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Tango2020
10-15-2011, 07:12 AM
I am currently building my arsenal for SHTF which consist of my new .223 AR and Springfield XDM 40

I have been trying to cast for my .40 for about 4 months and can't get it pinned down. I'm using unique powder which I have about 8 pounds of and 4 buckets of WW ready to roll.

Barrel slugs to .400 and I'm sizing to .401. Using straight WW

1 unique with L Alox leads at slightly at all charges down to .5 gr but haven't tried and lower. ( after all I want it to be effective as a self defense round if need be.)
Unique burns ver dirty at those pressures also.

2. Made Felix lube and works great at 5.8 gr BUT gums up the throat and will not go into battery after a few rounds. Tried many variations with same result. The good news is 0 leading and powder burns cleanly.

I'm now using a Lyman M die and have no swaying of the bullet. You can actually seat them with your finger.
I love the casting process an want a large supply if ammo ( in case ) but I'm having a rough time with this .40.

Advice please.

casterofboolits
10-15-2011, 07:58 AM
What are the specific problems you are trying to eliminate? What mould are you using?

I have had good luck with the Lyman #401638 40-175-TCBB. I have two four cavity moulds and can turn out a year's supply in an afternoon. The boollts drop at 174/175 grains with my alloy.

lavenatti
10-15-2011, 08:48 AM
Sounds like you simply need to wipe the excess lube off the loaded ammo.

Moonie
10-15-2011, 09:03 AM
There are a couple of things I'd try. First I'd try mixing up some 45/45/10 rather than straight alox. also I would try sizing to .402 or if they will chamber not sizing at all. I do not size my boolits for my .400 CorBon and use 45/45/10, I get no leading whatsoever and I push them faster than the 40 is capable of, with Unique. Granted at a lower pressure.

Tango2020
10-15-2011, 10:42 AM
I'm using a 175 SWC lee mold 2 banger. I am on my 2nd mold and sizer due to the fact that I leemented the 1 at ones and opened them up gradually to .4035. Using a micrometer. At this point I was getting lead shavings blown back at me during the shot. .4035 is way to much.
With the Felix lube I clean ALL excess lube from the bullet with the exception of the single lube groove.

I dint think fit is the issue because with Felix I have no leading at all it just gums up the works.

And the Alox is 45 Alox / 45 JPW and 10 OMS. Sorry for the confusion.

RobS
10-15-2011, 12:21 PM
The lead shaving blow back with the larger diameter boolits could be due to a end of the chamber/beginning of the throat. It's tight, fine for jacked bullets, PITA a bit for larger cast boolits. I was having the same issue with my 45 XD so I took a 11 degree brass lap designed to clean up a forcing cone on revolvers and lapped the throat very slightly which opened the throat and smoothed up the edge of the chamber. Before this I couldn't shoot any boolit that had a full diameter drive band of more than .451 outside the case where as now I can chamber .4525 and not have shaved lead at end of the chamber/throat and can even seat boolits out to touch the rifling if I want.

geargnasher
10-15-2011, 12:46 PM
Lots of people discovering that the as-made XD-40s don't have throats at all, and this can cause quite a few issues.

The lube gumming the chamber is also quite common with some guns and some loads in this caliber. My experience has been that most of the time the load can be built to eliminate the lube fouling issue, but sometimes it can't. In once instance I gave up and only loaded very light, target-level loads that barely cycled the action using Clays, 45/45/10, and air-cooled stick-on WW for my alloy.

Be very careful not having enough case tension in an auto. You need to find a balance between not swaging the boolits during seating and keeping the boolits retained under recoil. I've blown one up with a combination of soft boolits and over-expanded cases allowing the boolits to get hammered almost flush with the case mouth in the magazine under recoil. Cutting the case capacity in half or below will seriously spike pressures with some powders.

You might take RobS's advice and cut a bit of a throat on yours, just enough to give a little bevel the lands. This will help prevent shaving of lead and allow the boolit to be a bit more forward in the barrel before peak resistance (engraving) and pressures coincide. I think that if peak pressure occurs before the lube groove is out of the case it worsens the problem of lube blowing into the chamber from around the case mouth, but that's just a theory I have formed from trying to solve this same problem.

One more thing to try, and this has helped me eliminate the lube fouling problem in one gun in particular (M&P.40), is to use water-quenched WW boolits of 20+bhn, slow-burning powder like Longshot, standard primers (Federal is a good choice), Felix lube of a harder version or White Label BAC/Carnauba Red mixed 50/50, only taper-crimp enough to let them chamber (leave a little bell if possible) and work the load up to the high end. At about 1,100 fps my lube and powder fouling went away. This also worked for the Glock 22, but it needed more crimp to function reliably.

Gear

Tango2020
10-15-2011, 01:16 PM
Thanks Gear for the advice. I'm a little leery about cutting the throat till I've given up on everything else. I have shot Missouri Bullet's which have the really hard lube in the XDM which didn't gum up the barrel but also leaded.
I think I'll start adding wax to the Felix lube and try and find a point that may work. I have been around 1050 to 1075 with Felix lube before with no leading but lube fouling so maybe if just need to go stiffer.

Tango2020
10-24-2011, 05:10 PM
UPDATE : I seated the Bullets deeper which seems to have solved my lube blowback problem ( Thanks GEAR ). I tested 50 rounds with no stoppages using Felix Lube.
I'll have to load up many more to know if it completely solved the issue but it looks VERY promising.

Thanks to all who responded. You guys and this forum are great.

Moonie
10-25-2011, 02:06 PM
I make my Felix with a little carnuba and it hardens it up a bit, I've shot it over 2,500fps with no leading with gas checks in rifle cartridges.

Wayne Smith
10-26-2011, 10:29 AM
How are you lubing with the Felix? Lube sizer or pan? If pan lubing you do need to clean off the bullet, lube and then run through a Lee sizer for instance.

Moonie
10-31-2011, 11:55 AM
I pan lube, cut them out and run them through a lee sizer to seat the gas check.