powder choices for 40 S & W

saskgunowner101

saskgunowner101

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Just wondering which powders are good all arounders for the 40. Is there such a creature? I'm looking at the Hodgdon data center,and a few things jump out at me. Longshot seems to have the most velocity potential, regardless of bullet weight. Clays, HP-38 , and WSF have a few starting loads with quite low pressures. One thing that doesnt show is how dirty or how much flash the given powders have. Is there such a powder that can be a fire breathing monster on one hand, and a pussycat on the other??? Or that measure well through a lee auto disk powder measure?? Any and all thoughts appreciated.
 
Alliant's PROMO and ClayDot

I am currently using Alliant's bulk powders, ClayDot and PROMO. They both come in 8 pound kegs. Promo is around C$95.00 p/8lbs. ClayDot is a little more. Very economical. Both work very well and have applications for other calibers too.
PM me if you want my exact receipe....
 
RePete said:
Bullseye is not a good powder for the .40 S&W.
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Bullseye is OK for light to medium loads. It is slower than Clays and a bit faster than Tightgroup.

I do know of some people that were using Clays to make major in 40 S&W, but it was a very high pressure load and NOT recommended. I shot a couple of boxes of it but didn't like the way it left impressions in the brass of the fluted chamber of my gun. :eek: Factory rounds don't generate enough pressure to do that.

I generally use Tightgroup. For inexperienced/cautious reloaders I recommend Trailboss because it is designed as a very bulky powder and the chance of a double charge is greatly reduced. It is a bit slower than Tightgoup and a clean burning powder, so it is good for all but max loads with the heaviest bullets.
 
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SandRoad said:
I do know of some people that were using Clays to make major in 40 S&W
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I beg to disagree.

As an IPSC shooter, I use Clays NOT for the reason that I want to make the IPSC major power factor, but you're right it is not for begginers. :)

Win231 is a good powder for beginners too.
 
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I was using 8-8.5 gr. of Blue Dot for a few years with 180 gr. bullets in a Para P16-40 and an STI Ranger II but have begun experimenting with Unique - no tried and true load yet. Someone else probably does.
 
wobbles99 said:
What's wrong with bullseye?

I'm using it for the 40 S&W loads for my M&P and I've found it to be very accurate with 180gr lead RN.

It's not too dirty either.
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It's too fast a burning powder for the .40 plus the chance of a double charge is way to great. That's why a medium burning powder is better. The fastest used appears to be TiteGroup. The powders I have listed above are more forgiving than Bullseye.

I use 4.7gr TG under the 180 Frontier CMJ for a PF of 177.
 
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RePete said:
It's too fast a burning powder for the .40 plus the chance of a double charge is way to great. That's why a medium burning powder is better. The fastest used appears to be TiteGroup. The powders I have listed above are more forgiving than Bullseye.

I use 4.7gr TG under the 180 Frontier CMJ for a PF of 177.
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I'm looking at my lyman reloading manual at the moment and I'm not seeing a reason to not use bullseye. At the starting load (4.9 gr) it's pressures are the same or less than universal, unique, power pistol, N340, HS6, 800X, and well below 231.

At full load it's fairly high but right close to every other powder listed.

Tite group isn't listed.

My recipe is 5.0 gr of bullseye with 180gr rn tmj or 4.0 gr's with 180gr lead.
Both are accurate and both are clean. I'm not trying to to make power factor with my 40. I don't shoot IPSC with it.

I like the 5.0 gr. load as it is the same as I load for my 45acp so once I have my powder measure set up I can run a batch of both calibers.

I've used titegroup before but I found with the 180gr bullets it wasn't to accurate.

Also I just happen to have some titegroup on hand. I poured both a 5.0gr load of bullseye and a 4.7gr load of titegroup. They fill a 40S&W case to similar levels. You'd have the same chance of a double as I would.
 
nognog said:
I beg to disagree.

As an IPSC shooter, I use Clays NOT for the reason that I want to make the IPSC major power factor, but you're right it is not for beginners. :)
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Oops, me bad, I meant to say it the other way around, that major power factor can be achieved by using Clays. However, loading to that power factor is above what is recommended in most manuals.

(Just so people don't think this practice reckless, loading the cartridge with a longer OAL, above specs, can reduce pressure with fast powders, but this type of data is not found in reloading manuals)

Generally, anyone without substantial reloading knowledge should definitely stick to loading manual data.
 
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