Back like a rebel making trouble...expanded the footprint

[Potatohead]

Helloooo my fellow handloaders, especially all ye who taught me the trade and helped me avoid blowing myself to little pieces! Hope you all are doing well and saving lots and lots of money loadin' your own I wanted to drop in and see how everyone is doing of course but Im also hoping you'll share some knowledge too.

My wonderful wife surprised me with my dream pistol on fathers day, a Walther PPQM2 4"bbl (and oh my the trigger is everything you could want on a stock piece of plastic) The only problem darn it is that I have to get my press dusted off because it's in 40 cal. Ive only stockpiled 380 and 9mm so it's time to get cranking again.

(Of course Im perusing my manuals) but the main thing Im kind of curious about are the powders, i know 9 mil was kind of that #15-30+ area of the burn rate chart, but which section would you say is optimal for 40sw? I know thats a bit murky and subjective but just wanted to see what you all thought. I picked up AA5, HS6, and CFE Pistol yesterday, on top of quite a few other handgun powders I have on hand already.

Also any other tips are always appreciated, I know I'd always heard 40 is a "setback special" waiting to happen (I dont see why it would be more prone than any other caliber so Im not sure I believe it). I hope setback was the right word there, it's been awhile. Hope to hear from you all, thanks! Will check back in when I get home from work.

 

[Potatohead]

Well, either the 40 cal is a red headed stepchild , or I am.

If anyone happens to drop by and post, I'm also wondering if hornady dies are ok to use on an LCT? I know they'll fit, I'm just wondering about the powder thru, isn't that something that only Lee does?

 

[Gtscotty]

Honestly, I use W231 to load for both 9 and. 40 (and mild .44 mag). There is a lot of overlap between decent 9 and .40 powders, especially if you're like me, use heavier bullets and aren't going for warp speeds. As for dies, I just use run of the mill Lee carbide dies and haven't had any issues. .40 really isn't hard to load for, and with 180gr pills at moderate velocities, is quite enjoyable to shoot.

 

[Potatohead]

Thanks for your post Gt. Looks like their is quite a bit of crossover with the 9mm powders (thank goodness). I'm definitely in the "load heavy bullet" camp also, or at least that's the direction I gravitated with 9mm. Hard to explain but I like the nice little "thump" of the heavy bullets.

Thanks again. I've only shot the new gun once and it was quite accurate with factory stuff, can't wait to dig in and cook something up. Hornady dies are on the way, hoping I can get the powder thru somehow��

 

[vaalpens]

Welcome back.

I think you are in the correct range of powders, but you can use faster powders like 700X and Bullseye also, without any issues. It all depends on what you want to get out of your loads.

I currently only load 165gr plated bullets and use BE-86, CFE Pistol and Longshot as my powders.

For me 40s&w is easier to load than 9mm and I have not seen any setback issues. Since 40s&w is a high pressure round, setback can be catastrophic. You just need to follow good reloading practices.

RMR currently has some 165gr FMJ pulled bullets at a great price if you still need to purchase any bullets. I normally load in the 1000+- fps range, so a good plated bullet is sufficient for me.

Enjoy your 40 and be safe.

 

[witchhunter]

Welcome back Tater.

 

[Potatohead]

Thanks so much for the help guys, and the welcome back. I pulled the press from our offices back to the house today. Feels good to be "back in the saddle", as they say. Hope it's like riding a bike though.

 

[JimKirk]

Tater .... give Longshot ...a shot in your 40 S&W .... it works very well in my 357 SIG .... the redheaded stepbrother of the 40 S&W ....

 

[9mmepiphany]

I've loaded .40 with WSF, BE-86, and Clays.

A very popular powder among local competitors is N320

 

[ArchAngelCD]

All the guys I know who load for the 40S&W use either AA#7 or Longshot with the majority going to AA#7. I'm sure HS-6 will also do a good job if you already have some on hand.

Welcome back...

 

[mstreddy]

I've been loading 40 with WST under 180gr plated.

 

[Dudedog]

!

Welcome back Tater
missed your unique humor

 

[Walkalong]

Tater .... give Longshot ...a shot in your 40 S&W .

It works well.

Good to see ya Tater.

 

[Potatohead]

"Unique" humor...you should hear what my wife calls it LOL.

Seriously though thanks so much guys. Sorry if it's overly cheesy to say but it's sure nice to have this community. Feels good to chat w everyone again.

I'll put my tissues away now...


Good to hear about the Longshot, I have a bit stowed away. Also I wondered when i bought it, if my AA5 purchase shouldve been AA7. It appears that way as Im seeing quite a bit of AA7 recipes in my manual perusing. One of these days Im going to learn to do the investigating BEFORE doing the purchasing.

 

[Captaingyro]

I have been very happy with HS-6 and TiteGroup in the forty (although the small charges with TiteGroup make me a little uncomfortable).

I recently assisted in a powder test where CFE Pistol did very well. My next batch of .40 will be loaded with that.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I have been a Unique fan for about 40 years, and even used up some old Green Dot that I had on hand. All of the problems I have had with 40 cal have been self induced. It was a learning curve because I shot wheel guns until last year.

