40 S&W--how low can I go ? recoil ?

[gray wolf]

Howdy men, I have a question.

I have loaded many J-bullets for the wife's 96 beretta 40 S&W. No problems
with getting warm loads and some nice target loads.
I was recently given some 145 Gr. and some 175 GR. Lead Trunk. cone bullets
from a good friend. They seem to be at least the hardness of Air cooled WW
My load books and looking on the net has not helped me out.
I am looking for some soft shooting loads for this pistol.
I have long shot, tite group and bulls eye powder.
# 1-- Are these powders safe in low grain Wt. loads ?
# 2-- Can I use the j-bullet loads and drop the powder charge down ?
if so how low can I go ?.
# 3-- Can these powders be loaded so they hardly work the action and then worked up to a soft load.
For some reason the 40 scares me a little and I want to be safe.
I can load the bullets .010 to .015 longer that what the book Say's for J- bullets.
I did some dummy rounds and they cycle through the pistol fine.

I read an article that said you could go down as low as
2.9 of T/G with a Vel. of 741 FPS and a 170 GR. Laser cast bullet OAL of 1.135
and 3 Gr. of B/E for a FPS of 792

The little booklet I have from Alliant list
Laser Cast--155 Gr. lead bullet at 4.9 of B/E --But how low can I go ?
Laser cast-- 180 Gr. at 4.5 Gr. of B/E-- but again does not say what the start load is.

Can I have a little input please.


Sam

[NSP64]

load down till the slide wont strip a new round from the mag. Then add powder till it will. my astra would function down to 750 fps with 175 gr TC boolits.
I don't use your powders. I believe it was 5.0 gr unique.

[Shiloh]

load down till the slide wont strip a new round from the mag. Then add powder till it will. my astra would function down to 750 fps with 175 gr TC boolits.
I don't use your powders. I believe it was 5.0 gr unique.

...And then you could exchange springs to lighter ones and get the load down more.
I'm sure there is a limit, but don't know where it is.

I did see a 1911 tricked out for bullseye shooting that had reduced loads and reduced springs. VERY mild for a 1911.

If one does use reduced power springs, care must be taken to note this as full power loads could then damage the firearm.

Shiloh

[RobS]

The Lyman 48th Reloading Handbook as with Bullseye:

Lead (Lyman #2) 175g TC with a COAL of 1.100"
Bullseye
4.0 grains----654 fps----16,900 cup
5.0 grains----842 fps----23,100 cup

Lead (Lyman #2) 150g TC with a COAL of 1.090
Bullseye
5.0 grains----1056 fps----18,600 cup
6.0 grains----1202 fps----23,100 cup

Some more info to add anyway

[gray wolf]

So far so good --
thank you men

Sam

[lylejb]

While I haven't done this in 40 s&w, I do have some experiance in 38 sp and 45 acp.

Generally, faster burn rates are what you need for greatly reduced loads. Bullseye and tightgroup are near the top of the burn rate chart, and would be fine for this.

Longshot is much slower, between blue dot and 2400. That's too slow, IMO.

As far as "how low can I go" Dr. Pistol will have to answer that one. You can load down to the point that it no longer cycles, then up a couple of tenths until it does.

As others have said, you can get lighter springs, but myself, I think that's a hassle. Having to switch back and forth evey time you change to regular loads.

You might also consider trail boss powder. It's made for reduced lead cowboy loads. It's very bulky for it's weight, so it fills the case well. It's a fast burn rate, and has done well for me.

hth

[Ford SD]

Howdy men, I have a question.

I have loaded many J-bullets for the wife's 96 beretta 40 S&W. No problems
with getting warm loads and some nice target loads.
I was recently given some 145 Gr. and some 175 GR. Lead Trunk. cone bullets
from a good friend. They seem to be at least the hardness of Air cooled WW
My load books and looking on the net has not helped me out.
I am looking for some soft shooting loads for this pistol.
I have long shot, tite group and bulls eye powder.
# 1-- Are these powders safe in low grain Wt. loads ?
# 2-- Can I use the j-bullet loads and drop the powder charge down ?
if so how low can I go ?.
# 3-- Can these powders be loaded so they hardly work the action and then worked up to a soft load.
For some reason the 40 scares me a little and I want to be safe.
I can load the bullets .010 to .015 longer that what the book Say's for J- bullets.
I did some dummy rounds and they cycle through the pistol fine.

I read an article that said you could go down as low as
2.9 of T/G with a Vel. of 741 FPS and a 170 GR. Laser cast bullet OAL of 1.135
and 3 Gr. of B/E for a FPS of 792

The little booklet I have from Alliant list
Laser Cast--155 Gr. lead bullet at 4.9 of B/E --But how low can I go ?
Laser cast-- 180 Gr. at 4.5 Gr. of B/E-- but again does not say what the start load is.

