Advice on .40 S&W?

Dframe said:

The ONLY powder I use for 40 S&W is Hogdon "Clays". It's the cleanest powder I've ever used.

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Be very careful using Clays in high pressure cartridges like the 40 S&W. Clays is an extremely fast powder and it's been known to spike pressures when used in high pressure rounds.

Do you really get acceptable velocities when using Clays in the 40 S&W without generating excessive pressures?

Legionnaire said:

Advice on .40 S&W?

I'm looking for something to drive 180 grain TMJs and JHPs, primarily at target velocities, although some full-power defensive loads would be good, too.

a pound of Greed Dot ... I bought that to preserve my remaining Unique for my .357 and .44. Hope to work up a serviceable load in the next couple of weeks.

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I would use Green Dot for target loads but for full-power loads use Unique.

During the last shortage when W231/HP-38 were hard to find, I found Green Dot to be fairly comparable (most of my 9/40/45 loads needed .2-.3 gr more than my W231/HP-38 loads).

Here's 2004 Alliant load data

bds said:

During the last shortage when W231/HP-38 were hard to find, I found Green Dot to be fairly comparable (most of my 9/40/45 loads needed .2-.3 gr more than my W231/HP-38 loads).

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I agree, Green Dot is close to W231 in performance but I have also found Green Dot to be very difficult to find the sweet spot. It seems Green Dot will be very accurate in an extremely narrow charge range, at least for me.

Along with W231/HP-38 and Green Dot I found Ramshot Zip to be very close in performance too. I think Zip is even closer to W231 and Green Dot.

I usually use either HP-38/Win231 or Universal, but I would certainly not hesitate to use Unique if I had it.

Has anyone tried Win WSF in their .40 165gr FMJ reloads?

Greg

ArchAngelCD said:

Green Dot is close to W231 in performance but I have also found Green Dot to be very difficult to find the sweet spot. It seems Green Dot will be very accurate in an extremely narrow charge range, at least for me.

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For me as well. My comparable 9/40/45 Green Dot loads were not as accurate as W231/HP-38 loads but I was recommending Green Dot to new reloaders when W231/HP-38 were not available so the slight drop in accuracy didn't matter much.

glc24 said:

Has anyone tried Win WSF in their .40 165gr FMJ reloads?

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Yes. I like WSF for loading moderate to full-powder 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP loads. I also use WSF with bulk Speer Gold Dot and Remington Golden Saber JHP bullets to load practice defensive loads as I use factory Speer GDHP and Remington GS BJHP ammunition for SD/HD pistols.

Yes I'm doing fine with the Clays. I always keep my loads within specs and have fired many thousands without any mishap. ALL of the others I'm seeing recommended are also very fast. Generally fast powders are required in recoil operated semi autos in order to provide a fast enough impulse to operate the slide properly.

Dframe said:

ArchAngelCD said:

Dframe said:

The ONLY powder I use for 40 S&W is Hogdon "Clays"

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Be very careful using Clays in high pressure cartridges like the 40 S&W. Clays is an extremely fast powder and it's been known to spike pressures when used in high pressure rounds.

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Yes I'm doing fine with the Clays. I always keep my loads within specs and have fired many thousands without any mishap.

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Just keep in mind that so did everyone else until they experienced problems.

Consider this.

For higher pressure 40S&W, especially if mixed range pick up brass with unknown reload history is used, I recommend slower burn rate powders than W231/HP-38 at mid-to-high range load data and not max load data. With mixed range brass, you never know when you pick up a brass that's been fired several times with hot loads in less supported barrels that stretched / thinned / weakened the case wall then fixed with push-through sizing die (Redding G-Rx/Lee FCD) and polished to look nice again. You won't know this until you experience case failure, sadly.

Loading for 40S&W with too many reported KaBoom incidents, I recommend using caution. I reserve verified once-fired brass for max loads but that's me.

Most of my .40 brass is once fired from the local cops.

Out of curiosity, does anyone 'trim' their .40 brass? I know I've read a lot of people (most actually) say no way on .45, was wondering if it was more important on .40 considering possible issues.

Arbo said:

Most of my .40 brass is once fired from the local cops.

Out of curiosity, does anyone 'trim' their .40 brass? I know I've read a lot of people (most actually) say no way on .45, was wondering if it was more important on .40 considering possible issues.

