.40 S&W

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Walkalong

Walkalong

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I don't have a .40 S&W anymore, never cared for it much and it costs nearly as much to shoot as .45 ACP, which I love. 9MM is cheaper and recoil is easy on me for shooting a bunch.

But both of my kids have one, and my FIL gave his Baby Eagle to my wife. I recently took advantage of the X-Treme sale to buy them each 500 X-Treme 180 Gr HP bullets. I had 100 left over so I did a little work up with them. I shot the latest today after work. I started with three powders, and low of course. I dropped Universal last time out.

Today's loads were 6.0 Grs of BE-86 and 6.1 Grs of Silhouette powered by S&B small pistol primers. I had the first four rounds from the Silhouette load into a wad before I got careless and opened it up, but either load/group is acceptable for me at 7 yards with open sights. I was out of my pistol targets and used a 100 yard rifle target. I made a dot in the middle with a magic marker.

I was looking for an Avg of 950 to 975 FPS from the 3.85" barrel. So far I had been under that.

52 degrees & 35% RH
S&B SPP
X-Treme 180 Gr HP @ 1.130 to 1.135 OAL

6.0 Grs BE-86
Hi=1027
Lo=944
Avg=976
ES=42
SD=26

6.1 Grs Silhouette
Hi=951
Lo=909
Avg=931
ES=42
SD=15

Gonna bump Silhouette up to 6.2 and try it again.

Both of these showed excellent accuracy potential IMHO. :)

8 rounds per target.
Loads # 42 & 43 6.0 Grs BE-86 & 6.1 Grs Silhoueete with the X-Treme 180 Gr HP with S&B Primers.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Load # 42 6.0 Grs BE-86 & 180 Gr X-Treme HP.jpg
    Load # 42 6.0 Grs BE-86 & 180 Gr X-Treme HP.jpg
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  • Load # 43 6.1 Grs Silhouette & 180 Gr X-Treme HP.jpg
    Load # 43 6.1 Grs Silhouette & 180 Gr X-Treme HP.jpg
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I'm still trying to figure out how your able to shoot rifle like groups with a pistol? Lol. :)

I never cared much for 40cal. Yeah, you get the happy medium with more weight and more rounds in the mag but IMO a 9mm and 45acp will do exactly the same. When i carried a gun for work everyone always asked "is that a 40" I bet that's a 40 glock? I always thought what are these clowns obsession with 40 glocks? It was actually an M&P 9mm.
 
The only 180 gr. I have reloaded with was MBCs. The rest were 155 & 165 gr. plated. That was pre-chrono days.
The only bullets I have left are some Xtreme 165 gr.
I was planning on getting out of the 40 altogether. But with the 40 falling out of favor, I'm not willing to take that big of a loss. Guess it's time to suck it up and buy more bullets.
I like Silhouette a lot in the 9. Walkalong, you look to be hitting pretty good with it on the target.
 
Walkalong, unlike 9mm which tends to produce smaller groups with shorter OAL; with 40S&W, I found 180 gr bullet with long bullet base, especially with plated bullets with rounded base that tend to leak more gas, loading them longer produced smaller groups for me.

With typical TCFP profile bullets, I prefer longer than SAAMI max of 1.142" as my working OAL (These 10 yard groups are from my 40S&W Herco thread) - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-for-lead-plated-bullets.743416/#post-9363753

index.php


With Berry's/RMR RNFP plated bullets, I use even longer OAL like 1.155" for RMR 180 gr HM RNFP - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ick-plated-bullets.761471/page-4#post-9645513

index.php


You have nothing to lose by trying some longer lengths and if you like, I can send you an assortment of 40S&W bullets for you to do some comparison testing.
 
bds said:
You have nothing to lose by trying some longer lengths
Click to expand...
I have tried that, but my younger son's Baby Eagle won't allow much over the SAMMI max with that bullet, and even shorter with the ACME coated I tried. I haven't checked that on the XDm my older son has. I am going to try 6.2 Grs Silhouette (Although I could be happy with 6.1) and may try N340 for curiosities sake. Like I said, I don't have one, just need to know a reasonably accurate powder to give him a good suggestion on what he needs to load for it and those X-Tremes. Will likely pick some powder up for them. Right now they are using the Longshot I gave them which did pretty well. Blue Dot also worked fairly well.I have more of that I could give them, but at this power level BE-86 and Silhouette shot better.
 
