Favorite 40S&W Loads / recipes

[qualcorp]

Anyone care to share their favorite 40 recipes? I will be using the Blue dot, with a 180gr. / 155gr. bullet, just setting the machine up now and looking at different websites for ideas, it seems they are all over the board on this could be touchy round. Thoughts ?
BTW This will be my first at loading 40's.

[qualcorp]

really only finding data for 150gr. and not much at all for 155gr. 400 bullets I found one that calls 11gr. and is for HP bullet, using FN, adjustments? Also I'm looking at 11gr. of Blue Dot in a 40 SW case and it jus dont seem right..

[870TC]

Try here
http://www.reloadersnest.com/frontpage_ ... liberID=12

[rugersol]

really only finding data for 150gr. and not much at all for 155gr. 400 bullets I found one that calls 11gr. and is for HP bullet, using FN, adjustments? Also I'm looking at 11gr. of Blue Dot in a 40 SW case and it jus dont seem right..

My '04 Alliant book shows 8.8gr blue dot fer 180gr JHP... and 11.5gr fer 150gr JHP... reduce by 10% fer start loads, and ya get 7.9gr and 10.3gr, respectively! ... I spose ya could go down to 10.2gr, fer the 155gr JHP!

Best to find a current Alliant book... and check with at least two other published sources!

[qualcorp]

really only finding data for 150gr. and not much at all for 155gr. 400 bullets I found one that calls 11gr. and is for HP bullet, using FN, adjustments? Also I'm looking at 11gr. of Blue Dot in a 40 SW case and it jus dont seem right..

My '04 Alliant book shows 8.8gr blue dot fer 180gr JHP... and 11.5gr fer 150gr JHP... reduce by 10% fer start loads, and ya get 7.9gr and 10.3gr, respectively! ... I spose ya could go down to 10.2gr, fer the 155gr JHP!

Best to find a current Alliant book... and check with at least two other published sources!

looking at the 40 case with that full from the top and oal of 1.12...thx I'm there should be zippy little buggers, using Nick plated cases for easy out

[BigDog58]

really only finding data for 150gr. and not much at all for 155gr. 400 bullets I found one that calls 11gr. and is for HP bullet, using FN, adjustments? Also I'm looking at 11gr. of Blue Dot in a 40 SW case and it jus dont seem right..

My '04 Alliant book shows 8.8gr blue dot fer 180gr JHP... and 11.5gr fer 150gr JHP... reduce by 10% fer start loads, and ya get 7.9gr and 10.3gr, respectively! ... I spose ya could go down to 10.2gr, fer the 155gr JHP!

Best to find a current Alliant book... and check with at least two other published sources!

According to Load Data.com and the 2008 Alliant book it calls for 10 gr of Blue Dot at 1113 fps and 11 gr at 1223 fps

If you want them in pdf form text me and I'll email them to you. It has at least 25 recipes with different powders. If you just want Blue Dot I can send you only those as well.

BD

[Seismic Sam]

Anyone care to share their favorite 40 recipes? I will be using the Blue dot, with a 180gr. / 155gr. bullet, just setting the machine up now and looking at different websites for ideas, it seems they are all over the board on this could be touchy round. Thoughts ?
BTW This will be my first at loading 40's.

Well, seeing as you told the n00b to spin into butter, and you're asking a serious, specific question, I'll give you a serious answer. Yes, the 40 is touchy, and in particular if the bullet sets back upon feeding, it can greatly jack the pressure and blow the gun. Not trying to start the old Tupperware rant all over again, but because of a lack of chamber support there is a reasonably high correlation between the earlier Gen 40 Glocks and KABOOMS. Surf the web and you'll find them all over the place.

As such, you need to be dead nuts on with your crimp technique, to the point that you need at least three mils crimp or maybe four. and this isn't a guessing game. Set your crimp, then pull the bullet, and measure the depth of the groove the case left in the bullet. that's the only way to know for sure what you're getting. And if I were you, I would invest in a Lee Factory crimp die, and DO NOT try to seat and crimp with one die!! You have to get a die set dead nuts on both in the press and the seating stem itself, and if you're asking for advice then you're not experienced enough to pull this off. I have described this procedure in another post in deatil, if you care to find it, but I still would NOT do this myself with a single seating/crimp die, even through I know how.

Secondly, yes you are getting load data all over the map, and I would hope ythat you have at least TWO reloading manuals to refer to, and remember that getting load data off the internet can be very dicey. In particular, the Alliant website, for whatever reason, only lists MAX loads for a lot of stuff, and their MAX loads are the real balls-to-the-wall data, and if you go beyond that your cases will start bulging a few tenths of a grain higher!! Dunno why they do it that way, but they do.