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I've only heard of people trimming revolver brass.

I'm trying green dot hopefully it goes well in these plinking loads.

If you trim a case that head spaces on the case mouth, all you are doing is INCREASING headspace, not something that encourages either accuracy or reliability.
Straightwall cases don't seem to ever grow, but most will shrink.

Arbo said:

Most of my .40 brass is once fired from the local cops.

Out of curiosity, does anyone 'trim' their .40 brass? I know I've read a lot of people (most actually) say no way on .45, was wondering if it was more important on .40 considering possible issues.

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In reality most straight walled pistol brass will shrink slightly rather than stretch so that's why many will suggest no trimming necessary. Check for yourself and you will see what I mean. When I first started reloading I checked pistol brass for length and quickly realized I was spending time where it was no necessary so I stopped.

After a great deal of testing and fitzing around I came up with these loads and now that's all I do for .40 S&W.

1) Target Loads: 6.0gr Unique behind a 155gr Berry's Plated FN bullet
2) "Full House" #1: 6.2gr Unique behind a 180gr Sierra (8460) JHP
3) "Thunderhead" load #1: 10.0gr BlueDot behind a Hornady 155gr XTP (#40000)

I've shot vast amounts of #1. It's a nice stable practice load.
I've also shot a lot of #3 but I'll tell you right now it is a LOUD load!

Legionnaire said:

Well whadyaknow. I was poking through my powder and found a can of Longshot! I didn't buy it, so it must be one of the powders given me by my father-in-law when he gave up reloading. I'm guessing he used it for his .357. In any event, I have some to experiment with. (And I guess I need a better inventory system.)

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I think you'll really like the LongShot! Last week I cleaned my G22 after 4 trips out and about 400 rounds. 1 wet patch through, 2nd dry and it was clean. No deposits in the mag well or breach/chamber/port area. Just clean.

a quick question on longshot can it be loaded to velocities say around 1000fps
or does it need to be full tilt, to burn well looking at the new hornady book
its including longshot for the 40 s&w and show data from mild to full speed
been using hs6 but might give it a try,
lots of good info on this thread

JO JO said:

a quick question on longshot can it be loaded to velocities say around 1000fps
or does it need to be full tilt, to burn well looking at the new hornady book
its including longshot for the 40 s&w and show data from mild to full speed
been using hs6 but might give it a try,
lots of good info on this thread

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.40 is probably the single round I have loaded the most for... by far. I shoot .40 pretty hot, using 2# heavier recoil spring and recoil buffer pad.

LongShot does produce a high velocity load! The low end data for a 165 gr JHP is 1139 and in my g22, I find that anywhere in the range (1139-1185) is consistent, clean and much more accurate than I am even off a bench. I will say that the lower 3rd of the formula burns dirty in a friends Ruger SR40 and totally clean in my G22. I solved the dirty issue in the SR40 by either upping the load slightly or tightening the taper crimp just a tad. Either, upped the case pressure in the SR40 and got the brass to seal, and thereby improved burn.

If you are looking for 1000fps with pretty clean burn, (and economical) you might run some TiteGroup. mid range load with TiteGroup is about as economical as you can get with very good consistency.
165 GR. BERB FP Titegroup .400" 1.125" 4.5 960 24,300 PSI 5.1 1060 31,800 PSI
TiteGroup meters exceptionally well and as you can see, mid range it's only 4.7ish grs so it goes along ways on a pound of powder. TiteGroup is considered to be a pretty fast powder but is fairly forgiving for being fast and is remarkably not case position sensitive for a low case fill.

If I was out for mid range speed at low cost with good balance of accuracy, it would probably be TiteGroup. Followed by Unique, with LongShot holding the favoured
position.

Berrys 155 in 40

I have found that 3.8 Grains of Hodgdon Clays or Alliant Clay Dot works fine as a target/IDPA load with a 40 Berrys 155 RNHB or Flat Point. Velocities are not high but this is a very accurate load which is much more important.

I load 5.1 grains of Unique behind a 180 grain plated bullet and it does just fine. I just started looking for a suitable load for 180 grain lead bullets using the same powder.

For BDS. I avoid range scrap. I also load no more than 3-4 times (at slightly less than full power) then the brass goes to the recycler, especially since I'm "Glock"ing a pretty good number of them. I've never trusted "Glock Brass" entirely.