 

[LiveLife]

Walther PPQM2 4"bbl ... 40 cal ... I picked up AA5, HS6, and CFE Pistol yesterday, on top of quite a few other handgun powders I have on hand already.

I'm definitely in the "load heavy bullet" camp

Welcome back and congratulations on the new pistol!

40S&W is a very flexible caliber to load for, especially with 180 gr bullet, as you can load lighter with moderately faster powders like W231/HP-38 to produce 9mm-like recoil loads for practice. I use 3.9-4.3 gr of W231/HP-38 to incrementally introduce new shooters to 40S&W. Now my wife shoots 40 caliber Glocks without issues and my sister with small hands even shoots matches with her M&P40. When people ask about snappy recoil of 40S&W, they go, "What snappy recoil?"

While I used HS-6/WSF for major PF loads and W231/HP-38 for major/minor PF loads for USPSA matches with 180/165/155 gr bullets, 165 gr JHP with 5.0 gr of W231/HP-38 was my favored load.

Over the years, I have found Universal, Power Pistol, AutoComp and CFE Pistol to work well and have Long Shot on hand which many like. In recent years, I have come to like Herco which (believe it or not) burns particularly clean for 40S&W (even leaves inside of cases clean) and produces very accurate loads. My current favorite is BE-86, which I consider the modern Unique that meters well and accuracy has surpassed all of my previous 40S&W loads.

Also any other tips are always appreciated, I know I'd always heard 40 is a "setback special" waiting to happen

SAAMI max OAL/COL for 40S&W is 1.135" but many factory barrels have longer leade/freebore and with many TCFP/RNFP bullets, longer OAL is needed to produce accuracy (1.143" for Berry's/X-Treme TCRS/TCFP and up to 1.155" for RMR RNFP. So use the barrel of your pistol to determine the max OAL and use the longest working OAL that will reliably feed/chamber from the magazine - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9362819#post9362819

RMR 180 gr HM RNFP at 1.135" compared to 1.155"

If you are concerned or experiencing bullet setback, consider RMR's Hardcore Match thick plated bullets with harder alloy core of 11-12 BHN. With RMR 180 gr RNFP loaded to 1.155", I do not experience bullet setback, even after multiple chamberings. Although I favored Montana Gold jacketed bullets for match shooting, with 5% THR discount, $106.40/1000 shipped is very good price for bullets I would gladly shoot matches with - https://rmrbullets.com/shop/bullets...0-10mm-180-gr-rmr-hardcore-match-rnfp-plated/

1" - 2" shot groups at 15/25 yards with Herco and BE-86 - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9924922#post9924922

 

[Rule3]

Hey Spuddly!

Longshot was mentioned so I am gonna add Power Pistol. I use both

That said there are many powders that work

Enjoy!

 

[Blue68f100]

All my shooting buddies use WSF for the 40 cal. A little slower than Unique but meters a LOT better.

 

[Potatohead]

Thanks for the info guys, thanks. Great info B, I appreciate it. Never tried WSF, it seems to pop up a lot in these conversations.

I almost bought a bit of Silhouette last night and then I couldn't decide on it or True Blue...ended up just talking myself out of it. It got me thinking though, I wonder why a powder company would put out a similar powder with a similar burn rate..? Theyre really close on the chart. I know its not linear necessarily so maybe they're actually miles apart, maybe that could be it?

 

[ATLDave]

IIUC, Silhouette is the same powder that used to be marketed as Winchester Action Pistol. It already had a (small) following, someone else did the R&D work for it, and Ramshot doesn't actually manufacture their powders... so there's really little disincentive, other than the hassle of another SKU and load data to update/maintain, for them to put out another powder of similar burn rate to True Blue.

FWIW, I load a lot of Silhouette in 10mm cases to .40 levels. It's got good enough case fill for me to see without having to peer too hard, but efficient enough not to go through gallons of the stuff. I haven't played with True Blue.

 

[Walkalong]

If you look at Ramshots burn rate chart Silhouette and True Blue are not close to each other. I have tried both and like both.

Silhouette should be a good fit for .40.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Thanks for the info guys, thanks. Great info B, I appreciate it. Never tried WSF, it seems to pop up a lot in these conversations.

I almost bought a bit of Silhouette last night and then I couldn't decide on it or True Blue...ended up just talking myself out of it. It got me thinking though, I wonder why a powder company would put out a similar powder with a similar burn rate..? Theyre really close on the chart. I know its not linear necessarily so maybe they're actually miles apart, maybe that could be it?

You are right, being close on the chart disentangle them close in burn rate. The chart will tell you which powders are faster or slower than others but not HOW MUCH faster or slower.

 

[ColoradoShooter77]

I'm pretty much loading 40 cal with Longshot exclusively with 165 and 180 grain bullets. It just works, burns clean and produces strong velocities at lower than normal pressures.

I've also found that I can load up to 1.155" with flat nose bullets, it works in all of my pistols.

 

[gojones]

I am not as experienced as many of the posters above but I shoot 165grn Everglades using WSF and BE-86. I started with Unique until I went through my last lb.