Can I have a little input please.


Sam
check out the below article
W231 one of the powders used
reports of power factor as low as 125- to 134 info for cast and jacket

http://www.handgunsmag.com/ammunition/40lite_091806/

not a bad read

might be some newer powders that can go lower

[Red squirrel]

I Like 4.6 grs of bullseye with a lee 175 gr truncated cone bullet for my .40 s&w xd. Gives about 750fps, Nice mild recoil, great accuracy, and no leading with ww alloy. oal im loading at is 1.125" Have fun!

[gray wolf]

Very good article, thank you, this is what I did to start.
I used the tite group powder and these are the loads. OAL is 1.35
145-150 grain lead Trunc. cone bullet.
4, 4.2, 4.4, 4.6. Max with a 155 J bullet is 5.9 grains. Min. is 5.4 I am way below Max. load I plan to work up from there.

Next is the 175 Gr. lead T/C bullet.
Load for a 180 grain J bullet is. 4.2--4.7 for the tite group.
My start loads are, 3, 3.2, 3.4, and 3.6 Again OAL is 1.135 and I am well below Max loads. The testing will be the same for these.

These are the loads from the article. If you check the lead bullet loads I think you will see that I am within there parameters.


.40 S&W LIGHT-RECOIL LOADS
BULLET POWDER CHARGE (grs.) M.V. (fps) POWER FACTOR
GLOCK 35:
155-gr. Hornady XTP
OAL - 1.125 ins. 4.7 Powder Pistol
3.8 TiteGroup 815
816 126.3
126.5
180-gr. Hornady XTP
OAL - 1.135 ins. 3.7 WW231
3.4 Bullseye
4.5 Power Pistol
3.2 TiteGroup 713
754
771
735 128.3
135.7
138.8
132.3
170-gr. Laser CastOAL -1.130 ins.
3.5 WW 231
3.0 Bullseye
4.0 Power Pistol
2.9 TiteGroup 767
792
767
741 130.4
134.6
130.4
126.0
180-gr. Laser Cast
OAL - 1.135 ins. 3.5 WW 231
3.0 Bullseye
4.0 Power Pistol
2.9 TiteGroup 737
757
761
724 132.7
136.3
137.0
130.3
GLOCK 22:
155-gr. Hornady XTP
OAL - 1.125 ins. 4.7 Powder Pistol
3.8 TiteGroup 807
811 125.1
125.7
180-gr. Hornady XTP
OAL - 1.135 ins. 3.7 WW231
3.4 Bullseye
4.5 Power Pistol
3.2 TiteGroup 706
733
738
713 127.0
131.9
132.8
128.3
PARA 16-40:
155-gr. Hornady XTP
OAL - 1.125 ins. 4.7 Powder Pistol
3.8 TiteGroup 809
813 125.4
126.0
180-gr. Hornady XTP
OAL - 1.135 ins. 3.7 WW231
3.4 Bullseye
4.5 Power Pistol
3.2 TiteGroup 696
731
750
728 125.3
131.6
135.0
130.9
170-gr. Laser Cast
OAL - 1.130 ins. 3.5 WW 231
3.0 Bullseye

4.0 Power Pistol
2.9 TiteGroup 744
758
739
736 126.5
128.8
125.6
125.1
180-gr. Laser CastOAL - 1.135 ins.
3.5 WW 231
3.0 Bullseye
4.0 Power Pistol
2.9 TiteGroup 744
742
738
696 134.0
133.6
132.9
125.3

[gwilliams2]

I put some 173g SWC sized to .401 Tumble Lube boolits down range yesterday with 5.0 Unique and liquid Alox... Did pretty well with minimal leading and great accuracy; I'm dropping down to 4.8 Unique for a test run this weekend, if this don't eliminate the leading I'll be looking a little closer at the diameter (I haven't slugged the barrel yet on this partular .40). Will let you know how it goes.

[gwilliams2]

I put some 173g SWC sized to .401 Tumble Lube boolits down range yesterday with 5.0 Unique and liquid Alox... Did pretty well with minimal leading and great accuracy; I'm dropping down to 4.8 Unique for a test run this weekend, if this don't eliminate the leading I'll be looking a little closer at the diameter (I haven't slugged the barrel yet on this partular .40). Will let you know how it goes.

Well, for those of you that like to burn Unique, 4.8 g seems to be a pretty good load for this round in both my Kahr and my Sigma. I'm sure I could go much lower, but I like where I'm at on this one.