# Power factor



## mccoy (Dec 31, 2007)

Dear all,
reading some of Jerry Miculek's tips on the web (very clear and useful ones) I came across the expression: "Power factor" for the first time. 

For revolvers up to a Power factor of 200 he suggests one type of grip, for bigger revolvers, another (lower) one (the S&W 500 mag has a power factor of 640 according to him).

Anyone can tell me exactly what is this power factor and its units?


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

Hey mccoy, how are things across the big water.

Power factor in the competative gun world is :

Muzzle Velocity (Fps) X bullet weight in grains divided by 1000

for example:

Mv = 1000 Fps
bullet = 180 Grains

1000*180=180000
180000/1000= 180PF

In IPSC there are 2 PF levels used to determine scoring. Major is 165 and Minor is 125 last I heard.

I hope that helps.

:smt1099


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## mccoy (Dec 31, 2007)

TOF,
here across the big pond we are having some springtime weather, although we'd be supposed to have nearly freezing temps in this period.

Thanks for the reference on PF. I went and searched more on IPSC but it's a wide world out there, previously unknown to me, I've soon stopped lest I stay glued to the screen all day.

So PF should have the dimensions of a momentum, unless, as maybe I've understood, it's normalized by a momentum of 1000 fps*grs so it becomes a pure number...


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