Loading 40 S&W with cast?

[Waldoone]

Has anyone had any success in casting and or loading for the 40S&W? Would like to hear from you. Looking for advice and encouragement in persuing this round.

[scattershot]

Yep, that's about all I shoot any more. 170-180 grain boo lit with 4.0 Red Dot for around 950 fps.

[Rangefinder]

Ditto exactly. 180gr. truncated cone and 175 SWC with 4gr Red Dot, 165gr HP'd SWC with 4.4gr Red Dot. It's about the only thing I ever feed mine.

[Waldoone]

Thanks for the replies guys. Would either of you have a recipe to go with this load. I'm considering the MiHec MP mold (160gr HP / 170gr) solids for this cal. I already use his molds for 9mm and 45. Seems to do real well for me in those cal's.
Thanks , Jim

[Wally]

I shoot a Taurus 101AF..I use the Lee .40 155 SWC with 5.0 grains of HP-38...very accurate...

[bigboredad]

I have used 7gr of hs-6 and the lee 170tc that drops to 180 in a stock glock barrel with no problem

[ItZaLLgooD]

4.7 grains of Unique and a TL 175 grainer from Lee. Nice and gentle. Works perfect in my .

[Dennis Eugene]

Some one once told me that the 40S&W was a troublesome round to load for. But as I had already been casting and loading it for a couple years with zero problems I paid no attention to what they said. Dennis

[Mavrick]

I'm testing a .40 with a chamber that allows an OAL of 1.20", with the Lee 175 TC from a 6C mold. I usually use an alloy of WW+2%tin, and size to .401".
The lubes I've tried are BAC, 45-45-10, allox- dipped, Red Carnuba, and Red Rooster. I've also tried a home-made pan-lube of Parafin, candlewax, vasoline, and beeswax.
I've tested with OALs of 1.09, 1.12, 1.14, 1.17, and 1.20". YMMV here.
I've tested primers by CCI, WW, RP, Fiocchi, Magtech, and Federal.
The powders I've tried were WW231, AA#5, TiteGroup, PowerPistol, BlueDot, Bullseye, RedDot, 800x, Clays, WST, GreenDot, HS-6, WSF, Unique, S1000, AA#2, 700x, AA#7, Zip, and AA#9. There are other powders loaded in my test boxes, but haven't been fired, yet.
All are fired carefully across my chronograph, an Oehler M33, with a 5' screen-spacing. All notes are meticulous, and as extensive as possible, but, as yet, incomplete.
Starting at the recommended "start" by the appropriate loading manual, and progressing, there have been none that wouldn't feed...or fire. The only time the velocities have varied any amount, is when a small amount of an "iffy" powder was used. Sometimes, adding powder improved the situation. Always...changing powder improved it.
Because of the throat in my chamber, I won't give the amounts of powder, I shoot.
The .40 in not a difficult cartridge to load, and it is less problematic than other, high-pressure cases.
Have fun,
Gene

[sewerman68]

I have had success loading .40 s&w with the mihec 402 150. My boolits come out at 158 gr for the hollow point and 168 gr for the solid using 50/50 ww& plumbing lead. I water quench. I am getting great accuracy with silhouette and 231. I tumble lube with 45 45 10 and have zero leading in my CZ rami.

[sqlbullet]

I shoot 10mm, but several friends have 40S&W. They all like my 175 grain Lee SWC TL, with lee snot, over a medium charge of Unique.

Watch your size, and don't use a Lee Factory Crimp Die. Beyond that you should be fine.

[truckmsl]

Well over 70K cast .40 rounds through my Glocks. 3.7 grains WST and a 180 grain truncated cone at OAL 1.135 gets me to 850fps for my target load.

[TNFrank]

4.7 grains of Unique and a TL 175 grainer from Lee. Nice and gentle. Works perfect in my .

I'm going to use this boolit in my PX4 and was thinking 5.2grs of Unique. I'm looking for around 950fps and I'm casting this boolit at 183grs. and sizing to .401" using a Lee sizing die and liq. alox. Should I back down my load to 4.8-5.0grs maybe?

P.S.
Update, went with 5.0grs of Unique and it's a very nice load to shoot. Feels more like a 9mm to me then a 40cal and functions and feeds fine in my pistol. I have to say, it's a winner.

[NuJudge]

I shoot a lot of Lee 175gr TL bullets, with a lot of Accurate Arms #7 behind them. One of my Beretta barrels has a big groove diameter, and leads like mad with .401" bullets, the others do not.

CDD

[bbs70]

175g tc Lee boolit.
5.5g AA#5 0r 5.5g Unique both wonderfully accurate.
Glock 22 with Lone Wolf barrel.
I've lost track of how many 1000s of rounds I've fired with these 2 loads.

