Bullet Recommendations for 40 S&W

[Alstep]

Looking for a good bullet mold that will shoot well in a .40 S&W Springfield XDM. My son got one and now we're going to cast for it. So any advise on bullets & loads gladly accepted.

[Walks]

The Lee #401-175-TC over stout charges of Unique & HS-6. Shot both conventional sized/lubed and PC.

[Ed_Shot]

Lyman 401043, 401638, or 401654 PC'd over Promo/Red Dot 4.1 gr. are all winners for me. They chrony @ 975~1000 fps.

[MT Gianni]

I don't think you can beat the Lee 175 traditional lube.

[44Blam]

I really like this one:
https://noebulletmolds.com/site/product-category/401/htc402-188-wfn-bv1

I cast them as cup points and they come out right around 180 grain and look like this:
258936

[chutesnreloads]

Another vote for the Lee 175 TC.Mine is happy over BlueDot

[Taterhead]

If you like Lee molds, the 401-175-TC is a great bullet. As is the 401638, but I would look for an old used one rather than buying a new Lyman. I had Veral Smith cut a 401-175-TC 4 cav, and it is excellent in both 10mm and 40 SW.

Previously had an NOE 403-180-RF 5 cav. Excellent mold, but cast too fat for my PC needs.

[415m3]

Looking for a good bullet mold that will shoot well in a .40 S&W Springfield XDM. My son got one and now we're going to cast for it. So any advise on bullets & loads gladly accepted.

If you want to try the Lee 175 TL mold I have a 6 cavity that I was about to put in the PIF thread. It has some gouges on the top under the plate and throws a bullet or two with a bit of finning on the base...but if you dont mind trimming that you can it for price of shipping.

[JeffG]

I started with the Lee TC mold and have gone to the NOE 402-170-TC-AN4. Pleased with it.

[marlin39a]

I started with the Lee TC mold and have gone to the NOE 402-170-TC-AN4. Pleased with it.

Went the same route. I shoot it over Longshot powder in 40 & 10mm

[rsrocket1]

I love the Lee 401-175-TC six cavity mold. It's a perfect balance between my TL452-230-TC which heats up quickly but needs cooling between pours and my 356-120-TC which needs a good preheat on my hot plate to get the mold up to temp, otherwise it needs about 10 pours to stop dropping wrinkled bullets. Powder coating them and sizing them with the 401 push through sizer makes great bullets. I have cast, loaded and shot about 70k through my M&P 40 and it's my favorite gun/round.

https://images2.imgbox.com/30/0f/EH9lD75e_o.jpg

https://images2.imgbox.com/46/5b/utuDK66n_o.jpeg

https://images3.imgbox.com/55/0c/eNDoNx9Z_o.jpg

[JeffG]

Went the same route. I shoot it over Longshot powder in 40 & 10mm

Nice.

[bruce drake]

Lee offers two great molds. Their 175gr TC is great for full power loads and their 145gr SWC is a great mold for plinking and ranges and if you load it hot enough it will do pretty good as a self-defense or farm-pest/looter bullet also...

[BC17A]

Another vote for the Lee 401-175-TC. My favorite load is 6.9gr Power Pistol.

[Alstep]

Thanks everyone for your input. Looks like I can't go wrong with the Lee, so will be placing an order for one, and we'll go from there.

[murf205]

259086 Another vote for the 175 gr Lee. I haven't loaded it in a 40 but I have in my sons 10 mm Colt Delta Elite and it shoots them better than anything. The powder coat helps feeding in semi auto pistols IMHO.

[Alstep]

By the way, how hard do you guys cast them? What's your alloy mix & BHN?

[JeffG]

By the way, how hard do you guys cast them? What's your alloy mix & BHN?

Who knows on BHN, but i cast mine from 50/50 pb and coww and add 2-3% tin.

[murf205]

I use range lead that is from muzzle loading matches so it is pretty soft. I use 2% tin. Powder coating lets you get by with a softer boolit, in my experience, and also "slicks" up the boolit so is squirts up the feed ramps of auto loading pistols easier.

[cwlongshot]

I shoot mostly the Lyman 401638 in competition. My Glocks ain’t fussy and a number of other molds are perfectly fine. But my PCC IS a lil finicky. And this one seems to be least finicky.

When I first started losing for it I was running the LEE 145 and it was goose grease!! But now it’s short OAL causes issues.

The afore Mentioned LEE 170 TC works real well and shoots very accurately. But occasionally hangs up on it’s longer nose.

The 638’s RFN and small me play seems to feed like a RN. BHN is meaningless with PC. I shoot them from about a 7/8 up to a 15 BHN with complete I terchangability confidence. It simply makes no difference for me. Thousands upon thousands of rounds thru factory and after market
Glock barrels and ZERO bullet fouling. Velocities from say 8-1200 FPS.

CW


CW

[greenwart]

401-175-TC get the 6 cavity mold.

[blue32]

I chose the RCBS 10mm-170 over the Lee but both look to be near identical minus weight. I ran range scrap up to around 950fps for a nice plinking load in a Glock 22 without problems. 40SW is one of those cartridges that gave me the least amount of trouble running cast. Auto Comp worked really well.

[murf205]

It's good to see you Glock shooters having so much success with cast boolits. For years I have heard that cast in a Glock was a headache in the making. I was a bit skeptical of all the rumors, as a boolit caster should be, until it was proven to be true. Congrats my casting bros for debunking another myth! (AKA Micro- Groove leading)

[David2011]

By the way, how hard do you guys cast them? What's your alloy mix & BHN?

Not too hard. 20 lb COWW + 1/2 lb monotype, just to add some tin. 50/50 COWW/SOWW + a little tin would still be plenty hard.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Another Lee 401-175 user. I just made 600 of these during my first use of the 6 cav mould. I did have some problems with out of round boolits .

I had 25% good, 50% .401 x .403-.405, 25% .401 x 406-.410 obviously the lat 25% are getting remelted. Strait Wheel Weights. These were a PITB to size and I found the big ones by having to beat them back out of the die. That operation didn't go as planned at all.

I have to PC these and resize which should go easier the second time thru. I like the pretty light blue PC for these.

Randy