Does anyone have any experience loading the 40S&W with the Gold Dot 200gr. bullet. I have plenty of Alliant BE-86 powder on hand. Thank you much.
There is data for 200 grain in 40S&W on the Nosler website but none for BE-86. Power Pistol is there and other powders
Glock is coming out with a new and improved Gen5 40S&W with a thicker slide. Should be released in October. The Gen5 should handle heaver than normal loads. The 200gr. bullet loaded to normal 40S&W velocities are around 900 fps. This seems a little on the slow side to me for a self defense load. Would a 165 gr. bullet be a better choice for self defense?
Afternoon Star Child,
You could try Speers 165gr Gold Dot, and push it to the upper end of your chosen powder manufactures guidelines
Ken
There might be a reason that 180 grain bullets outsell every other .40 bullet by a factor of 10...
If one loads heavies in 40S&W, one must be mindful of increased likelihood to pressure sensitivity w.r.t. COAL.
I have chrono checked Double Tap 200 gr .40 @1070 out of a gen 3 Glock 35 , Underwood 200gr .40 goes 960 out of my 5 inch STI 1911 and I handload 200gr bullets with Power Pistol at 975 out of the STI.
Speer list the 180 gr. Gold Dot bullet maximum charge of BE-86 as being 6 grains at a velocity of 1026 fps. Which is the highest velocity of all the powders Speer tested. Has anyone had any experience loading the 40S&W with BE-86? I load the 10mm with BE-86 and have good results.
https://reloading-data.speer-ammo.com/downloads/speer/reloading-pdfs/Handgun/40_caliber-10mm_400_dia/40_SmithWesson_180.pdf