[mongo]

175gr Lee TC cast from ww, Lubed with 45/45/10 over 4.7gr 231 in a Glock 23 with a Storm Lake barrel is my favorite. Couple hundred rounds a week, All good

[P.K.]

4.9 gr. 700X Boolit, 401-175 TC

[Whistler]

I've got a Glock 21 with a custom 10mm barrel. Works fine with Lyman 401638 175gn TC that I honed the bevel off of.

[popper]

Is the Lee TL 175 T/C mold any good? Contemplating getting into casting - would start with 40SW and #2 lead. Presently shoot MBC 180 T/C.

[geargnasher]

Here's a copy/paste of my general advice on loading the .40 from another thread:



You're starting out with a tough project with cast, the .40 S&W is one of the most difficult calibers to get going well, and that's usually due to lack of understanding of its special needs compared to, say, .45 ACP. I'll try to point out the potential issues for you to be aware of going into this so you can make the necessary checks and corrections and hopefully save some heachaches.

1. The .40 is designed as a "magnum pressure" cartridge, operating at over twice the pressures of .45 ACP, so a couple of things are different. The main one is the .40 brass is very hard and very tough, the other is it has thick walls. These two things create a big issue with our relatively soft cast boolits, because when we seat the boolits, the brass can be stronger than the lead and actually swage the boolit down undersized by a thousandth or so. Why does this matter? It matters because when fired, the boolit will sometimes be smaller than the groove diameter of the barrel, and if it is, the hot gas will leak by the boolit and erode the sides of it (not melt like some think, but erode) like a water hose blasting at dirt, and this will cause the dreaded "leading" of the bore. The lead "dust" from the gas leaks mists out ahead of the boolit and gets ironed on the barrel under very high pressure, leaving streaks of lead in the barrel. Subsequent shots add to this accumulation by the same action, plus by abrasion, because lead loves to stick to lead when rubbed together under pressure.

2. Part of the reason that the hard, tough cases are an issue with cast boolits is because all the standard dies that I've seen are made for copper bullets, which are typically .001-2" smaller than groove diameter, therefore the expander plugs are too small and don't expand the case body enough to accept cast boolits without squishing the boolits. Often, a custom expander plug is necessary to stretch the brass enough to get the proper tension (.001-2") on the larger cast boolits without any ill effect.

3. The Lee Factory Crimp Die usually gives problems too, because it's made for copper-jacketed bullets in the .397" range, not cast boolits in the .401" range, and the carbide post-sizer ring in the bottom of the die will size brass and boolit together and your boolit will come out .397" after running the cartridge through the die! .397" boolits in a .40 will most certainly lead.

4. Hardness has little to do with leading, boolit fit does. The boolit has to enter the barrel slightly larger than groove diameter. If it's a slight interference fit and of the correct hardness for the pressure and velocity, and lubed with a decent lube, it won't leak and it won't lead. This is the whole "secret" to shooting cast boolits without them leading the bore. "Harder is better" is a myth we try very hard to dispell here, because it just isn't true most of the time, so if you've heard it, try to disregard it.

Some more tips:
Slug the bore of your gun with a dead-soft lead ball, fishing sinker, etc. It's important to use soft lead with no springback. Lighly oil the slug and barrel and pound it through from the muzzle end with a mallet and brass rod wrapped in electrical tape, don't use a wooden dowel. Measure the groove impressions (the high spots on the slug) and that will be your groove diameter, size your boolits larger than this.

Pull a seated/crimped boolit with an inertial puller and measure the boolit to make certain it is at least .001" larger than the groove diameter of the gun. If not, figure out what's making it smaller, and fix it.

Balance the load. If you want a mild load, use a softer alloy, like 8-12 bhn, and use a powder in the faster burn rate spectrum like Clays or 231. For medium velocity/pressure, Universal, Unique, or similar work well, and air-cooled wheel weights (11-14 bhn, usually) all the way up to "Hard Cast" can work. For full-snort stuff, opinions vary, but I've had good luck with water-quenched or heat-treated wheel weights at 20+ bhn (almost the same as straight linotype), stiff charges of Longshot or Blue Dot, premium high-pressure rifle lube, and magnum primers.

Clean out ALL, I mean ALL traces of the copper fouling. Use a good, ammonia-based copper solvent and follow the directions, or use an electro-chemical device like an Outers Foul-Out. Lead will stick to copper fouling like you wouldn't believe, often making you question your technique when all that's wrong is the copper fouling in the barrel was grabbing lead from the boolits as they went by.

Hope this helps some, if you have any questions or need clarification about anything I've said, don't be afraid to ask.

Gear