, is often a one size fits all”
          Whole point of standardization would be missing if you would need to boggle your mind with does cartridge fit or not…?

          “(2 examples of the 27 that Jeffery originally produced)”
          This is small enough quantity to not bother with submitting for standardization process. My understanding that more than 27 examples of fire-arms chambered for .30 Super Carry will be produced.

          What I found important is that CIP grants one true name which might be used by all interested without trademark and similar issues. Just imagine what would happen if not 9 mm Luger were standardized. Each manufacturer would probably want to use other name than others, e.g. you would one fire-arm stamped 9 mm Borchardt-Luger, other Patrone 08 yet other .38 Luger so on.

        • COunter argument is the much more relevant cartridge 5,56*45 mm, that under SAAMI has two slightly different different specifications as .223 Remington and 5,56*45, that can cause problems sometimes. That there are problems in a catalogue with a million or so different cartridges is I think inevitable, because of man making errors. I am sure without looking, that SAAMI also has some errors and problems in its long list of cartridges.

  3. While I am also disappointed that .30 Super Carry derives no ancestral influence from 7.65 French Longue despite having similar dimensions, it’s nice to see it has a bit of knockdown power (300+ ft/lbs of muzzle energy).

    I love my .32 ACPs, and often take them to the range, but they often can’t even knock over steel targets unless I double-tap them in quick succession.

    • “(…)love my .32 ACPs, and often take them to the range, but they often can’t even knock over steel targets(…)”
      If you need cartridge akin to 7,65 mm Browning, but with greater momentum answer is 8 mm Ultra https://naboje.org/node/18696
      It was developed in 1934 by G. Genschow & Co. and does throw 5,75 g bullet at 320 m/s. It was designed to be used with blow-back operation.

      • Funny how similar the probelms are that have been tried to be solved so long ago. In this case a cartridge for small compact pistols, but giving it some power.

    • It has more similar dimensions and energy to the 8mm Roth-Steyr. It’s even surprising how a so high rise in pressure resulted in a so meagre increase in actual bullet energy (while at the same time preventing the cartridge to be used in simple blowback handguns).

  4. Wow, 13+1 or 16+1. Very cool but I want more info (and more capacity, and more power, and more concealability, and so on, etc.). Using MagGuts I have 12+1 or 14+1 in my SIG P365 but more is often better. I wonder if they could squeeze more rounds into the Shield mags in the future? 15+1 and 18+1 would be great! Lets break out the Labradar and a bunch of hot defensive ammo and see if the 9 is any more powerful in the shorter barrel pistol than the 30 shall we? If it isn’t, then a strong case could be made to switch. Also, I love the match magic when he gets the last shot to drop the last plate on stage 4. Great stuff as always Ian, thank you.

  5. Left field question:

    If you took a standard 7-shot magazine for the .45 Colt 1911, and stuffed .30 Super Cartridges into the magazine, might it function as a double-column-stacked two-position-feeding magazine? Maybe all it would take to do so would be an appropriate magazine follower?

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