Help reloading for .40 S&W?????

[usmc0811]

I want to reload 40 Smith & Wesson bullets for my Smith & Wesson m&p. These are the bullets I found but not sure which one to choose also what powder would work good with these bullets. These bullets will be for plinking/target practice. I have some unique about half a canister, tons of CFE, HP 38.

[murf205]

HP-38 with the 165 gr and CFE with the 180's. That 155 gr might give you feeding problems but you never know. The sharp driving band on that boolit doesn't lend itself to some feed ramps.

[ryanmattes]

Of those, going in blind, I would recommend the 180gr RNFP to avoid feeding issues (SWC and TC sometimes have feeding issues in some guns), with somewhere around 4.5-5 grains of Unique as a start. .40S&W is a short cartridge, so start by making a dummy round (no primer, no powder, not crimped) and seat the longest that will cycle through the mag and plunk. I would think about 1.120 would be the shortest OAL you would want to try, before I would start to worry about pressure spikes.

When I shoot a new cast bullet I always follow this process:

Load 10 test rounds for each charge you want to test. For the first (lightest charge) group, load 6 into one mag, 3 into another, and have a single round to load manually.

Shoot the single one, paying attention to cycle and recoil.

Check the cartridge for pressure signs.

Disassemble and inspect the barrel, looking for leading, incomplete burn, etc.

If all is good, shoot the mag with 3, paying attention to sticky feeding and other cycle problems.

Repeat the above inspections, in case there are variations. In particular, look for very small amounts of leading that weren't noticeable, but build up over repeated shots.

If everything still looks good, shoot the remaining 6.

The goal here is to make sure the bullet itself is good for your gun. If you get leading, a hotter group might do better, but clean the leading out between groups.

If after that, everything seems fine, recoil is as expected, it cycles properly, no visible leading, etc. Once I've found the charge I like, I'll usually do 100 rounds after that, but wait to load more until I've shot them just in case I notice something during that 100 that I need to adjust.

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[usmc0811]

Thanks for the great information I'll give that a try.

[Taterhead]

If starting with just one, I'd snag the 180 RNFP. Second choice would be the 165 gr TC.

If you just want plinker velocities, HP-38 is a suitable burn speed. Any of the 3 should be more than appropriate although CFE wil likely want a higher velocity to burn consistently than HP-38.

[Kosh75287]

HP-38 is the most economical of the three you mention, though you may not get max velocities with it. I agree that CFE-Pistol prefers to be pushed quite hard to burn cleanly and consistently. It's also more likely to give you best performance, but don't be surprised if it does not.
If the only propellant I could get for pistols was Unique, I'd be in great shape. Except for the "hand-cannon" revolver magnums, I can reload almost any pistol cartridge with it and get 75 - 85% of the full potential from it, when 100% is not obtainable.
If you cannot find Unique on the shelves, try some Alliant Herco. It's a little slower-burning than Unique, but gives more magnum-like velocities in the original magnum revolver rounds and .45 Colt.