Anyone here pressing .41 AE?

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Fire1

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Has anyone worked up any good loads in .41 AE? I just started woking on it last night with Sierra 170gr JHC. I made two series: one with 800X up to 8.5gr (book max per Sierra), and a workup with AA#7 up to 11.0gr (book max per Sierra, max per LEE is 9.3gr. Be careful!!). Any other suggestions? I am shooting my first batches tonight. I'll post results here if anyone is interested.
 
I hear it's very similar in many respects to .40 S&W so starting on the low end would probably be a better bet. At the top you start getting into dangerous pressurse and typically lose accuracy, although it depends on the gun.
 
Sorting brass

I was just tumbling some brass to get ready for sale and I was picking out 40 caliber ones and always hold them in my hand to look at the head stamps and for the first time I saw a 41 AE and was surprised as have never heard of it. It looked identical to me.

Also in sorting .380 brass I found an identical one also that said 9mm-K ? New stuff to an old timer

John Paul
 
Careful with the 800x.... most volumetric powder measures cant meter this stuff very well.... I've seen my lee meter drop it with variances +/- 1.5gr!
I weigh every case with my digital scale for powder charge before I top my rds off.

That said... try some of the lighter bullets with the .40/41AE 800x... really impressive boomers. (although you may have to develop your own loads for 800x.....)
 
Well both series of loads shot VERY well. I had no misfeeds, and the groups were quite impressive. The next step will be to shoot the two max loads over the chrony. I do think my Tanfoglio is under-sprung for the .41AE because I was consistantly getting primer wipes on the fired rounds. Can anyone suggest a spring weight? I was thinking 18lb.

Fireinthehole - I know what you mean about how hard it is to get 800X to meter well. I hand weighed each of the rounds in that series. Meterability may be the deciding factor in choosing which load will be my standard. If the velocities are close, I will go with AA#7 just because it is so easy to meter. They were all impressive boomers!

John Paul - How many pieces of .41AE brass did you find? I you have enough to be worth the trouble, I may be interested in buying them. 9mm-k must be 9mm Kurtz. I have heard the .380 refered to as that, but I didn't know it was an official designation.

Black snowman - While I do want to have safe and accurate loads, the only advantage .41AE has over 9mm is in the upper end. Since this will be a hunting sidearm, I need all of the power I can get out of it. Actually, the max loads did not appear to be any less accurate than the starting loads I made.
 
You might want to try hodgdon's longshot... it meters well and is comparable to 800x in light bullet loads. At least it feels comparable. (no chrony) Some folks have claimed it doesnt shoot the heavier(170-180) loads well.

135gr @ 1450fps is interesting at an indoor range.
 
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