Questions about .40 S&W

[Plinkster]

So I've been bitten by this bug, and have committed to it's life-long hold. No use fighting it I've read here too many times to count. I took my Beretta PX-4 (4" barrel) to the range last weekend to try out some loads. I got some Hornady 155 GR XTP bullets for cheap and loaded a magazine's worth of rounds with 6.5grs and 7grs each of Unique and those were very fun to squeeze off. Felt very authoritative compared to the 185gr FMJ TC factory loads I'd bought immediately after the gun to see how it shot. After those were gone (the Hornadys) I started in on some boolits I'd cast myself. I was using the Lee 145gr SWC mold and for my gun it drops perfect from the mold no sizing needed, .402 groove as slugged and boolits drop at .404-.4036. I pan lubed them with some home brew of candle wax, vaseline, and ATF. Can't be sure of the %'s as I mixed for consistency and hardness at the time from perusing this site. I was using 6.5grs of Unique under these Boolits and they seemed to shoot fairly well as far as accuracy was concerned. Problem was the SWC design needs to be seated almost flush with the case mouth to chamber in my gun and feeding was unreliable. Every 6-8 rounds or so I'd get a jamb where the boolit was lodged against the top side of the chamber, this will not do for fending off (read shooting dead) a cougar while bow hunting or an intruder in my home. I know the TC design works as I had no jambs to speak of with the factory FMJ TC's. First question: has anyone used BRP's 401640 mold with an auto loader? I am a firm believer that a big slow projectile is more often better than a small fast one and I like the big meplat. The second question is concerning the small (?) amount of leading that I experienced from 30 rounds of cast. I have recently read that the .40 S&W functions at magnum pressures and a lube in the caliber of carnauba red may be needed. Problem solved here as some is on order ATM. My boolit hardness is the second aspect of this, I water dropped this alloy which I am guessing is close to WW? It was a 10kg pyramid boat anchor (origin unknown) and approximately 30lbs of shot mixed. It measured between 18 and 22bhn with my Lee tester water dropped and 11.4 11.8bhn as air cooled but I did not shoot any air cooled. Perhaps a combination of lube inadequacy and too hard an alloy? Thanks for reading the long winded post, I didn't want to leave out any details but I'm sure I managed to omit something. :2 drunk buddies:

[Gunsmoke4570]

I've had really good luck with a mold from Tom at Accurate Molds. It throws a 165gr GC boolit. I've been using Carnuba Red loaded over HS6 powder. Tom can fix you up with about any weight or configuration you want. He is really helpful. I decided to go with the gas check design as I have 5 different 40s I load for including polyagonal barreled HK USP and Glock 23. I never could get out of leading in the HK with plain base, but the Glock and others was never a real problem. I've also had pretty good luck with that same boolit over 5.5gr of Unique.

[HammerMTB]

I use the 175TC from Lee in my .40 and 10MM. It works fine. I get enough lube if I lube twice with LLA. I am shooting them about 950+FPS in the .40. No jams, no malfunctions of any kind. Oh, and all are air-cooled and about 10-11 BHN. They no not need to be hard if they fit the bore, as yours seem to.
And yes, most .40 cal bbls have no leade at all. Chamber has rifling right to the case mouth, so SWCs need to be flush, and TCs need to be flush to the major dia. My .40's are long-throated, so I can seat them to max COAL.

[9.3X62AL]

Another BIG fan of the Lee 175 TC (conventional lube groove version) for the 40 S&W. My three 40 S&W examples to date (Beretta 96, CZ-75B, Glock 23 with Storm Lake barrel) all have run very well with OAL of 1.135", which gives about .020" of boolit sidewall protrusion above the case mouth. 4.7 grains of WW-231 duplicates my carry load's recoil/velocity/shot placement closely (Ranger SXT 180).

I am very fond of the Lee TC designs for autopistol calibers, and use them extensively in 9mm, 40 S&W, 10mm, and 45 ACP. This same seating depth regimen--.020" of sidewall visible--has worked well in all these calibers for my in my pistols (10 examples in these calibers, so far).

