need some 40 S&W load ideas

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Muley

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Hey fellas, I'm going to start loading for my 40 S&W and I need some ideas for loads to start with. I've got a bunch of hornady xtp and more brass than I can count. Lookin' for some educated gospel for this round. I've loaded for my rifles for years,,,,new at the handguns. By the way, I shoot a springfield XD/M. Thanks for any info. Happy shooting, and Holidays.
 
hs-6 with the xtps for sure! i use it in quite a few pistols with xtps and gold dots. plenty of juice and clean to boot.
 
I got the xtp's through harnady's promotion program. I am using bullseye. A little dirty, but shoots good in my XD & XDM.
 
If you're looking to hotrod these rounds, then look at power pistol or longshot. For general target rounds or factory velocity, look at Unique.:)
 
I load xtps with ramshot zip and I have found that my sig 40 seems to love 700x with a 165gr flat point
 
Universal Clays.

Works well with 165 and 180 grain bullets both jacketed and cast lead. Burns clean. Meters very consistently. Is useful in a wide range of cartridges.

Hodgdon shows it gives some pretty impressive velocities with XTP bullets.

All the Best,
D. White
 
The reason I posted Universal Clays earlier (and should have explained) is because it works with multiple bullet weights in .40 and also shoots well and is clean loaded soft in .40. I liked it so much in .40 I bought a 4 pounder of it.
 
I have had good luck with Hodgdon Universal in multiple calibers. I load fairly light and am using 5.2Gr with 180Gr plated bullets in my .40. I also use Universal for .380, 9mm, 9mm Largo, and .45. Nice thing about Universal is that I use the same charge for 9mm Largo, .40, and .45 (bullet weights- 9mm Largo-124Gr, .40-180Gr, .45-230Gr). Universal might not be the best powder but it burns clean, meters good, and produces good accuracy in all my pistols.
 
My standard 40 S&W match load that I use in my dozen or so pistols chambered in that caliber is a 155 gr. Berry's or Rainier TCJ-FP projectile over 5.4 gr. of Universal Clays at an OAL of 1.145" with a very light taper crimp, with whatever small pistol primer I can get my hands on. This is a soft-shooting subsonic load that clocks about 1030 fps out of the 5" barrel of my Springfield XD-40 Tactical. I've found this to be an extremely accurate load that regularly yields sub-3" offhand groups at 25 yards with the XD-40.
 
I spent some time today testing some loads using Universal and Missouri hard cast bullet IDP#5. Its a 180gr LRNFP.

Couldn't locate any specific load data for this bullet/powder combination so I interpolated/extrapolated from various sources and fired 10 rounds of the following:

4.4gr Hodgdon Universal, Winchester Small Pistol primers, 180gr LRNFP cast bullet. C.O.L. 1.132-1.135", Mixed cases

Same with 4.7gr, 5.1gr, and 5.5gr of Hodgdon Universal

Fired two 5-shot groups of each at 10 yards

The 4.4gr. and 5.1 gr. loads grouped noticably better than the other two with the 5.5gr load grouping poorly and possessing a strong felt recoil and muzzle jump. The 4.4gr loading was the best and is the one I'm going with with this bullet.

All fed thru my new XDm40 without hiccup, minimal smoke, clean burning,

TB
 
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