Success with 45/45/10

[gray wolf]

45/45/10
all mixed in the proper proportions work out just great in the wife's 40 Beretta.
Bullets were 175 TC WW+tin and the RCBS 38/40 bullet also 175 grain.
Lee push through sizer .401 exactly.
Some bullets were coated once and some were coated two times.
In any case the coating were very light and I had hard time mentally accepting that it would work. The bullets were brassy looking and the coat was even.
The bullets were in a small plastic tub, it held about 50-60 bullets.
I filled a plastic cup with water and nuked it till it boiled, let it sit for a Min. and put the bottle of lube into it with the flip top in the up position. I shook it every 30 Sec. until the lube felt and sounded very loose in the bottle.
The bullets were Pre heated with a hair dryer till they were quite warm to the touch.
Made the Z over the bullets and rolled them around till they were evenly coated.
Then dumped on wax paper. They were dry enough to stand up after 20 Min. and dry enough to load in about 1 1/2 hours.
I had no trouble with loading them, my dies stayed clean, I checked the seating die after about 30 rounds and it was fine.
The load was a light load for Julie, 4 grains of tite group powder and the bullets were loaded long. 1.140 for the TC and 1.150 for the very flat nosed 38/40 bullet. Just enough crimp to get rid of the flare on the case mouth.
The dies were UN-altered Lee 40 S&W dies, did not use the FCD.
The pistol functioned with no problems and cycled the rounds.
Accuracy at 15 yards off a bag was a raged hole about an inch in diameter.
Recoil was about like my 45 ACP and I did not chase the shells, about 6 feet away.
Now for the best part--there was no leading in the barrel and this is not a smooth barrel it has it;s ruff spots.
a little #9 on a brass brush and a few cotton patches and it was clean.
Hats off to JD for his great job in coming up with the formula.
It was a nice day all in all and I am happy with the 45/45/10

[geargnasher]

Great news, Sam! You have what I like to call a "balanced load". Powder charge and burn rate good for the alloy and gun, good enough boolit fit to work well, good enough lube for the application, and the proper loading techniques employed.

I've used 3.8-4.0 grains of TG myself behind the 175 grain Lee TC, it works like a champ for target-velocity loads. I like a fast powder and medium alloy like what you did if there's any chance of boolit swaging by the case, the powder is at peak pressure just as the boolit is engraving the rifling, so it can "bump up" the boolits and give them all the sealing help it can if the alloy isn't too hard. I wouldn't push that powder much harder, though, it gets mighty "spikey" with pressures at a certain point, so if you desire more velocity (which I can't see that you'd really need) switch to Unique or similar and keep the pressure up, meaning start in the middle of the published data rather than at the bottom.

Gear

[gray wolf]

Gear---
I don't have The powder you suggested but I do have Long shot and have used it
in the 40 with very good results. It doesn't have the initial start up kick but with the right alloy it works very well.
I had some loads with me that had a Ha,Ha, load of 6 grains of long shot.
It was mild, accuracy was fine and function was fine. But I could tell the load was a little lite for that powder. The cases were carbonized( sooty ) a long the sides.
Not enough pressure, but then again the long shot is a low pressure powder.
Long shot is a nice powder to achieve higher velocity and keep the pressure down.

[geargnasher]

Longshot is one of my faves for HV .40, you're right, it needs to be a pretty stiff charge to seal the cases since it builds pressure so slowly. The soot reduces as the pressure rises, LS also needs a considerable bit of pressure to burn cleanly. At those pressures, I've had trouble getting tumble lube to work. Carnauba Red and BAC mixed 50/50 works great, as does Felix lube with 1 Tbsp. carnauba per pound added.

Gear