MDof2 said:
What's the general consensus or philosophy on faster versus slower burning pistol powders in the 40S&W cartridge?
I have loaded 40S&W with Bullseye/Red Dot/Promo/Clays/WST/Titegroup/N320/Green Dot/W231/HP-38/Unique/Universal/BE-86/Power Pistol/WSF/Herco/HS-6/AutoComp/CFE Pistol and found:
- Unique/Universal/BE-86/Power Pistol and slower burning powders are better suited for 40S&W especially for higher velocity full power loads
- W231/HP-38 and faster burning powders tend to produce more snappier recoil and slower burn rate powders to tend to produce less snappy recoil.
- Slower burn rate powders need to be pushed high-to-near max load data to produce more efficient powder burn and chamber pressures for accuracy
- Faster burn rate powders can produce lower velocity/pressure target loads that are still accurate
figured I'd cast a line to see if there was a guinea pig before me that swam across that river.
During the component shortage of 2010 when popular powders were hard to come by, since I shot 40S&W with faster burning powders many in my group buy suggested I be the guinea pig and test Promo using Red Dot load data (as suggested by Alliant) and had workable success with jacketed/plated/lead bullets -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=6509911#post6509911
Because of snappier recoil, Red Dot/Promo would not be my first choice for 40S&W but if more popular powders were not available, I would not hesitate to use them at lower target velocities/recoil. With 180 gr jacketed/plated/lead/coated lead bullets, around 4.0 gr produced balance load between accuracy and less snappy recoil for me.
Titegroup and 800X ... Berry's 165g and 180g bullets.
Would appreciate any feedback, suggestions or ideas on playing with different / slower pistol powders and how they liked it, what it did to accuracy, etc.
- While I have loaded 40S&W with WSF (full power loads) and W231/HP-38 (lighter target loads) for decades, Herco and BE-86 have become my favorites for producing accurate mid to high range loads.
There's no current published load data for Herco and 40S&W but I referenced 2004 Alliant load data for 180 gr Berry's plated and MBC lead bullets with good results -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=743416
- While SAAMI max OAL/COL for 40S&W is 1.135", depending on your barrel's leade/freebore length, using longer OAL that will reliably feed/chamber from the magazine will decrease gas leakage and produce greater accuracy. On the Herco thread, 180 gr TCFP bullet for my barrel tested 1.149" as max OAL and 1.145" as max working OAL and I settled with 1.142" as my final working OAL -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9362819#post9362819
Shot groups with Herco and RMR 180 gr HM RNFP loaded longer at 1.155" -
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9924922#post9924922
Shot groups with BE-86 and RMR 180 gr HM RNFP loaded at 1.155"