My first 40 S&W handloads

[Bullseye]

A recent deal on THR trading post included some dies and 155 gr Hornady HP/XTP bullets. CCI 500 sm pistol primers.
My powder load is 6.2 gr Unique in a light taper crimp 1.121 OAL.
I have a Ruger P94DC and a SIGPRO 2340 to check these out.

 

[Ccctennis]

Good looking rounds. Now get out there and shoot them!!!

 

[Walkalong]

Cool pic.

 

[Lennyjoe]

Should be a mild load for the range. Alliant prints 8 gr as max so as long as the 6.2 cycles and fires good you should be set.

http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/recipedetail.aspx?gtypeid=1&weight=155&shellid=29&bulletid=40

 

[edfardos]

P944. Mine was picky about that taper crimp, but you got it perfect at 1.121. Great work.

 

[SwaneeSR]

Nice.

Just got a delivery of .40SW Xtreme 180gr at my house today. Moving up from 165gr, I better get to work.

 

[kirk37r]

Nice.

Just got a delivery of .40SW Xtreme 180gr at my house today. Moving up from 165gr, I better get to work.

Im curious to see what load yu come up with for your 180s. I just got A shipment of Extreme 180 Gr yesturday. Still have some 165 gr to work thru first though.

I have TiteGroup, Bullseye, HP38 and A bit of 700x onhand

 

[ksimons]

I have been using Xtreme 180gr for about two years now. Titegroup is one of my go to powders at this time. 4.4gn with a COL of 1,125 works well in my M&P's

 

[Lennyjoe]

I'm using Xtreme 180's and Longshot currently with good results.

 

[GLOOB]

Should be a mild load for the range. Alliant prints 8 gr as max so as long as the 6.2 cycles and fires good you should be set.

Yeah, I noticed that myself. I also noticed they list 7.7gr UN as the max load for a 158 gr GD in 357 magnum, with a listed muzzle velocity 200fps slower out of a 10" 357 barrel.

I think 6.2 will cycle most 40SW firearms out there. I am comfortable jumping right to max with many of my loads/guns. I've intentionally gone beyond Alliant's max for one of my 9mm loads, based on older load info. But I haven't even flirted with this max load, yet. It seems curiously optimistic. 6.2 seems eminently reasonable for a start load.

 

[vaalpens]

With the bullet you are loading, I think you have a low but good starting point. I always use realguns.com and Steve's pages as a sanity check.

Realguns show the following 7.2gr load with a 1200fps for the same bullet out of a 3.9" P229. Same barrel as what you have in your SIG:

Hornady HP-XTP 155 .400" 1.125" Unique 7.2 CCI 500 1200

Steve's pages shows a Unique From 5.8 grains to 8.0 grains range, so you are good within his limits.

Your SP2340 should love your handloads.

Have fun and be safe.

 

[gamestalker]

I just tried some 180 gr. JHP's with Longshot recently, and they performed really nice. I don't usually run 180's, mostly 155's and 165's, but I was pleased. But as with all my Longshot loads, I have found that it performs at it's best when worked up to the top end.

GS

 

[SwaneeSR]

So finished up the last of the 165gr XTreme bullets last night.

I have the powder measure setup to throw 4.8gr of 700x at this time. I will now transition to the xtreme 180gr RNFP HPCB bullets.

I have 700x, 800x, Tightgroup, Clays, and Longshot available. The Hodgdon data shows a charge range for 700x to be 4.2 to 4.7 gr. for something similar. I will load up a few at the low end and see how they perform.

BTW - the 800x I purchased during the dark days of the shortage. It metered poorly but surprisingly did not perform awfully in 40sw. I have been using it up in my shotshell press where it works ok in the MEC 9000g for heavy trap loads.

Once I have my small amounts of different powders used up I am considering standardizing on one powder for 9mm and .40sw. I have heard good feedback on Tightgroup, the only negative is that it sounds like it requires less case volumn and may be easier to double charge. I have good lighting in my press area, and I do keep a watch on the case fill before I place the bullet.

I am thinking of trying the Tightgroup next.

 

[SwaneeSR]

The lack of powder availability did force me to try different pistol powders. It also pushed me into rifle handloading since I could find rifle powder.

I will stop short of calling the shortage a good thing. But it did force me to try powders other than Clays and Longshot.

 

[Toprudder]

For 9mm and 40, I like Power Pistol, BE-86, Titegroup.

Others (that I have not tried in either or both 9mm and 40 yet) HP38/W231, AA#5, CFE Pistol.

 

[Bullseye]

Fired a 10 rd mag from the SIGPRO 2340 this morning and all is well with these reloaded cartridges. Very pleased with them cycling, accuracy and I don't have any reason to change the recipe. I'll have to see how they work in the Ruger P94DC next.