For 40S&W, I think BE-86 is hard to beat for accuracy.

I have tried Bullseye, Red Dot/Promo, Titegroup, Green Dot, W231/HP-38, Universal, BE-86, Power Pistol, WSF, Herco, HS-6 for 40S&W and BE-86 has produced greater accuracy loads.
 
bds said:
For 40S&W, I think BE-86 is hard to beat for accuracy.
Click to expand...
It has certainly shot well in this workup. Universal was unexpectedly poor after shooting very well at full power with Zero 165 Gr JHPs. I almost miss that Witness Elite Match in .40, it sure shot well.
 
The BE-86 6.0gr load for 180gr bullets seems like it always performs well. I recently did some load testing using 180gr pulled jacketed bullets, and this is my 6.0gr load I tested at 15 yards.
Load-964-05_15yd.png
 
Nature Boy said:
@vaalpens and @Walkalong awesome shooting
Click to expand...
Thanks.

The load above is a jacketed 180gr load, where Walkalong showed some 180gr plated results.

I haven't done much testing with 180gr plated bullets, but have done some with 165gr plated. For 165gr plated BE-86 performed well over a wide range where I saw consistent good accuracy at the low end of 5.8gr, and then again at around 6.3gr. My results normally don't correspond very well with other results, since I like to load with a shorter COL. My standard COL for 40s&w is 1.125".
 
kcofohio said:
I like Silhouette a lot in the 9. Walkalong, you look to be hitting pretty good with it on the target.
Click to expand...
Yea, the first four from the Silhouette load were all on top of each other and obliterated the black dot I drew on with the marker. Then my ADD kicked in and it got sloppy, but it was all me. I am going to bump it to 6.2 and if it still shoots like that, call it a winner.
 
Walkalong said:
Yea, the first four from the Silhouette load were all on top of each other and obliterated the black dot I drew on with the marker. Then my ADD kicked in and it got sloppy, but it was all me. I am going to bump it to 6.2 and if it still shoots like that, call it a winner.
Click to expand...
At least it let you get off 4. Anything less would have had you guessing. :D
 
Walkalong said:
Both of these showed excellent accuracy potential IMHO. :)
Click to expand...
Glad those worked out for you. Now you know how I ended up with a giant horde of xtreme HPs. If there's an accuracy loss compared to good FMJs it's swallowed by my shooting skill (or lack thereof) several times over. When you can get them cheap I've seen no better value, and they do live up to their 1500fps rating.
 
The bullet was a known factor, so this time around it was just a matter of narrowing down the possible powder choice to recommend or buy for my kids. I have a bunch of medium speed powders I could have tried. BE-86 beat them all out in medium .357 Mag loads as far as position sensitivity, and gave good accuracy as well. Always liked Silhouette. Accurate cannot make up their minds about where AA #5 is made. Ran out of HS-6, etc, etc. Universal (have three + pounds) didn't shoot well in this application, don't like Loudshot, Blue Dot was nice but not as accurate,..............
 
Walkalong said:
The bullet was a known factor, so this time around it was just a matter of narrowing down the possible powder choice to recommend or buy for my kids. I have a bunch of medium speed powders I could have tried. BE-86 beat them all out in medium .357 Mag loads as far as position sensitivity, and gave good accuracy as well. Always liked Silhouette. Accurate cannot make up their minds about where AA #5 is made. Ran out of HS-6, etc, etc. Universal (have three + pounds) didn't shoot well in this application, don't like Loudshot, Blue Dot was nice but not as accurate,..............
Click to expand...
Looking at Hodgdon's data, W572 looks to have Umph to it. I'm curious as to where it would fit in the mix of powders you mentioned.
 
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