Lee 175gr Mold For My M&P It Is. Now, What Powder?

[jonp]

After the comments on the mold and considering my use, target at around 1,000fps, what is everyone's choice of powder. There are lot's that work and the powder threads here are older so I'm curious as to what people are using.

I can work up the loads myself, I'm just interested in the powder choices.

Top end Power Pistol etc loads with jwords i'll do on my own as only a couple of powders interest me on that end

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My current recipe is 4.9gr of Hercules Red Dot (950fps), since I have a surplus of that powder...works just fine in my Hi-Point.

[Tackleberry41]

Plenty of powders will work. Some work better than others. I struggled to keep 40S&W subsonic in a rifle barrel. Took a heavy 200gr and trying several powders to find one that would cycle AND stay subsonic. Pistols have tried several, all gave decent results. Cast your usually not looking to drive them as hard as jacketed.

[jonp]

Please reread my op

[jonp]

My current recipe is 4.9gr of Hercules Red Dot (950fps), since I have a surplus of that powder...works just fine in my Hi-Point.

That gives me almost the same velocity as IMR Target and 165gr Berry's plated. 5.0 gr @ 975fps.

I have several kegs of Promo but the data with red dot is kinda slim. I was going to start with 3.0gr but with your post I think I'll start at 4.0gr

[popper]

cfe pistol. W231 is on the edge. WSF is OK but pressure may be a tad higher.

[dubber123]

5.5 grains of Power Pistol runs over 900 Fps. from my Shield and has out shot several factory jacketed loads. I'd expect a little higher velocity from your gun. Accuracy decreased in mine with higher charges.

[rsrocket1]

Lots of powders will give you 1000 fps with the Lee 401-175-TC (my cast for the M&P 40). My current favorite is 5.6g BE-86 with the bullet seated to where the cone meets the case mouth at 1.10" COL. This gives me the best feeding and ensures that a properly seated bullet with a taper crimp to bring the case flare back to vertical will always feed and fully chamber in the gun.

Other powders that will work at that MV without stressing the gun with excessively high peak pressures are:
Unique
Power Pistol
Bullseye
Herco
20/28
Universal
800-X <- meters poorly but performs great
Green Dot
WSF
Sport Pistol <- have not tried this, but is supposed to be good and does not attack PC bullet coatings. Similar to HP-38

As you can see, I love this mold and shooting this gun.

[Walks]

Clays, W231, TiteGroup are my choices for that Bullet.
I use UNIQUE for my hot load with the RCBS 180gr in my GLOCK 35.

[MT Gianni]

Power pistol gives me nice groups with cast.

[marek313]

I just started loading the same Lee 401-175-TC in 40SW and I ended up using 6gr of WSF. Hodgdon website has that listed as 1020ft/s - 33,500PSI. I use that in my RIA 10mm 1911 and it works great for plinking around when I dont want to burn up my 10mm brass. I keep 10mm brass for med to full 10mm loads.

[emorris]

HP38/WIN 231 works good for me with cast in the big 4 (9mm, 38special, 40 S&W, and 45 ACP). My loads with the 175 grain lee and HP38 falls short of your 1,000 fps goal though. I have used that boolit with HP38/WIN231, unique, Accurate #5, and Bullseye (probably others that I cant remember right now).

[3leggedturtle]

I was using 5.0 grains of Red dot with a 180gr FP in my 40. Shot great and with very little recoil or muzzle flip. Todd

[redhawk0]

I had that same mold when I still had my 40 cal. I had good success with AA#5, HS-6 and BlueDot. All were in the 950+fps range.

[EDIT] From the Lyman #48 manual. Its where I got my data when I was developing for the the 175gr.



redhawk