Berry's 155 HB: what powder? What OAL?

[1KPerDay]

Powder Valley finally came through with my order and I can start shooting .40 again... need recommendations on powder choice for these. I haven't loaded HB before; does it make a difference? None of my books have info for these.

I have HP-38, Herco, and Red Dot. No chance of anything else for a while. I'm using mixed brass and Winchester SPP right now (usually CCI but I ran out).

I was thinking of starting around 5 grains of HP-38; that seems to be around the starting load for W231 in a couple of manuals. Most say a max of around 6 grains. These are for plinking/informal competition where power factor is not measured. So light/mid is fine as long as it's accurate and reliable.

Glocks, Taurus PT101. I've read that most people load .40 to 1.13" in Glocks... is that a common practice?

Advice welcome.

 

[1KPerDay]

Oh, I have Bullseye too.

 

[LiveLife]

Berry's 155 HB ... I was thinking of starting around 5 grains of HP-38; that seems to be around the starting load for W231 in a couple of manuals.

You are in luck. Hodgdon recently added Berry's bullets (BERB) for 40S&W and you don't have to guess anymore. Although the published load data is for the regular plated solid base Berry's bullets, you should be fine working up the load for the HB bullet. The hollow base extends the bullet length and the bullet base will get seated a little deeper so I would stay slightly below max load data. Here's Berry's and jacketed load data for comparison.

155 gr BERB FP 231/HP-38 OAL 1.125" Start 5.1 gr (979 fps) 24,100 PSI - Max 6.0 gr (1130 fps) 33,900 PSI

155 gr Hornady XTP W231/HP-38 OAL 1.125" Start 5.0 gr (937 fps) 22,900 PSI - Max 6.0 gr (1103 fps) 33,000 PSI

I have HP-38, Herco, and Red Dot ... Oh, I have Bullseye too.

I have found Bullseye 40S&W loads to be snappy (even at mid-to-high range load data) and prefer W231/HP-38 mid-to-high range load data which still has some snap to the recoil. I have not used Herco for 40S&W but like W231/HP-38 for 40S&W (165 gr Montana Gold JHP or plated bullets with 5.0 gr of W231/HP-38 is my favorite target load). I have tested Promo for 40S&W using 2004 Alliant Red Dot load data by weight with 155/180 gr jacketed/plated/lead bullets and while it produced firm/snappy recoil loads they were very accurate - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=6509911#post6509911

Glocks, Taurus PT101. I've read that most people load .40 to 1.13" in Glocks... is that a common practice?

I load for G22/G23/G27 and longer leade/smooth start of rifling will accommodate the longer OALs but I typically load 155/165/180 TCFP jacketed/plated (MG/Berry's/PowerBond/Rainier/X-Treme) bullets to 1.125"-1.130" OAL that also work well in M&P40.

 

[1KPerDay]

Many thanks.