[Plinkster]

Excellent! The Lee 175 TC was my second pick after the BRP design.I had just figured I would get the mold from BRP cut with an extra .40 cavity or two piggy backed in with the .358s I was already going to order but I think it's cheaper to just get a Lee and be done with it. Thanks guys for the info, I always know I can find answers here.[smilie=w:

[Plinkster]

Well I ordered up a Lee six banger in the TC flavor with the single lube groove. I am pan lubing with carnauba red at the moment until I can scrounge a reasonably priced lubrisizer or build my own variation. I use a cookie cutter type device to pop em out and while it is SLOOOOOW it does work. My question is how do I keep from getting a lube ring on the nose of the boolit or is there an easy trick to cleaning it off. By the way the Lee six cavities cast far and away better than the two cavity, all it needed was a quick alcohol scrub and lined with bullplate and they just jumped out with a very slight tap needed only occasionally.

[sargenv]

You may also want to give a try to tumble lubing with good old Johnson Paste wax.. I shoot a 185ish gr Long round nose out of my 610 and Para P16 with this combination. My alloy is ww's mixed with 2% tin that BHN's to about 16-18 water dropped. I size them to .401" and they do not lead at all. I have pushed these to about 975 fps so far with no leading. With the Para and the 610, I have the advantage of loading them quite long.. (1.250 in the Para, 1.260 in the 610). The bullets that I use will likely not work at SAAMI max oal of 1.140". They would likely be seated too deep. However, the JPW method seems to work well for me..

I size them in the Lee Push through sizer sans lube, they run through just fine to .401". I then fill one of those two pound plastic peanut containers about half full of bullets and add about a tablespoon of JPW to the bullets.. I close the lid and shake em up really good so the bullets get a nice even coat of the JPW.. I then dump them out onto a flat surface coated with wax paper (I use the box bottoms of the soda cases you get at costco that have 32 cans of coke product on them). I then set them to "dry" for a couple of days.. I generally let my bullets age about 2 weeks to get to maximum hardness before I load and shoot em. I've settled on Solo 1000. 3.5 gr for a light load, 4.5 gr for a heavy load. (~775 and ~925 fps respectively).

[Plinkster]

I finally found some JPW, and let me say that stuff is a lot harder to find than I thought it'd be. Well I loaded up 100 rounds and fed em to my hungry Beretta and it processed all without a hitch and VERY minimal leading if any. Excellent use of this product, I'll be trying some JPW'ed rounds in my rifle on my next trip to the range to see if it can speed up lubing of all my boolits. I will be very surprised if it can perform as well as the Carnauba Red does though, my bore just looks like it gets a good polishing with that stuff and it takes only a few patches before they come out clean.

[Multigunner]

I've been wondering why there have been so many defective lots of .40 S&W ammunition, mostly from Federal but apparently from some other manufacturers as well.

One cause of KBooms in autoloaders is if a bullet gets pushed back into the case during the loading cycle.
While looking over a 1912 edition of the 1911 pistol manual I found a description of the ammo, and they specifically state that the ACP ammo has cannelure intended to prevent the bullet from being forced back into the case.
Some of the 9mm Luger ammo I used with my P-35 many years ago also had this cannelure, and a friend who built up hot loads for his detonics pistols used a cut off rifle caliber case with inside of the neck reamed to form a internal shoulder to prevent bullets being forced into the case.
This seems like such a simple problem to be fized, and the fixes have been known for a century or more.

I couldn't cost that much more to add a cannelure to the cases. One could probably alter cases before handloading using a dowel rod as a mandrel and turning a dulled tube cutter around the case at the proper position.

[asw1911pc@aol.com]

what kind of JPW are you using. 5 different waxes are available

[Plinkster]

Wow I had no idea, I'm just using the stuff in the red and yellow 16oz can. I think I gave 8 bucks for it and judging by my current mileage it'll be good for about 10000 rounds or so.