RMR 180gr FMJ RNFP ... curious what ... these are seating @ and what powders are being used?
I have WSF, BE86 & Alliant Sport pistol on hand as well as a few others. Just looking for a solid load to kill paper 7-15 yards.
You have good selection of powders for 40S&W and Herco is another good powder for 40S&W. When I shot USPSA in the 90s, I used WSF to make major PF and W231/HP-38 to make minor power factor.
In recent years, WSF got replaced with BE-86 as it produced more accurate loads than my reference loads. W231/HP-38 got replaced with Sport Pistol as it meters better (
Capable of less than .05 gr variance), burns cleaner (Many match shooters consider Sport Pistol the new N320 that burns cleaner) and much less temperature sensitive -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-performance-info-for-shot-011017-pdf.235432/
Mind you, I like WSF and even Herco for 40S&W as they produced good accurate loads (Herco even burned inside of cases clean
) but if I had to choose one powder, I would lean towards BE-86.
Below are 15/25 yard groups with 6.1 gr Herco and RMR 180 gr HM RNFP loaded to 1.155" (More on using longer OAL below) -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-for-lead-plated-bullets.743416/#post-9363753
W231/HP-38/Sport Pistol can produce 9mm-like light target loads with 180 gr bullet from 3.9 gr to 4.3 gr at 1.135" (Which BTW is below Hodgdon's start charge) that I have used to introduce new shooters to 40S&W due to light recoil, especially with compacts/subcompacts -
http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol
180 gr BERB FP W231/HP-38 COL 1.125" Start 4.4 gr (872 fps) 26,400 PSI - Max 5.1 gr (984 fps) 33,500 PSI
For optimal seating depth/OAL and resulting accuracy, while I usually seat 9mm much deeper than SAAMI max to increase neck tension for more consistent chamber pressures; with 40S&W I do the opposite, especially for 180 gr TCFP/RNFP with long bullet base (To reduce gas leakage) and load them longer than SAAMI max of 1.135".
In this thread, I incrementally increased 180 gr TCFP OAL longer than SAAMI max (Started from 1.125") and found longer working OALs produced incrementally smaller groups (Many match shooters will use even longer 1.180"-1.190" depending on the barrel) -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-for-lead-plated-bullets.743416/#post-9363753
While around 1.142" OAL works with various 180 gr TCFP bullets in my M&P40/Glock 22 (Even with Lone Wolf barrels with tighter chambers), I found 180 gr RNFP can be loaded longer.
Due to the nose profile/ogive of RMR 180 gr HM RNFP, Glock magazine max length of 1.165" dropped in the Lone Wolf and Glock 40S&W chambers freely with a "plonk" and spun without hitting the start of rifling. Taper crimp used was .421". However, 1.165" dummy rounds got stuck in the magazine tube when I loaded 3 rounds. While 1.160" dummy rounds fed and chambered from the magazine even in tight chambered Lone Wolf barrels, 1.155" was decided as the final working OAL to compensate for variations in resized mixed range brass lengths.
Below is RMR 180 gr HM RNFP loaded to 1.155" next to 1.135" -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ick-plated-bullets.761471/page-4#post-9644303
I check for sufficient neck tension by measuring OAL before and after feeding/chambering the dummy rounds from the magazine and releasing the slide without riding it. After two chamberings, I did not measure any bullet setback so I rechambered five times. Guess what? No bullet setback!
Below are 25 yard groups with 6.1 gr BE-86 and RMR 180 gr HM RNFP loaded to 1.150"/1.155" -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ick-plated-bullets.761471/page-4#post-9645513
Alliant load data -
http://www.alliantpowder.com/reload...wderlist.aspx&type=1&powderid=38&cartridge=29
180 gr FMC BE-86 OAL 1.120" Max 6.6 gr (1,068 fps)
180 gr Speer CPFN BE-86 OAL 1.120" Max 7.0 gr (1,086 fps)
Since some could not believe shot groups obtained with BE-86 and factory stock Glock 22 (With well broken-in trigger), I asked THR member Dudedog to verify next range test in person and got the below group -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ick-plated-bullets.761471/page-4#post-9646469
So I would recommend using HK's barrel to determine the longest working OAL that will feed/chamber reliably from the magazine.
BTW, the 180 gr RNFP FMJ bullets listed on RMR's website appears to be Montana Gold bullet (Which I used exclusively for USPSA shooting) and they are very consistent bullets for accuracy (Maybe Jake could verify for us
) -
https://www.rmrbullets.com/shop/bul...tal-jacket-round-nose-flat-point-bullets-new/