Reduced loads in Beretta 96?

[NuJudge]

Has anyone tried reduced .40 caliber loads in the Beretta 96? Full charge loads bother me a bit, and I'd like to practice with reduced loads.

Wolff makes reduced power recoil springs, which could be teamed with reduced loads, as is often done with the M1911 in .45 acp.

[9.3X62AL]

I had some success with reduced-power loadings in the Beretta 96, as well as the CZ-75B and Glock 23 in 40 S&W.

My carry load was/is the 180 grain W-W Ranger SXT. These ran about 950 FPS from the 96. Using the Lee 175 TC/conventional lube groove, 4.8 grains of WW-231 matched that velocity with OAL of 1.135". Fed GREAT, ran well, shot like the carry loads.

I'll save the R&D sequence, but in the Beretta 4.2-4.3 grains of WW-231 would run the pistol reliably. Same story on the CZ-75B. The Glock 23 will run well with 4.0 grains. All examples here are using stock springs throughout.

[gray wolf]

I have shot reduced loads in Julie's 96, My start loads were with tite group.
145 grain TC and 175 grain TC bullets. The bullets used were close to Lyman # 2, but for soft loads I think WW would be fine.
Anyway I used 4 grains of T/G for the 145 grain bullets and it was like a 38 mid range load, the action worked fine. I only had a chance to go up to 4.6 with the T/G. All loads worked the pistol with no problems. Brass at my feet with the very low end loads. 4.4 was one ragged hole.
I still need to check 4.8, 5 and 5.2
With the 175 grain bullets I used 3, 3.2, 3.4,and 3.6 of the tite group, loads were very mild and all worked the action, no need for other springs. I will go up a little more the next test I do.
My 10 shot groups were a little high from a sand bag with all shots fired.
3.6 of tite group looked OK with the 175 grain bullet. OK to me is 3/4" at 10 to 15 yards.
A little high could have been my hold with the sand bag, or the fact that the bullet was in the barrel to long and exited while the barrel was in the upswing of the recoil cycle ?
But this does not happen with my 45 ACP. dead on is dead on, bag or no bag.
Granted these were brief test, but they prove you can load Mouse loads for the 40.
The carry load for this pistol is Long shot powder 1.5 grains under Max.
It is a nasty load to shoot, noise and recoil are much to much for tin cans.
Hope it helped.

EDIT to say

Make sure your powder choice is OK for reduced ( very small loads )
Tight group and B/E seem to be OK.

Sam