My Hornady #9 manual says for 155 grain JHP, the range for Blue Dot is 8.2 to 10.2 grains, and for 180 grain JHP/FMJ-FP the range is 6.4 - 8.3 grs. In all cases COL is 1.125" It's only when you get into FMJ-Round Nose that the COL gets longer.

FWIW, the original design spec for the 40 S&W was a 180 grain bullet going 980 FPS, and this was the original FBI requested loading for the FBI agents who were getting hurty wrists with the 10mm. The 40 is NOT a round that can be-hot rodded, unlike its older and bigger parent, the 10mm. As such, you want to stick to the specs and NEVER exceed them. If you wanted the ability to go hotter and experiment more, then you need to buy a 10mm, and I would personally get one that's ALL steel.

The 40 and 10mm have the same relationship that the 38 Special and 357 mag have, but while the weaker 38 Special came first, in .400 bullet diameter the 10mm came first and then its Shorter & Weaker sibling. While the SAAMI pressure for the 40 is 35,000 PSI and the 10mm is 37,500, which is not a big difference, I think there is a HUGE difference in the construction of 40 and 10 guns, with the 40 being a 38 Special duty round and the 10mm being a smoking hot hunting/max ft-lb round. So watch your butt, because the 40 is a watered down 10 with a hard upper ceiling, while a 10 was the original Jeff Cooper design with upper limits that were not that strict.

[qualcorp]

Right On and Thank You SS. I'm using a Dillon with a separate crimp die and follow to the T.I found Aliant Blue Dot load last night on web was 11.0 (don’t have the fps in front of me here) and looking at the amount of powder in that case kind of spooked me, just a little. I made up 25, thinking this evening I will dial it back. I have used the SS 10mm load and was just the bomb. I liked it and my plastic gun seemed to hold together.

[shooter115]

For practice and match ammo I use 180gr Zero's on top of 3.1gr of Clays. Off the top of my head velocity was around 760 FPS. Very soft shooting, accurate and will run most factory sprung guns as long as you have a good grip. Runs like a champ in my XDm 5.25 with a 16lb recoil spring. Bonus is you can load almost an infinite amount of ammo from 8lbs of ammo. The bad news is, since it's a low density load, it is possible to double charge a round.......which could get ugly.

[qualcorp]

really only finding data for 150gr. and not much at all for 155gr. 400 bullets I found one that calls 11gr. and is for HP bullet, using FN, adjustments? Also I'm looking at 11gr. of Blue Dot in a 40 SW case and it jus dont seem right..

My '04 Alliant book shows 8.8gr blue dot fer 180gr JHP... and 11.5gr fer 150gr JHP... reduce by 10% fer start loads, and ya get 7.9gr and 10.3gr, respectively! ... I spose ya could go down to 10.2gr, fer the 155gr JHP!

Best to find a current Alliant book... and check with at least two other published sources!

The loads I did last night were;
11.0 Blue Dot(weighing 10 dumps average 11.0) 155gr. Zero FN bullet, 1.120 OAL, Nickel Plated case, .3xx crimp and WSP. suppose to give me a 1,221 FPS round. Using a Dillon 550B with Dillon Carbides
I'm going to hammer one apart today and double check that crimp.

[SIGP240]

Blue Dot in 40? Hmmm, that stuff can spike pressure if you get a heavy drop. It may not read as a high pressure load if you read the primer, but watch the case web bulge for potential blow outs. I settled on 5.9 gr Unique with 175 TC hard lead. Accurate and snappy recoil, yes smokey especially at BPR in the 24C!

[qualcorp]

Blue Dot in 40? Hmmm, that stuff can spike pressure if you get a heavy drop. It may not read as a high pressure load if you read the primer, but watch the case web bulge for potential blow outs. I settled on 5.9 gr Unique with 175 TC hard lead. Accurate and snappy recoil, yes smokey especially at BPR in the 24C!

You know that’s the big right on. Fire in the hole! I had 2’ flames coming outa the G22. Next rounds are Unique, I picked up 4# from another member just for the 40 SW. Is it smoky dirty?

[bdub416]

For target shooting I settled in at 6.0grs Unique under 180gr jacketed bullets. Chrono at about 1,000fps with my full size M&P40. I've thrown quite a few Berry's plated (180gr) down range as well, but dialed back the load to 5.5gr. I've never been one to load max charges ... particularly with the .40. Have fun and give us a range report!

[tator2k]

6.0 gr N350 on 180gr TC

[qualcorp]

For target shooting I settled in at 6.0grs Unique under 180gr jacketed bullets. Chrono at about 1,000fps with my full size M&P40. I've thrown quite a few Berry's plated (180gr) down range as well, but dialed back the load to 5.5gr. I've never been one to load max charges ... particularly with the .40. Have fun and give us a range report!

5.5 Unique for the Berry's 180. I have some of those. Nice target round? Accurate... Load some up tonight let you know how G22/34 likes em. Thanks